If I were God…the one horror I would do away with on earth is the periodic snatching and killing of young girls.
It happened again last night. This time in Springfield. At age 10, Hailey Owens’ earthly life ended yesterday, apparently at the hands of a 45-year-old pervert who, of all things, was a paraprofessional and coach in the Springfield School District.
I have been in St. Louis the last few days, and about 7 p.m. last night I got an Amber Alert on my cellphone regarding the abduction of a girl in Springfield. Police were looking for a gold-colord Ford Ranger. They had a license-plate number.
I really didn’t think too much about it at the time because a lot of these abductions are related to domestic situations, where one or another estranged parent has taken a kid or failed to return one.
Back in my hotel room, after watching a bit of TV, I realized this was a bad situation — a stranger abduction.
Immediately, the Pamela Butler case came rushing back to my mind. That fateful day was Oct. 12, 1999, when I was bureau chief in KCK.
I was at home when I saw a brief story on the 10 p.m. news that a 10-year-old girl had been snatched from in front of her Armourdale home. She had been roller skating, and a guy lying in wait in a truck had jumped out, snatched her and sped off, shouting to several astounded bystanders, “You’ll never see her alive again.”
A guy who was a block or so away heard people screaming and pointing at the truck, which was speeding away. In his vehicle, he pursued the abductor for a couple of miles, at least. But he really didn’t know what was going on and didn’t see a passenger because the driver had handcuffed her to the passenger-side door handle and was pushing her head down, out of view. The abductor lost him somewhere in the Rosedale area.
Reporters didn’t know all that at the time, but the night desk at The Star got a short story in the paper the next morning. A three-day manhunt ensued. I worked the story for two days, overseeing reporters and editing stories. I was heartsick the whole time and had trouble carrying on, mainly because our daughter Brooks was 11 at the time, and I couldn’t get it out of my mind that it just as easily could have been her.
I had scheduled a vacation day for Friday, the third day of the story. Instead of staying on to work the story, I took the vacation day. My supervisor wasn’t happy, although he didn’t say anything critical. I just didn’t want to face a third straight day of the story. I took Brooks and our 10-year-old son Charlie bowling at Ward Parkway Lanes, and I remember watching a TV report of 24-year-old Keith D. Nelson being fished out of the Kansas River near the 12th Street bridge. Pamela’s body was found in Grain Valley.
Nelson was later convicted of rape and murder in federal court and sentenced to death. He’s now 39 and still sitting in prison somewhere.
So, yesterday it was Hailey.
Like Pamela, she was outside her home. Probably playing. The man in the gold truck had driven down her street, West Lombard, several times. Just like Nelson, he bided his time. Then pounced.
Pounced like an animal. Him and Nelson both. Animals. Pieces of space junk, dropped in from the atmosphere with no redeeming value and preying on innocence.
And this guy, the guy charged — Craig Michael Wood. Forty-five years old. Employed by the Springfield School District since August 1998. Working at Pleasant View Elementary School.
His job? To teach, coach and nurture kids from ages 5 to about 13.
Take a look at his picture, which was on the kansascity.com website as of about an hour ago. Would you want your kids being taught or coached by this guy?
If I were God…
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Fitz,
I agree the demented tragedies to children, and others defenseless, make sane people sick. Satan is the root of all evil. (an opinion – coupled with my strong Faith). Now it is time for justice.
Head down over paperwork all day my first inkling something was amiss was when I bought a Powerball ticket; printed at the bottom of the ducat was Hailey’s complete Amber Alert. That was at 8:23 PM. I remember thinking (for both of us): what are the odds?
Not good, as it turned out.
As for the rest, well…not believing in a need to disprove that which has never been proved, should I have found the creature at home with the dead girl it would have been an immediate two behind his ear. Or two in the back, had he fled.
Texas, when the crime is deemed a.) beyond egregious and b.) proof exists both overwhelming and irrefutable, executes people almost immediately. The only place where Texas is remiss is the ritual is still semi-private; bring back the days of the public rope.
The state of Missouri enjoys a surfeit of trees…
I completely disagree with you, Will, on your approval of “the Texas way.”
In 2004, Texas put to death a 36-year-old man who had been convicted of murdering his three young children by arson at the family home in Corsicana, TX on Dec. 23, 1991.
He was almost surely innocent. His case got renewed attention in 2009 when an investigative report by David Grann of The New Yorker strongly suggested that the evidence for arson was unconvincing. Grann consulted nationally recognized arson investigation experts and cited advances in fire science since the 1992 investigation.
The local authorities who investigated were a bunch of rubes who were intent on establishing an open-and-shut case, i.e., “the Texas way.”
A 2009 investigative report by an expert hired by the Texas Forensic Science Commission concluded that the original claims of arson were doubtful. Further muddling the matter, then Texas Gov. Rick Perry impeded the investigation by replacing three of the nine commission members in an attempt to change the commission’s findings.
The deal with Texas is that most law enforcement and judicial authorities there don’t really care if the defendants actually committed the crimes; they just want to see the defendants dead, as an example that you “don’t mess with Texas.”
…The only good things about Texas are the Alamo and the Riverwalk in San Antonio.
Here’s a link to David Grann’s story, if you’ve got the time…
That’s understandable, Jimmy, given Texas’ apparent la-di-dah attitude toward making sure the defendant is actually guilty.
So then let me backtrack a tad; in this particular case, is there any doubt the defendant snatched the child? No; there was a witness who saw the event and gave chase. Then the child was found dead hours later in the same house the kidnapper lived in? Common sense says he killed her.
But this isn’t Texas so we wait for trial.
In the upcoming trial should the physical evidence and witness testimony (legally) determine what we already most certainly now, there is no need to do anything but remove the man from the courtroom and publicly hang him, right then and there. Should he only be found guilty of kidnapping, hang him.
That is justice and the way we should treat all heinous crimes.
The couple that killed their two children via prayer – hang them, immediately.
When the evidence is clear, when a fair trial has been held and a guilty verdict rendered in any case now subject to the death penalty, hang them. Don’t wait, do it on the spot. Let people watch.
Yes, this puts the onus on the prosecution to do a diligent and fair job. That just means those offices need to come under more public scrutiny, something that should happen any way.
And, yes, some people are going to still be wrongly convicted… just as they are today. But you will forestall like crimes and most certainly put an end to a particular type of recidivism.
The reason people don’t fear the death penalty in this country is because it is so unevenly, almost randomly enforced across the country – it is possible to die in prison of old age instead of being put to death. Kill each miscreant immediately and that will all change.
Well said, well spoken. We need a verdict “Gulty without question” for cases like this where the penalty can indeed be meted out within minutes of the end of the trial.
And how ironic that the same folks who do’t object to the slaughter of innocent babies want to mollycoddle animals like this. Here in Kansas we have a Supreme Court that has never seen a baby it wouldn’t kill, or a killer it wouldn’t baby. If we really want to fix our criminal justice system we’d string up a few of these corrupt judges who enforce only what they want and ignore the rule of law.