It’s been a pretty shocking couple of weeks. Now that the police have made an arrest, things have settled down quite a bit. When the killer was still at large (it’s possible that he/she still is), there was a real sense of uneasiness all over the place.
I still can’t fathom it. And similarly, I can’t fathom how quickly time just marches on.
The really scary part is that there's always another killer at large. Maybe not so close to home, but while we're going about our normal day there are lives out there at a standstill because of the tragedy they are dealing with. And the fact that this child had such a short walk from home and was still able to be taken without anyone noticing is really scary. Because we do just go about our day and not always see beyond our horse blinders. In part - the media is to blame. It is said that at any given time there are 25 - 50 active serial killers in the United States. I haven't heard about one of them. Which then brings up the debate of how much information should the public get about these things? How do you decide what is a warning or a caution versus starting a panic attack within the community? Which is safer?
Really? 25 - 50 active serial killers at any given time? That’s hard to fathom, especially considering that you don’t really hear about them.
I think awareness is very important. It’s the first step in making a plan for possible prevention. In lieu of the most recent school shooting, though, I really wonder what can be done to prevent those from a community aspect. Kidnappings I think are easier to create deterrents for. Shootings are tough.
Regarding the story above, I’m really eager to know more details. The information that has been released seems a little unusual to me.
The suspected killer lived on her street, so he was obviously familiar with her routine. He abducted her within a 300 meter stretch. She said goodbye to her friends 300 meters from her house and never made it home. Was it a forceful abduction? Did he use a small lie to get her into his car or his house? I don’t know. But the abduction probably took place shortly after 3:00. Her body was at 10:30, roughly a 100 meters from her house and the abduction area, and the autopsy suggests that she had already been dead for 7 hours at that point. So what did the killer do? What was the point? It’s morose, but I really want to know and understand.
In response to this, there has been an increase in community volunteers standing at street corners, watching students get home, and the way in which students are sent home has changed too. Originally, they were encouraged to walk home in pairs or small groups, now they are sent home according to chosen routes in large groups with teachers accompanying them in some cases.
I'm with you - my curiosity is peaked. One of my favorite shows of all time is Forensic Files. Based off my knowledge learned from TV (LOL, thats a joke) I would hazard the following guesses:
The killer and the girl were familiar with each other. Enough so that she didn't have any gut feelings or red flags when he approached her on the train tracks. Without knowing the surrounding areas at all, I would still assume that at that time of day when school let out, there are people everywhere. Kids walking home in all directions, parents picking up their kids etc etc. So for her to be abducted less than half a mile from her house after JUST saying good bye to her friends tells me she didn't cause a scene or struggle with the killer. And fortunately, she died within 30 minutes of being taken. At the very very very least, she wasn't tortured for hours. The fact that her body was nicely laid out to be found also makes me think that the killer is familiar with the train schedule and waited to put her body out to be found at a specific time so that he would not be caught but that her body would be seen.
He's smart and this could mean pre-meditation. OR, it could mean he acted impulsively and felt remorse afterwards, thus letting her body be found.
Nobody will really ever understand the killer's motivation but himself.
It's really sad that we are having drills for school shootings now. When I was in elementary school, it was just simple fire drills. Unfortunately, the increase in volunteers will only work until the volunteers feel its safe again and slowly drop off. Yup, 25 - 50. There's always going to be another one.
So this is what apparently happened and, actually, I think this is worse and harder to understand than if it had been premeditated and the result of a mental oddity, etc. Let me know what you think.
The killer was driving on a narrow street, the same street that led to the girl’s house and that he lived on. He hit the girl with his car on accident. How badly she was hit, I don’t know. The girl was very worked up, screaming and crying, so he put her in his car. Then he panicked, presumably thinking about how he would probably lose his job and have to pay a big settlement, etc. So he strangled her in his car.
Unbelievable, right? To me, that’s even worse. If I were the parents, this would absolutely crush me. He could have helped, could have saved, but made this ridiculous decision instead and killed her.
Believe it or not, I'm somewhat relieved to hear this because I was haunted by thoughts of the seven hours between her disappearance and discovery. I imagined the most horrible things happening to the poor girl during that time.
One story that has always stuck with me is the woman who hit a man and he ended up stuck halfway through her windshield. She parked the car in her garage and would go out there periodically to check on him as he died over the next few days.
Oh my god! That’s horrible!!! Shock and panic are really strong and unpredictable emotions. As much as I like to say I would never do that if I were ever in a similar situation, the fact probably is that I don’t know. I really hope (and don’t think) that I would do anything like these people did.
I knew from the day they announced the story on the news that she had been killed pretty much immediately after she disappeared. That was a detail that really didn’t make any sense to me. It is nice to know that she wasn’t subjected to the horrors that women are often faced with in abduction situations, but still, this would really, really drive me crazy if I were one of her parents or her brother.
Ive heard of that story...more than once. Unfortunately. But yes, you are right - who knows how one would act under those circumstances? I'm reading a book at the moment that ties in with this topic. It's about an affluent family who catches their son murdering a young woman and they go on to create this web of lies to cover for him and let someone else take the fall. Would it make a difference if you had to commit a crime to save your child? Even if it meant taking someone else's life? That's an even harder scenario to predict.
I would like to think that my initial reaction to injuring someone else would be to help them. Not drive away! I had a pet sugar glider that got terminally ill and it ended up dying in my hands. It was a very traumatic experience for me, seeing her cough up blood and all that all over me, and I still really cant talk about it without getting teary eyed. And this is over what is essentially a rodent. So a human life?! I can't even begin to fathom what the man was feeling when he decided the best course of action was to suffocate the girl instead of admitting to his mistake and getting her help. I mean...honestly? If nobody was around to see it happen, he could have spun a story of her running out in front of him. Blame it on her. ANYTHING but what he chose to do would have been better. Leave her there for someone else to find. Drop her off. The only consoling thought I can think of is that she was suffering immensely, too far gone to be helped and he thought he was doing her a favor by putting her out of her misery. Purely speculation though. To make myself feel better about humanity.