Depressing News
God, I don't want to make this a crime blog, but in this week's City Paper (Murder Ink), there were some details about a murder in Hampden last week.
"Wednesday June 11:
5:40 p.m. Residents of an apartment building at 3551 Buena Vista Ave., in Hampden, notified their landlord of people in an unoccupied unit. The landlord found the body of a dead white woman in the apartment, but no one else and no signs of ransacking. He alerted paramedics, who pronounced the woman dead at 5:48 p.m. According to police, the woman appeared at first to be the victim of an overdose--there were track marks on her arms, and a crackpipe and syringe were found in the apartment--but the medical examiner determined the woman to have died as a result of strangulation and ruled it a homicide. The woman has yet to be identified."
We all see junkies in Hampden all the time, and when I see them, I always wonder what they could have been--like this woman who was murdered, for example. I don't mean that I have some lofty sense that maybe this woman could have been president, but maybe she could have been a great mom or sister or wife or friend, or maybe she could have had a really great job that she loved or maybe she could have found joy from something simple: like keeping a beautiful garden for God's sake. What simple joys could she have had in her life? What did she hope her life would be when she was a child? I don't think anyone dreams of dying this way or spending their life waiting for the drug car in front of the library on Falls Road. Whatever the details of her story are, it's a sad, sad one.
posted by Plantastic @ 9:00 AM
6 Comments:
Do we believe in free will or destiny? Either way. millions of people take the path to misery and death. I'm conflicted as to whether they deserve the level of compassion you indicate or the scorn usually their due. I know that misery and suffering follows our species all over the world.
So many people have it as a birthright, not a choice.
Is there a percentage doomed like a DNA lottery?
She very well could have already been all these people that you thought she may be someday. A homicide? Tragic. junkie or Jesuit, people are still people. It's sad to read this but thank you for posting it. I drive down that street weekly.
I really appreciate your compassionate presentation of this and The Daily Breather's reminder "that junkie or Jesuit, people are still people." I've worked with people in recovery from addictions and they have had families and jobs and friends, then oftentimes lost everything through their addictions, and then in recovery are piecing it back together with such joy and gratitude for having the chance to have a life again. It's very sad that this woman will not have that chance.
On June 14th my 10 year old friend told me that her (adult) friend Elizabeth died from drugs. Also that she had lived across the street from us, but she was found in another building. The little girl cried, "She promised me she would stop using drugs." My neighbor believes this woman was Elizabeth; her friends here in Hampden thought she died from a drug overdose. My neighbor notes that Elizabeth had a young son and daughter, who lived with relatives. My neighbor's sister was distraught about the news, because her daughter had been Elizabeth's close friend when they were children. So sad.
This is very sad. This is my niece that was murdered and being a family member and truly knowing her, she was a human being and her life did not deserve to be taken by the hands of anyone else. She was a mother of two, a daughter, a sister, a grandaughter and much more. Yes she lived a tough life but she was still a person with dreams and someone took that away from her. Justice will be served!!
Kelly: I am deeply sorry for your loss. Just please know that there are many in Hampden who feel great compassion for you and your niece.
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