I'm Only the Trombone Player

Murder

Authors Note & Prompt ▼

"Invalid Item"  ~ Five Day Blog Challenge ~ April 7^th. ~ The Sims Family Murders in Tallahassee

All murders are heinous crimes. The taking of another’s life is inexcusable, except in very specific circumstances and even those I would struggle with. Even given those events and conditions that might excuse it, the loss of life still saddens me.

There’s no way to sugarcoat or lessen the horror of The Sims Family Murders, some depraved individual killed two adults in cold blood, making matters worse, that same mad man killed and possibly molested a twelve-year-old child.

The murders weren’t a crime of passion, which while no more acceptable is at least somewhat understandable. A philandering pastor, who was the first likely suspect, was eliminated at the time of the murders, was attending a football game. His attendance noted by witnesses and videotaped. It wasn’t a botched robbery. Money was left behind in plain sight, and nothing of value was missing.

Perhaps that’s what I find most saddening and maddening about this crime—a lack of apparent motive.

Two other suspects — Mary Charles LaJoie, a death-obsessed teenager, and her boyfriend, Vernon Fox Jr., who had been spotted peeping on the child a week before the murders, haven’t been in any other way connected to the crime. A possible motive, Fox was peeping once again, got caught, and killed everyone to avoid punishment. Lajoie later implicated Fox, but her account was discounted, mainly due to her past criminal history and the fact that she seemed to be seeking the offered reward.

Death saddens me; needless death that much more so. The death of an innocent child both saddens and angers me. The fact that this crime has gone unsolved and there has been no justice for these victims, and their survivors is unfathomable.

You’re going to have to excuse me today. This prompt, coming on the heels of the horror perpetrated in South Carolina this week, has taken me down a very dreary path. I left the building for lunch today, and there was a double Jameson’s involved.

Word Count ▼

329 Words