This is a difficult question. Have any of you had a neighbor or friend that was a victim of a homicide?

My 18 year old cousin was killed in a botched hijacking. My Aunt stored the car he died in in her garage for many years. The killer was never caught.

No, knock on wood.

When I was in the US Navy I witnessed a murder. Also when in high school I also was with a friend when he found his uncle murdered. And two people I went to school with were murdered. And three people I went to school with went to prison for murder: one for a robbery spree (he’s since been executed) and two others beat a neighbor to death over a deer stand.

A man I worked with was murdered by his son while working on a job. I got the call from the homeowner in the house next door to let us know there had been an incident. He wouldn’t say what it was but I had to call the man’s wife and tell her as gently as I could to go to the local hospital because something very bad had happened to her husband. At that time I didn’t know her son had killed her husband. I suspected the man was dead and knew it wasn’t an accident, but that was all.

I know someone who is related to one of the children killed by the Moors murderers. It was mentioned but wasn’t really discussed in any detail when we were growing up.

Not technically homicide, but sadly, something equally terrible. My sisters and I attended school with a boy whose father murdered his three children (including our classmate) and his ex-wife, and then killed himself in a murder-suicide. He had become depressed as a result of the divorce, and killed his family in a park on Thanksgiving. It was tragic and it still seems unreal to me.

Slightly related and very disturbing: one of my dad’s childhood friends (though he had long since lost touch with him) ended up being a serial killer.

I had a friend whose mother, a good Quaker, helped young men who had fallen on hard times. One of them clubbed her to death.

While growing up in a small southern town where the children roamed the neighborhood without supervision and were only expected home when the streetlights came on and in time for dinner, there was a homicide.

Mrs. Daniels, the high school English teacher, was found shot and dead in her home. This was about 10 houses over from ours, and I grew up playing with her two children. The news rocked our world, and then again with the aftershock of finding out that her daughter, my old playmate, was guilty of her mother’s death. Kelly was eventually caught over 1000 miles and several states away and sentenced to jail.

In hindsight, it isn’t that surprising. But that’s just my opinion based upon the observations from when I was a pre-teen.

A member of the church I grew up in was murdered by her ex-husband about 10 years ago. I knew her well and had taught her son for three years of Sunday school. She had a hard life with a tragic end.

My exboyfriend’s cousin was killed by her exboyfriend. It is more convoluted than that though. The guy was married to one cousin, left his wife for another cousin in the family. Then that cousin left him. He flipped out eventually went to her apartment, shot and killed her, and shot her new boyfriend 4 times, but he survived. The exwife visited him in jail and basically has stayed committed to him. Total mess the whole thing.

Nobody I have been personally close to, but yes. Firstly, when I was 20 years old and living alone a family 10 houses away was murdered.
He murdered the entire family including a 6 yr. old boy and a toddler whose body was found in a vacant lot. Richard Trenton Chase aka “The vampire killer of Sacramento.”

My best friends brother had once dated another of his victims, a young, married, pregnant woman who was eviscerated by him in her home a couple miles away from mine. needless to say I was terrified for weeks until he was caught. Terrible fear, terrible!

Then, about 12 years ago a nice family down the road from my old home whose wife I would often have chats with about her beautiful gardens was murdered by her 17 yr. old son. He beat her to death with a shovel over being refused the family car. Obviously he had severe issues and his trial was a big deal in our rural county.

Ya just never know.

A girl I went to school with since middle school was shot dead in a crappy neighborhood last year. It was the result of some gang-related bullshit and the shooters were aiming for the guy sitting next to her.

In addition to the incident @Fly refers to, above, the adult son of a woman I used to work with was beaten to a pulp in a mugging. When I’d worked with her, he was just a little boy and was in our office pretty regularly. He remained in a coma for 10 months, and finally died. It was heartbreaking.

3 old and dear friends in the Twin Towers on 9/11

Our up and coming star Cornerback/Runningback on the football team was gunned down randomly at a bus stop. We had just transitioned from Junior High in to High School. He was a warrior on the field, took a beating on the field, came to early morning practices limped and lumped didn’t matter to him. He took 8 bullets scattered across his body. Had it been 7 he would’ve survived, he was close to beating out the 8 bullets.

Didn’t know the family personally, but a recent homocide really shook my small town. It was the first homocide here in 40 years.

The mom’s live-in boyfriend stabbed one of her six year old twin daughters to death. Her poor twin was in the room and saw the whole thing. Apparently the guy had managed to hide his schizophrenia really well, but he believed this little girl was the anti-Christ and could read his mind and all sorts of other stuff. Such a sad situation.

My 8-month-old cousin and her half-sister was stolen from their father and was poisoned. He poisoned himself too. The half-sister was 6 years old. They were both so beautiful. But God took them back.

A man from our church was murdered by a thief stealing fenceposts from his property. When he confronted the thief, the thief shot him in the chest.

My girlfriend in college had her then best friend raped and murdered by a serial killer in LA. That is all I can say about this crime and it was a devastating experience for both of us.