Tragedy on Underwood

If you have not heard of this terrible story through news sources already, we apparently had a sicko living behind us, who is now locked up in prison for doing the unthinkable -- killing his five-year-old son, and attempting to kill his four-year-old son.

It was not too long after Jarrett's dad and Susan left yesterday morning that I heard, repeatedly, intense knocking on a door. It was so loud, that at first I thought someone was knocking on one of our doors, but after I looked around and did not see anyone, I looked out the back window and realized a police officer was pounding on the door of the apartment directly behind our property. A woman was standing with him, looking a bit distressed. I was preparing Elsa and myself to leave for Kate's house to watch James while Kate went to an appointment, but I took note to look over that direction when I drove by on my way over. However, once in the car, I totally forgot.

I was over at Kate's for a couple of hours, and returned just in time to put Elsa down for her nap. Once I got her down, I went into the back room and sat at the computer, which is a fairly normal occurrence. I was typing and reading away when I started hearing sirens -- many, many sirens. And then I began to realize that all of the sirens were dying down and stopping very close to the house. So I again looked out the back window, this time to see a sea of emergency vehicles at the apartment complex. And I looked out just in time to see an officer bring out of the exact same apartment they were pounding on earlier that morning, a shirtless, overweight, white male in handcuffs. He was immediately put into the back of the police car and was driven away. In the meantime, I saw a stretcher being wheeled toward the apartment. Other people who appeared to be family and/or friends were standing around, obviously distraught. Among them was a young boy, who had a pacifier in his mouth. That made me happy because I knew I had seen at least one child there before, so I was hoping that meant the little one was okay. Eventually, an All Hazards Response Decatur Fire/Rescue truck was pulled in directly by the apartment, and it sat there for hours as detectives and emergency personnel worked away out of the side of it that was facing away from me. Yellow police tape was being drawn all over the place, including off the side of our fence and across Underwood. I went out at one point and tried to ask a fire rescue worker what had happened, but he would not tell me much -- just that whatever did happen was not going to float up my direction and harm me in any way.

It remained a flurry of activity and flashing lights for most of the afternoon, and I wasted most of that time just trying to figure out what the heck was going on. I thought meth lab. I thought murder of the wife/mother. I thought drug deal gone bad.

Awhile later, I noticed that officers were tying yellow tape further up Underwood, off of the corner of our fence closest to our driveway. At that point, I headed outside again, thinking that maybe one of the police officers could give me some information. One of the two officers was already headed up the path to our house to talk to me. He said they were expecting media to arrive soon, and wanted to let me know that I might want to move my car in case our driveway became blocked. I asked him if he could tell me what had happened and he hesitated, but then said that no, he could not. He said I could call the station in a couple of hours and probably be given the information, but that really was not necessary once the media became involved.

After some e-mails between Jarrett and other neighbors, the truth became known. And I became sick to my stomach. You can read the entire story via the link above, if you wish.

Chaos ensued over the better part of the evening. A Decatur Police Mobile Operations Center trailer was set up for quite some time, and a Crime Scene Unit vehicle finally arrived. Flashes from detective's camera's were flashing from every which angle. And after the emergency crews were done, in came the media frenzy. It was nuts. And just so very sad.

This has really hit too close to home. I understand that it is fairly easy to get upset -- even very upset -- with your children. But there is no way I will ever understand how you could let yourself go to the extreme of killing them.

May God be with the family of this little boy, especially with the mother and his sweet little brother.