I've been twisting my stomach in knots since we heard the news. I wrote a column almost two years ago after a girl in Toronto was kidnapped and killed. I'll dig it up and post it to my blog toomrrow.

Thank you for so eloquently relating the pain all parents feel when a child anywhere is taken so violently.

Well said, Moogie. I don't have any children of my own but I get a sick feeling in my gut whenever I consider something like this happening to one of my nieces or nephews. Crimes like this stab at the core of our world. I hope the lousy scumbag who did it gets the death penalty.

And I feel no shame or remorse for thanking God that it wasn't any of my nieces or nephews.

A terrible, devastating end to an already unsettling story. But for the parents, there is no end to the story. They will likely relive the nightmare for the rest of their days. Having never been in that situation (and praying never to be), it seems to me that parents who have lost children, especially under violent circumstances, and have gone on living are the strongest people on God's green earth.

Truly a heart wrenching story. I can't even imagine the grief. A bullet to the head would be too good for the putrid excuse for a human being who did this.

I sat down on the couch to catch the news and I came in right as her father was making his statement. I could already sense that they were searching for his daughter in the background before they made the statment. It was obvious in my mind that the creep had probably confessed and told them where to look for her body, and I instantly felt sick! I just can't imagine what those poor parents are having to go though, and I will have nightmares wonderfing what that poor little girl had to suffer. He is a very sick man and I hope he will suffer a similar torture by someone before he is put to death. I'm pretty sure that last statement will send me right to hell with you Moogs but that's how I feel.
My doors and windows are locked. Always are. I'm just that afraid.

And yet there will be those who will say that the animal who did this should not be executed. "What good would it do?" they'll say.

Well, it will damn sure make certain that this "registered sex offender" will never kill another child.

I too go through the house checking the doors and even the windows making sure everything is locked. It's a scary world.
I was in California when Polly Klaas was abducted. Every day I watched the news waiting for any hopeful sign. Then one day as I was coming out of Walgreen's I saw the newspaper headline: she had been found. Dead. I wanted to cry, right then.
I think we all want to hug our children a little tighter after hearing about something like this...

Like everyone else, I too was grateful that it wasn't one of mine, or my grandchild. Someone told me a long long time ago that God never gives us anything we can't handle..There are times tho' that I wonder..

I watched this story as I lay in the hospital with my youngest and kept thinking and praying, "God, please let me husband be vigilant with our other daughter's safety while I am away" I know it sounds crazy, but I worried constantly about them while I was at the hospital especially after seeing that story. I cannot begin to imagine the pain, the never ending pain that man will be in forever (her mother also). I pray that he and the rest of Jessica's family finds peace now that she has. As for the man who did this thing, may he rot in hell. I am sure that feeling that way is wrong, but I cannot imagine anything that would be appropriate punishment for that digusting animal.

People laugh because I have 3 dogs in the house. I know that if one doesn't hear something the other two will. We have one dog that exclusively sleeps upstairs with the children and she fiercely protects them. I understand your neighbor's thinking because I feel more secure with the dogs around.

I watched this story as I lay in the hospital with my youngest and kept thinking and praying, "God, please let me husband be vigilant with our other daughter's safety while I am away" I know it sounds crazy, but I worried constantly about them while I was at the hospital especially after seeing that story. I cannot begin to imagine the pain, the never ending pain that man will be in forever (her mother also). I pray that he and the rest of Jessica's family finds peace now that she has. As for the man who did this thing, may he rot in hell. I am sure that feeling that way is wrong, but I cannot imagine anything that would be appropriate punishment for that digusting animal.

People laugh because I have 3 dogs in the house. I know that if one doesn't hear something the other two will. We have one dog that exclusively sleeps upstairs with the children and she fiercely protects them. I understand your neighbor's thinking because I feel more secure with the dogs around.

When things like this happen, I have to turn away. I can't watch the news reports. I read only enough of the newspapers to know the basics of what is going on. But beyond that, I can't do it. I cannot bear to even think about losing a child. The father's pain? Unbearable. Unfathomable.

But I can't watch. Because then the fear becomes too great. I my desire to protect my own children causes me to lose perspective.

-G

It blows my mind that there are people in this world who would have the audacity to go into a child's bedroom and take them from their family. That simply turns my stomach. How horrible it must be for the parents. They, and all families in situations like these are in my prayers.

Everytime I hear about a story like this I hold my kids a little tighter, hold them a little longer and pray a lot more that they will be safe. Child safety is such an important topic, I wish that there were more porgrams available to teach children about how to help protect themselves without locking them up behind bars and preventing them from living their lives.