I sat down a little while ago to write a lighthearted post about something or other that's going on with me. And then an alert popped up on my phone that authorities had apprehended a local man responsible for killing a 5-year old girl and wounding her mother. I clicked on the alert and saw that the named suspect shared a last name with a girl that I used to know and wondered if there was any connection.
The article stated that he had an extensive criminal record that included charges for domestic violence, felonious assault, unlawful restraint, telephone harassment, kidnapping and aggravated burglary. He had already served 4 years behind bars and was released in 2012. It said that he had a Facebook page but that it had been removed.
I still searched for the accused killer's name on Facebook and found an active page. The website must have been mistaken. This page had no privacy settings activated which meant I could read every post and see every photo.
Name: Geoffrey
Age: 33
Status: In a relationship
Works at: None of your damned business
He likes cars, money, tattoos, Boxer dogs and hanging with his friends. He has three children, two girls and a boy. Photos show little ones who love their Daddy, friends having a good time and a girlfriend that worships him. His page is populated with the stuff of life that you would find on the pages of any of my friends or myself.
But this man has a laundry list of convictions and is accused of murdering a little 5-year old girl.
A little girl not unlike one of his own. A little girl that plays with dolls, sticks her fingers in the birthday cake and gives her Daddy kisses.
How the hell does this happen? We all have a history of "stuff", whether it's abuse or neglect or whatever. How is it that some of us rise above it and some of us keep falling down?
His page was laden with those captioned photos that you see on Facebook all the time. Some are silly animal pics with quotes, some were a little more off color and there were a surprising number of inspirational ones about changing his life and acknowledging the mistakes of his past.
The comments on his photos revealed that he wasn't seeing his children but that he missed them and hoped to see them soon. But this was the same man who (allegedly) killed a 5-year old girl by shooting her in the head. It's incredibly tragic all the way around.
Interestingly, I just clicked on his Facebook page and it's gone. The photos of his cars, dogs, kids and memories of laughter with friends. All gone.
What an eerie window into his future.
Wow, you just never know about people or what they are capable of doing, have a great day
ReplyDeleteSherry
I know, Sherry. Scary isn't it? Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteChrissy, reading this gave me CHILLS!
ReplyDeleteFor some reason it made me think of Ted Bundy and how perfectly normal he appeared on the exterior. And if there had been Facebook back then, I'm sure his page would have been just the guy you speak of in this post. And yet, Ted Bundy was nothing as he appeared, which is why got he away with what he did for so long.
"How the hell does this happen? We all have a history of "stuff", whether it's abuse or neglect or whatever. How is it that some of us rise above it and some of us keep falling down?"
You're absolutely right. How is it that some of us rise above it, while others keep the history going.
X
Ted Bundy was the most frightening! And that guy who killed his pregnant wife. They seemed so "normal", whatever that means.
DeleteIt came out in the press conference that he was trying to kill his girlfriend instead! Awful.
Chrissy, this current in your stream of consciousness is rough. Local crime reporting is not a beat every writer would choose. But, the nature of evil is one of the great subjects of philosophy and literature. The confrontation by proxy through awareness by the news of a gruesome anti-humanistic act does not rest the mind. In a US metropolitan area of two millions these instances occur with some frequency. In ten years, so many will have occurred that this one will be hard to recall.
ReplyDeleteS,
DeleteYes, it's no secret that people commit heinous acts against each other daily but this was an interesting look inside his life that you usually don't get. It just caused me some additional reflection.
Hell-o Chrissy,
DeleteTo borrow from Hannah Arendt, "banality of evil".
It's an interesting concept but it doesn't seem like he was put into these situations against his will.
DeleteHell-o Chrissy,
DeleteNo, he did act of his own free will; but the evil was banal, in that it was (apparently (i am ignorant of the complete story)) purposeless, random, stupid evil.
Right. Good point.
DeleteIt's hard to mentally process the evil that is out there especially when it is directed at children.
ReplyDeleteVery hard to process.
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