OK I admit I had a knee-jerk reaction to the Latimer case.  Sorry.  First
let me reiterate I don't think there're any mitigating circumstances in the
murder of a child, but I will say there can be reasons for understanding why
such things happen, and then perhaps compassion.

I got knocked for a loop today.  First a bit of background.  About 18 years
ago a young woman disappeared, and her body was found much later, thrown
into a ditch.  I'm not going to go into details but suffice it to say she
had been brutally raped and mutilated.  She was survived by three young
children, her husband and her parents and sibs. Her muderer was never found,
until now.

Fast forward 18 years; I know one of her brothers, who is married to a good
friend of mine.  She called me up a couple of days ago, in tears.  Seems the
killer moved to Florida, lay low for a good number of years and then came
back to this area.  Stupid idiot thought it was safe to come back; he didn't
realise there's no statute of limitation for murder cases, and it was still
open.   Seems he boasted to another guy he and two others killed the women
as a part of an initiation stunt to join a local bike club.

Today I  was told that the guy he blabbed to told the sheriff's office, he's
been arrested, and they've now got the other two in custody.  What boggles
my mind is that the first guy (the one who went to Fla.) was a friend of my
friend's father, and also he was supposedly a friend of the victim's.  Make
you kinda wonder who you can trust, sometimes.  Ugh... and I have never
never liked bike clubs, and have even more reason to loathe them!

I am praying for my friend and her husband and his family;  needless to say,
it's opened up a lot of wounds.

Kat