The people of Colorado are having a hard year. Houses burnt in the fire, the theater shooting and now a little girl kidnapped and murdered. It makes me sad for my beautiful home state. It doesn't do the people of Colorado justice to have two such evil acts committed here.
Most people that know me know that I watch true crime shows almost obsessively. True crime stories fascinate me but I wish they didn't happen. Especially when they happen so close to home. Westminster isn't that close but it is familiar to me since I lived in Boulder. It is a beautiful community and I never would have picked it for a dangerous predator to abduct, murder and dismember a little girl. Though everyone thinks that about the communities around them. It just goes to show that sometimes evil is right next to us and we don't even notice. True evil can hide in our society and that is frightening.
As much as I like crime stories, I don't like watching them play out in the news. On Oct 5th Jessica Ridgeway was abducted while walking to a park to meet a friend to walk to school. The scary thing is, there was a window of about 5 minutes and just a couple of blocks where this happened. In a regular neighborhood that I'm sure doesn't feel as safe as it once did. Her mother last saw her leaving her home at around 8:30am and she normally would have arrived at the park to meet her friend in 5 or so minutes but she never made it. Two days later her backpack was found in Superior, which is just a couple of miles away. I knew as soon as they found it that she was dead. She was probably murdered before anyone even began looking for her because no one knew she was missing until about 4pm on Oct. 5th.
On Oct. 10th, they found a body in an Arvada open space park. Again, just a couple of miles away from Jessica's house. The police didn't ID the body as Jessica's until Friday evening though. I'm sure everyone was frustrated about why they couldn't just answer the question as to who the body was. Police had to announce that the body was "not intact". ... What that means is just horrible and sickening. It means they couldn't ID her from a picture or probably not from fingerprints (if Jessica had her fingerprints to compare them too.) They had to use DNA to ID the body. Without saying it in so many words, that basically let the public know the body was dismembered. It is so shocking to me that this kind of crime can happen so close in an area that I would probably feel right at home in.
I can not imagine the immense grief her family must be feeling. It hurts to think about. I hope this does not destroy her mother. She must be feeling so guilty because if she had just walked with Jessica that day or not missed the phone calls from the school because she was sleeping after her night shift maybe something could have been done. Maybe. But truthfully, probably not. There is nothing her family could have done. Whoever took her knew what he was doing. He did it in the very small window where Jessica was vulnerable and he did not have any intention in letting her go. When he took her, he was going to kill her. There was nothing her mother could have done. The blame needs to rest squarely on the shoulders of that evil man.
That said, I hope the police find him. I wish there was something I could do to help bring justice to this little girl. Her life didn't deserve to end that way. Her family doesn't deserve losing her so horribly. The whole thing is just too horrible for words. It is exactly why I believe in the death penalty. Because when they find this guy, he deserves to lose his life and his future.
Hug your loved ones.
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