Some (okay one) of you knows that a very good friend of mine was brutally murdered by her husband last year, right before Valentine's day. They apparently fought over her work schedule and beat her to death in their bathroom. He then hid her in the back of her Izuzu Trooper, took her to his dad's machine shop and dismembered her. That's the glossed over story.
The reason I'm on this today is that his father committed suicide yesterday afternoon. It just doesn't stop. Steve's parents were divorced and his stepmother died about 6months before he killed Tara. Steve's dad was very quiet during the entire, year long, ordeal. His sister was hideously vocal, but his dad was silent. Never on TV, didn't attend the trial, seldom visited Steve in jail while awaiting trail. He was very close to Steve, they worked together in the very shop Steve used to dismember his wife. I guess this was just too much. I have no concrete words for this, though apparently I have a lot other types of words. I think this is just too much for me.
The pieces I left out earlier: he killed Tara in front of her 2 children. 4 & 6 years old. The 6 year old little girl crawled towards her mother and touched her eyes to try and wake her up while her little brother shivered. They then hid while their father drug their mother down the stairs by a belt around her neck.
That very morning that same little girl walked into her parent's bedroom to find her father in bed with the nanny. She's a smart little girl, very verbal. Did she tell her mother? Did her father just think she did? Thus signing her death warrant?
Mom was never home. Never. She traveled 5-6 days a week for years. I'm not sure she ever touched the little boy after he was weaned - and most of that was pumped and bottled. He was a mistake - the result of a wrong medication. Was the strain of an expected child too much for them? For Steve? For Tara? She always traveled with a co-worker and it was a pretty common assumption that they were having an affair. She was young and way above where she should have been given her education and ability. That whole thing was really weird. Upper management had told Lou to cut it out and he refused. Too much for Steve's fragile ego?
Steve's life was a lie. Everyone thought he was an MSU graduate, that's where he met Tara and she had the degree. Reality was he only attended for 2 semesters and dropped out. Steve worked for his father - grooming to take over the family business. It was a 2 man tool & die shop for a dying industry. Tara was a rising executive who traveled for her job - or to be away from him?
I feel bad that her facade fell apart after her death. She worked so hard in creating it. In pretending that everything was perfect. I guess perfect isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Sorry for the not so light and happy posting. This is just bad. I still can't believe I know someone who did this. I had dinners with him, went to ballgames with him, he's been to my house. Just so wrong and even after a year the ripples continue to wash across the pond. And I'm sure they're not over.
Thanks for putting up with this, perhaps I'll be in a better sewing/chatting mood tomorrow.
BeeBee, I read your post and clicked the link to the newspaper stories. I cannot begin to express my sorrow about how many lives were effected and lost forever over the actions of one aparently insane man. I cannot say I know how you feel as I've never walked in your shoes, but I can say I feel some of your pain.
ReplyDeleteGod Bless!!
Thanks, Claire. Didn't mean to be so down, but sometimes it just comes back. Thanks for your comment and caring.
ReplyDeleteI know this is old, and I stumbled across it accidentally because it's the internet, and well, everything is forever here.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that the boy might want to be researching his families names in a few years to find out what he can about this horrible incident?
I'm just saying I wouldn't want to be the one to have told him via an old blog post that he was unwanted on top of all his other problems.
Just a thought....this comment is erasible of course as well.