What makes a seventeen-year-old boy strangle and shove an eleven-year-old girl off a bridge to her death?
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| Blytheville Courier News Jessica Williams |
(Click HERE to read the Blytheville Courier News story of this child’s death……)
There’s no sense trying to put our arms around it—we can’t, we shouldn’t. This should never, not in a million years, make sense to anyone.
But still we seek an answer, an explanation, a reason for such heinous activity. We need to understand in hopes it will never happen again.
I certainly have no answers. I’m merely an ex-banker, a would-be writer, a farmer’s daughter who grew up riding her John Deere bicycle from daybreak to well past sunset only fifteen miles from Big Lake where this incident occurred Tuesday. The underlying horror of this story is that these sickening incidents have become almost commonplace. Different atrocious details, different state, different people, similar results.
This one happens to be close to home.
Mississippi County residents are rattled to the core. I imagine the parents in Gosnell and Blytheville and Burdette and Luxora and Keiser and Osceola and Wilson are holding their babies closer, looking for answers, saying extra prayers and hoping to God this doesn’t happen to their family.
Everyone wonders why.
Why do humans no longer have moral compasses?
Does this happen over time as society becomes completely desensitized by movies and video games?
Does this happen because parents are spread thin simply trying to survive day to day, often in one parent households? Are children raised by television babysitters and schools already stretched paper thin?
Is there a complete lack of control—with parents, schools, government, food, television…everything, everywhere?
This is not a post about God or lack of God. This is about lack of common decency. No one gives a thought to consequences. Often there are none.
Miley Cyrus twerks on prime time television, and this is breaking news. People are outraged by her behavior yet spend four days and nights watching her YouTube video and googling her name rather than having a dinner conversation around the supper table with their own kids.
I don’t even know what twerking is.
I feel sick.
talya
How tragic … and sad
This is tragic! I’m terribly bothered by the teens who killed a 22 year old because “They were bored.” I hope they spend a lifetime of boredom behind bars.
http://joycelansky.blogspot.com
I totally agree Joyce! My husband and I were discussing this last night. What’s happened with this case? I haven’t heard anything else about it. Horrible!
that boy should have got the death penalty instead of a 2000000 bond
This has been so sad. Just heart-breaking.
I’m right there with you, cousin. Same thoughts. Same reactions. Same heartbreaking dumbfoundedness. I think it might be a little bit of all the above things you mentioned and kids just being so damn de-sensitized to things that matter. This kind of thing really does happen every day, every where – all you have to do is stomach Nancy Grace on HLN every single night – somewhere – a child has been killed or a woman has been killed or movie-goers have been killed by a MANIAC. Sad state of affairs we are in.
What a horrible tragedy! I’m grieved as well. My words fail me! Ugh!!! May God have mercy on them all!
Yes you recapped it perfectly. May God have mercy on them all! Thank you.
I think this was perfect. All we can do is love the best we can and hope for the best for society.
Thank you Heather. Yes, love and hope and pray and try to make a positive difference.
It seems as though everything is backwards these days. Compared to when we were children, I see good being called evil, and evil being called good. In light of this story and others like it, things seem to be growing worse instead of better. To paraphrase Matthew 24:12, There is so such an abundance of evil in the world that the hearts of many are growing colder and colder. Anyhow, Thank you, Talya, for sharing this horrible and tragic story. I hadn’t heard anything about it until I saw it here on your blog.
This community is in shock, and yes, we are all holding our children and grandchildren closer. Such senseless tragedy. Good post. laurie
What a tragic and very sad story. You wrote it well.
Very sad and tragic. It does make you wonder where we’re headed when these senseless murders happen so often.
Nothing I could add to your post. I, too, am outraged by the lack of conscience in today’s world. I knoweverybody looks at the parents, but I am aware, too, that even great parents can only control kids to a point. They learn from so many influences these days. I am heartsick for parents of both children.
You are so right. Kids are influenced by so much today. Parenting is more than a full time job.
Your comment about the lack of a moral compass is at the core of society’s ills, it seems. In an effort to allow everything by preference, who stands tall for “this is right/that is wrong?” Did this wayward teen think that the child would just get up out of the river and ride her bike away, into another set of lives? Penning words to this atrocity is beyond my limited ability. You captured the outrage.
I don’t think the teen thought anything at all. I wonder what he’s thinking today?
Ugh. This is a devastating and horrific crime. I think the points you make about parents and schools being spread too thin are spot on. I feel that the pendulum of our society has swung so far away from placing an emphasis on the importance of a cohesive family unit, that our children are being raised without feeling like they belong anywhere. I have featured this post on the Margarita Mommies Facebook page today because I believe you make some very valid points that all parents should think about when making decisions for their families and children.
On a whole different note, my maiden name is Tate and I’m from the area you currently live in. I have married and moved to Oklahoma, but still have many Tate relatives in Blytheville, Osceola, and West Memphis. I wonder if we’re related somewhere up the family tree! What a small world!
Elizabeth, I’m sure we are related. I live in Dallas now but still have family is Osceola. Thank you for sharing this post with Margarita Mommies. The more who are aware, the better!
Terrible incident! I don’t even know any of the folks involved and all I can ask is Why? Thanks for articulating what a lot of us be feeling.
I live a few miles from where this tragedy occurred. Our community is devastated. It is hard for most of us to believe that such a crime could occur in our hometown. Two families lost a child that day, and we will never truly understand the why.
The community has bonded – they are moving forward with events to assist the family with the funeral expenses.
It isn’t human nature to kill – you have to wonder if this young man has a mental illness. America has to recognize that our mental health system is broken. There isn’t enough mental health professionals and limited access to the mental health resources that do exist.
I grew up in a time when it was ok for the community to help raise a child. Maybe we need more community.
Tayla – you did a great job on this post.
Connie
Thank you Connie! I agree, prison is no place for the mentally ill and resources are often non-existent. The situation is horrible. I’m glad the community has pulled together.
Another interesting article on your blog, keep up good work!