HONOLULU -- The family members of a pregnant woman who was beaten in Puna the day after Thanksgiving said they hope her baby can be saved even though the mother is brain-dead.

They said they also hope for the harshest penalty for the suspect, the man who is the father of the baby.

Sarah Fay's brother and sister said they knew about alleged domestic problems between Sarah and her boyfriend and warned her to end the relationship.

The last time Sarah Fay was together with her sister Stacey and brother Michael was in October, for Michael's wedding in Colorado.

Now, they have only photos of the their blond sister, who they said was so full of life. The 34-year-old Big Island woman had a 10-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter and she was seven and a half months pregnant with a son, who she planned to name Josiah.

On Friday, police said her boyfriend severely beat her at a home in Puna.

"I know that even though her body's still there, her spirit is somewhere good and safe. She's not really there; it's just her body," Stacey Fay said.

The father of the baby, Marwann Jackson, 24, has been charged with murder in the case. Jackson had a long police record with several violent crime convictions.

"With his long list of violence and abuse, it makes you wonder why he was still walking around the streets," Michael Fay said.

The family hopes that doctors and nurses can keep Sarah alive artificially for another two weeks so that her baby will reach eight months in the womb and be strong enough to survive. Right now, doctors at Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu said the baby is healthy.

Sarah Fay's mother and brother now have co-guardianship of the unborn baby boy and her family plans to raise him if he survives the ordeal. Her other two children are in a foster home while their father goes through the legal paperwork to gain custody of them.