You know, I've never really spent much time dwelling on tragedy. Every day anymore you hear news about murder, whether it was premeditated or not. A guy killed his wife/girlfriend/mistress or vice versa as it would apply to a woman, or serial killers, or gang violence. I think you get my point by now. Anyway, you always feel bad for the people who are in turn affected by it. Something so sudden like that has affected these people's lives. Granted you don't know them, but you feel bad for them in that they have to now cope with what happened. That lasts for about a few minutes, as long as the story's on and maybe a minute or two after, but you move on. The thought has passed and you've moved on to other things.
Until one day, it happens to somebody you know.
I had a friend in junior high that I was pretty tight with. Because of our school activities, I met her mother on quite a few occasions. A really nice woman. I really liked her. Her parents had a gym membership and I went with her once to just hang out and do stuff at the gym since they had guest access or something like that. Her dad took us. He seemed pretty nice. Just meeting somebody once like that, to and from the gym basically, you can't really form a solid opinion but like I said, seemed like a nice guy too. Although they were one of those families in which one of the parents is super focused on their work. In this case, him. Which explains why I didn't see him around anywhere near as often as her, her sister, and her mother. He was a workaholic, but that was really the only character flaw I saw in him. Flash forward to the morning of this past thursday. The first thing I hear out of my mom is that there was a murder at my friend's house and her father had barricaded himself inside since about 9:30 wednesday evening until just before 5am thursday morning. I, being half asleep at the time, got the impression from her that there was a rogue gunman or an axe murderer roaming around the area. So needless to say at that point I was kinda freaked out. So there I was, alone in my house with my three dogs because everybody had left for school and work by that point. Of course I had my mom set the house alarm for a change when she left. No way I was gonna sit in that house by myself without it since there was potentially a killer on the loose.
Because I was freaked, I was mulling over the situation in my mind. Body in the basement. Only her parents still lived there. He was the one who barricaded himself in the house, not her. If there was a killer on the loose, not only would the person have been out of the house as quickly as possible after committing the murder (otherwise if the person had stuck around, I'm pretty sure there wouldn't have been anybody alive to call 911), but the person wouldn't have stuck around to get caught. The only possibility I could come up with was that her dad killed her mom. I promptly hopped online as soon as the thought came to me and went to a local news site. I was right. I couldn't believe it. My friend and her sister had lost their parents in one fell swoop. Although given pre-existing circumstances, they might've lost the dad they knew long before this happened. Still, for that to happen not just to a friend, but to people you've met.
Stuck with me for most of the rest of the day. The shock started to fade. Until my parents, who'd been gossiping and checking news online, come home and proceed to tell me more details. Like for example, at some point during the "lockdown", he texted either my friend or her sister saying "I killed your mom, call me." I mean what the fuck. I guess if this guy ever had his marbles, he definitely lost them at some point. He never struck me as a drunk, but one of my mom's coworkers works at a tavern nearby and said he was there pretty much every night and always left wasted. While they seemed like a happy couple when I knew them, there have since been domestic disputes according to the reports. As it went down, they were arguing upstairs about something, there was a gun nearby for some reason, she said she was gonna kill him, so he picked up the gun and shot her. Then he went to the basement with the gun, hence the ensuing standoff, and refused to come out until such a time.
So long story short, I'm still trying to shake the fact that for once, I know people involved and affected by a murder.
Until one day, it happens to somebody you know.
I had a friend in junior high that I was pretty tight with. Because of our school activities, I met her mother on quite a few occasions. A really nice woman. I really liked her. Her parents had a gym membership and I went with her once to just hang out and do stuff at the gym since they had guest access or something like that. Her dad took us. He seemed pretty nice. Just meeting somebody once like that, to and from the gym basically, you can't really form a solid opinion but like I said, seemed like a nice guy too. Although they were one of those families in which one of the parents is super focused on their work. In this case, him. Which explains why I didn't see him around anywhere near as often as her, her sister, and her mother. He was a workaholic, but that was really the only character flaw I saw in him. Flash forward to the morning of this past thursday. The first thing I hear out of my mom is that there was a murder at my friend's house and her father had barricaded himself inside since about 9:30 wednesday evening until just before 5am thursday morning. I, being half asleep at the time, got the impression from her that there was a rogue gunman or an axe murderer roaming around the area. So needless to say at that point I was kinda freaked out. So there I was, alone in my house with my three dogs because everybody had left for school and work by that point. Of course I had my mom set the house alarm for a change when she left. No way I was gonna sit in that house by myself without it since there was potentially a killer on the loose.
Because I was freaked, I was mulling over the situation in my mind. Body in the basement. Only her parents still lived there. He was the one who barricaded himself in the house, not her. If there was a killer on the loose, not only would the person have been out of the house as quickly as possible after committing the murder (otherwise if the person had stuck around, I'm pretty sure there wouldn't have been anybody alive to call 911), but the person wouldn't have stuck around to get caught. The only possibility I could come up with was that her dad killed her mom. I promptly hopped online as soon as the thought came to me and went to a local news site. I was right. I couldn't believe it. My friend and her sister had lost their parents in one fell swoop. Although given pre-existing circumstances, they might've lost the dad they knew long before this happened. Still, for that to happen not just to a friend, but to people you've met.
Stuck with me for most of the rest of the day. The shock started to fade. Until my parents, who'd been gossiping and checking news online, come home and proceed to tell me more details. Like for example, at some point during the "lockdown", he texted either my friend or her sister saying "I killed your mom, call me." I mean what the fuck. I guess if this guy ever had his marbles, he definitely lost them at some point. He never struck me as a drunk, but one of my mom's coworkers works at a tavern nearby and said he was there pretty much every night and always left wasted. While they seemed like a happy couple when I knew them, there have since been domestic disputes according to the reports. As it went down, they were arguing upstairs about something, there was a gun nearby for some reason, she said she was gonna kill him, so he picked up the gun and shot her. Then he went to the basement with the gun, hence the ensuing standoff, and refused to come out until such a time.
So long story short, I'm still trying to shake the fact that for once, I know people involved and affected by a murder.