Living victims will see McVeigh execution

Two people who lost children in the Oklahoma City bombing and one who lost a sibling will be among those who will watch in person as Timothy McVeigh is executed.

Paul R. Howell, Kay Fulton and Peggy Broxterman said they were picked in a lottery to witness McVeigh’s May 16 execution at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.

McVeigh was convicted and sentenced to death in the April 19, 1995, attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which left 168 dead. He will be executed by injection.

The US Justice Department refused to identify those who will occupy the 10 seats set aside for bombing survivors or relatives of victims.

About 285 earlier said they wanted to watch the execution.

Others who may have been selected said they hadn’t been told as of yesterday afternoon, or refused to say whether they knew, calling it a private matter.

The execution will be shown on closed-circuit television in Oklahoma City for survivors and family who weren’t selected to watch the execution in person.

Howell’s 27-year-old daughter, Karan Howell Shepherd, died in the bombing.

‘‘I’ve been trying to do some heavy thinking for about the last three months,’’ he said. ‘‘I think it will help the healing process. I’m hoping and praying that it does.’’

Broxterman’s son, Paul Broxterman, 42, was a federal agent who was killed in the bombing while Fulton is the sister of Paul Ice, 42, a US Customs Service agent who died.

Broxterman told The Daily Oklahoman that she called Fulton after she was notified on Wednesday of her selection.

‘‘We’re so happy. We just feel as though we are representing both Pauls,’’ Broxterman said. ‘‘And it’s something that I just have to have... It’s going to be closing that door and it will be closing it tight.’’