A week ago Sunday, my wife kept yelling for me to turn on our local news channel. I was in my basement office writing—I don’t like interruptions, she knows that—so by the time I found the remote, whatever she had been clamoring about was over. Somewhat annoyed, I kept typing.“Did you watch it?” she asked. She was standing on the bottom step.
“Watch what? I’m writing.”
This did not deter her; it usually does. She told me she saw her friend on the TV. Her friend’s a police officer, works in the evidence room at the county jail. She was exiting a mobile home with evidence from a crime scene. The crime: two counts of first-degree murder.
What my wife said next made me quit tapping on the keyboard. “The woman killed her two daughters, eight and six years old. She even killed the family pets, including a mouse.”
I thought to myself, what would possess a person to kill their own children? I’m glad I don’t have to see the aftermath. Then I envisioned my wife’s friend carrying a plastic bag from the scene and wondered whether they actually saved the dead animals for evidence or just took pictures of them. Then I thought about my students, how I’m able to deal with them once they’ve been acclimated to the prison environment. As long as I don’t know the specifics regarding their crimes, as long as I don’t have to see the actual carnage, I can interact with them quite well.
A week later, I read that the father of the youngest daughter, Jeffrey Brownlow, is serving time in Michigan’s Carson City Correctional Facility, and that Uncle Kracker (a musician from my neck of the woods) paid $900 for Brownlow’s furlough so he could view his daughter’s body before they laid her to rest.
Am I being cold-hearted?—because I’m wondering: Why would Uncle Kracker help this man? After all, he’s locked up for not paying child support and driving while intoxicated. I understand his wanting to grieve, but there’s this nagging question: What if he had been around? What if he had paid his child support? Then again, knowing that Uncle Kracker has daughters around the same age as the victims, maybe he felt compelled to console the man in what ever way he could.
15 comments:
It's the knowledge of what a person has actually done to get to prison that would scare me so much from working in one. I've always wondered if you know exactly what each of your prisoners is guilty of, but keep forgetting to ask.
I agree with your first statement.
Why let him go.? He wasn't making child payments. HE DID NOT CARE IN LIFE, WHY IN DEATH?. Is he looking for his 15 minutes of fame at the expense of his dead daughter? The one he cared so much about...but not so much as to make child care payments. Scum
bag all the way. Feel sorry for your wifes' friend having to see
the carnage. Ask her to send a couple of photos Carson City way.
My boyfriend lives in Harrison Township, not too far from Kracker's place. We drive by it and laugh, it's so out of place in the neighborhood. He also owns a bar in the city that I visit every summer for 4th of July up north.
The story is heartbreaking, and maybe the man would have serious misgivings if he didn't attend the funeral for his child. I can only hope that he changes his ways....
Uncle Kracker is a very successful entertainer. Maybe has a big heart as well?
Boy, talk about a wasted nine hundred dollars. I'm not a touchy feelie guy. As anonymous said: he didn't care in life...so....no.
Sometimes I shrug, wondering what is happening in people's minds.
Stories like this always make me curious to know what type of brain melding stress the parent(s) must be under to commit such an act. What makes a person snap like that? And why take the lives of your children, why not take your own instead? As for the father - deadbeat jerk or not, I'm sure he felt horrible to learn his children were murdered and he could have stopped it.
Jim, You have famous and non-famous neighbors? Hopefully none of them are possessed and lead normal lives. It's so sad about the two little girls. I don't know what was on the Mother's mind! Uncalled for in the life of things! For the rest of us, the battles still go on whether we think we're in a battle zone or not. --Bro, Ron
we have many family killings slash suicides here, its like a new trend... not getting it
That murder/suicide in Harrison Township was actually on my boyfriends street. When we drive by the house I get a creepy vibe, especially when you see people working inside. I always wonder, how can they be in there, doing stuff, when two people died violently there???
Sometimes being sorry for something comes too late.
He didn't look after the little girl, but I guess he will now have too live with all that guilt....:(
It sickens me that a human being could do that to it's own young. Even though the father was a dead beat dad I think that he should be able to view his child one last time.
death can open your eyes...maybe he needed to make up for the things he had done but realised too late
That is just horrible. I can't stomach the news. The things people do, and that is a good question: Why? What was going through their heads that made them snap like that?
Uncle Kracker was probably feeling empathy because of his own daughters, although how a man couldn't support his children is beyond me. I don't know the circumstance, though, so I suppose I'm glad he got to go see his child, even if it was too late.
My first husband was a deadbeat dad, and now that our children are grown, he sees them only when they initiate it. It makes me very angry, but there are so many things I've never told them about him. I don't think knowing would enrich their lives.
Much as I would like to think the prisoner you mention has had an epiphany, albeit too late, I can't help suspecting that he just wanted to get offgrounds for a few hours.
And the entertainer was probably projecting how he, himself, would feel in that position.
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