For nearly two years, Tara and Heath Carey have waited for the chance to confront the people and companies they believe are responsible for the death of their daughters in a courtroom.
     By next year, they may finally get it.
     Though witnesses are still being interviewed in the case, that process, called discovery, should be complete by mid-November, Carey family attorney Alan Cantor said this week.
     "We fully intend to keep with that date," he said. "Typically after that, the court would schedule a pre-trial conference and trial thereafter."
     NStar officials did not comment directly on the suit this week, but issued a statement expressing sympathy for the Carey family.
     "The accident in Hopkinton two years ago was horrible, and we are deeply saddened by the Carey family's heartbreaking loss," NStar spokeswoman Christina McKenna said. "Like them, we want to get to the bottom of what happened."
     Often, though, months can pass before the case sees the inside of a courtroom.
     Following the November deadline, Boston-based Cantor said, there could be a delay of six months or more, as lawyers for both sides work to prepare the reports of expert witnesses.
     "They don't reach their final opinions until they have all the factual information in the record," Cantor explained. "Once all that factual information is collected, we ship them all out to the experts...(and) they go ahead and reach their final conclusion."
     Though nearly two years have passed since the explosion that leveled the downtown Hopkinton apartment building where the Careys lived, the case has not been dormant.
     "There have been a whole series of depositions taken in the case," Cantor said.
     Along with Heath and Tara Carey, 20 to 25 interviews were conducted with the building's other residents, several NStar workers and witnesses to the blast.
     "A case like this, there's an awful lot of groundwork that needs to be plowed to get everything in shape to prepare for the trial," he said. "We've been very active in the discovery phase."
     Violet Carey, 5 1/2, and 4-year-old Iris Carey died in the July 24, 2002, blast, which destroyed the 65 Main St. building, and left other residents homeless.
     Though the Careys and their attorney believed a crucial basement fitting failed, filling the building with explosive natural gas, a report released by West Boylston-based Massachusetts Materials Research Inc. said tests showed the fitting was intact.
     A later report by the state Department of Telecommunications and Energy, however, seemed to add ammunition to the family's complaint.
     That report, released last year, suggested gas company NStar may have violated state and federal regulations by not properly inspecting and maintaining gas lines.
     Following that report, NStar responded, McKenna said, claiming the violations cited in the DTE report were misapplications of the law, and said none of the alleged violations could be connected to the blast.
     This week, Cantor said the suit is still focusing on the fitting connecting the house to gas lines in the street.
     "We're very, very comfortable with our position in the case, and we're confident of the merits of our position," he said.