by My town erupted in chatter yesterday when reports surfaced that a missing woman’s body had been found and her boyfriend arrested for her murder.
It intensified as details emerged revealing gruesome details including shocking violence and decapitation.
A 30-year-old woman in town lived with her 28-year-old boyfriend a few minutes away from me, in a home I drove by nearly every day. On Nov. 25, 2013, her family reported her missing. Police now say they believe that on Nov. 23, the boyfriend and a friend strangled the victim, slit her throat, and then dismembered the body, cutting off the victim’s arms, legs, and head.
They eventually decided to throw the pieces off of a bridge, into a local river. Surveillance cameras assisted in the discovery of the body, which was found yesterday morning in the water and along the bank. Police quickly arrested the two men and charged them with first-degree murder for what they call a “brutal and heinous act.”
The victim’s disappearance blew up local social media, and it was the scuttlebutt of just about every establishment in town. As it turns out, I knew both the victim and the alleged killer. A good friend of mine employed them both at his business, and the boyfriend continued to work there following the victim’s disappearance.
I was sitting next to the victim just days before she vanished, having a drink and talking in-depth about our lives, including her neighbors, family, and boyfriend. I had no idea it would be the last time I would ever see this woman alive.
In addition, I was around the alleged killer after the murder, even expressing empathy when I heard that friends of the couple shunned him, believing him to be responsible in some way for their friend’s disappearance. He was inches from me mere days before his arrest.
From a very early age, my media exposure has overwhelmingly consisted of movies about murder and violence. I have studied serial killers extensively. I am writing a book about Charles Manson’s infamous cult, the Family. I correspond on a regular basis with people convicted of murder as part of my research. To say I consider myself somewhat immune to the shock and repulsion associated with the subject would be accurate.
But this is different; it hit too close to home. Since yesterday, I have been preoccupied with the fact that this warm, living, breathing, functioning human being I interacted with is now sitting lifeless, in pieces, on a cold table. I can’t think back to that last time I saw her without conjuring up a horrible image of her severed head being thrown from a bridge. I can’t think back to the alleged killer without picturing him with his hands wrapped around her throat, or red with blood as he coldly dismembered the person he shared a life with.
My life has been surrounded with and saturated by man’s inhumanity to man. I am in touch with people who committed shocking acts and am able to separate the person from the offense. Video footage and stories of gruesome death do not wrinkle up my forehead a bit.
At least, not until yesterday.
I have been touched by your reporting of this. I too have been close to murders committed in this area. Sad but true…
sad to say but this is the 3rd person in the area who was murdered and dismembered in less than 10 yrs.
Honestly you are going to bitch because you lived down the road from them? How about you feeling sorry for her family for their loss? Or starting a petition that the death penalty dhould be reinstated so we dont have to support these f****s the rest of their lives? Think how they are all feeling. Nobody cares about you. You are one out of the hundreds that knew them and are only bothering to speak of courtney now because she is dead.
Brandy, this blog is called FREDITORIALS. It’s a blog based on Freds opinions and outlook on life. I don’t think he meant anything bad or disrespectful to the victim or the families, he was just stating his opinion. This article definitely reflects his sorrow in the matter. Try reading it again without your c*** glasses on.
Brandy, the death penalty always ends up being more expensive than a life sentence because of the automatic appeals which usually take years upon years (sometimes decades). The death penalty is more expensive than a life sentence, statistically does nothing to prevent or deter crime and is a rather barbaric way of administering justice, don’t you think? We’re the only major industrialized western nation who still allows it.
I don’t think he was saying that he didn’t care nor that he doesn’t feel for the family!! Calm down!!
Brandy, I agree with the other replies to your comments. I re-read his editorial after reading your comments. Please remember, this is an EDITORIAL, meaning, by definition, it’s the writer’s take on various subjects and/or events. I thought his editorial/blog was very thoughtful, and provides a lesson to us all that most of us probably don’t think enough about the victims of the violence we all read about in the news, because we as a society tend to get immune to the daily news reports of what are often very gruesome crimes. That empathy for the victim automatically extends to their families, as far as I’m concerned. He specifically showed animosity toward the criminal, and empathy for the victim, and again this extends to their families, not only in the body of the editorial, but also in his summary/conclusion.