FULL LETTER: A letter to the murderer of my son David

A LETTER TO THE MURDERER OF MY SON DAVID,

January 5, 2013, marks 19 years since David's death. As David's mother, I am most grateful that his sister Christine has set up this Memorial to David's life. I am sure that, by now, you are familiar with this site, and I hope that when you first visited here, you felt the dread and terror I felt when I first heard the words "David has disappeared."

F...or all these years, I have thought a lot about you. How is your life going for you? How have things changed in your life over the years? What do you feel? How much do you love the people you care about? And then, how heavy is the weight of guilt? Do you, with age and maturity, regret the finality of what you did? Do you have some realization of how many lives you cruelly affected when you decided to end David's life? You murdered "from behind," not giving David a chance to defend himself. He must have trusted you because he had no fear of you. You knew he was smart, quick, and United States Marine-trained. You committed the ultimate act of betrayal of your relationship with him in the most cowardly of ways possible. Because one bullet in the rear of his head took his last breath of life, why three more bullets into his body? Were you filled with anger and hatred; were you trying to "confuse" the situation; or because of your own careful, rigid and controlling personality, did you have to "make sure" there was no chance of David surviving? Because I believe you are also intelligent and leave nothing to chance (you planned the disappearance and murder so well), I'm guessing that the large branch you covered David's body with was already waiting at the scene when you arrived there with him.

I have also thought about your friends, acquaintances and co-workers. Did no one notice your words, behavior and actions at the time of disappearance, during the three long agonizing months David was missing, or when David's body was found? Did you not say or do something that someone questioned? Was no one "tuned in;" were they naïve enough to think "no one I know would ever do such a thing;" or, maybe, they are afraid? No one lives in a vacuum.

David would be 46 now. Christine and I carry him along with us in our lives. We now have him where no one else can hurt him again.

I have been waiting years to meet with you, face-to-face, eye-to-eye, to hear the WHY and HOW. What is inside you that made it possible for you to make the decision that David should not live. THERE HAD TO HAVE BEEN OTHER ALTERNATIVES! For all these years that you have gone on with your life and living – the very same years you took from David and greatly altered for Christine and me – I believe that God, a Higher Power, The Universe, or whatever you believe in (IF you believe in anything of GOODNESS) will exact Retribution on you.

JUSTICE FOR DAVID

David's Mother

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