Have you ever known a murder victim?

The 83-year-old grandmother of my cousin (who lived around the corner) was raped, robbed and murdered by a 17-year-old kid. He is in prison now. We were extremely afraid my uncle, who was an NYC cop at the time, was going to find a way to kill him before he was sent away.

 

Sadly, a lot. First one that came to mind was a friend who was a sheriff's deputy. He had worked an overtime shift that stretched about two hours later than expected. He came home to find that his sister's ex boyfriend was holding her hostage. Shot my friend as soon as he walked in the door. I always felt if he had been home at time, the ex never gets in the house.

Last summer, one of my former neighbors, who was coming off a three-day meth bender and sleeping in a car at a gas station, was killed by cops who thought he had a gun. He didn't.

One of my high school acquaintances was fatally stabbed by his brother.

And somehow this came up fourth in my memory, probably because I have tried to block it out. One of my close friend's daughters was murdered about three years ago. I had know the girl since was in elementary school, but had gotten out of control in her late teens. She was living with a guy, who was a drug dealer of sorts. One night some guys come collect. Beat the shit out both of them, shoot them, crush her skull with a computer and then set the house on fire. About a year later an arrest is made. I read about on a Patch site (yes, a patch site). Text to my friend that I was happy they had made an arrest. He had no idea. Sheriff's Office never notified him.

 

So your uncle had already divorced his first wife - who was still working at the shop - when she was murdered by his current wife?

 

Here's how I read it: MTM's first wife had an uncle who was murdered by that uncle's wife.

 

The uncle had divorced and remarried. Neither woman worked at the shop and I am no longer married to his niece. The new wife hired some thugs to kill Uncle and make it look like a Rolex robbery.

Wife, 3 Others Arrested in June 'Rolex' Slaying of Auto Shop Owner

 

No one I've known has been murdered. Didn't think that made me an exception until reading this thread.

 

Yeah. A guy I worked with at my first newspaper job was murdered about 10 years after I moved on.

 

Two come to mind.
A guy I played youth baseball with and then was a high school classmate. About 4 years after high school, we hung out at the same billiard place. He got involved with some of the local druggies. He was the manager of an Arby's and late one night, he was abducted by some dudes who knew he had the keys to the place. They made him unlock the door so they could rob it, then took him down to the boardwalk and murdered him under the pier. Case never solved.
The second was a college roommate. He was accounting major, smarter than hell, and was recruited by top accounting firms after graduation. He eventually went out on his own and was very successful. He partnered with a construction guy to form a company. His friend was the hammer and nails guy and he was the money guy. He went missing and was eventually found with a bullet in his head in the trunk of his Mercedes in a Motel 6 parking lot in craptown. His wife was certain the partner or a friend of the partner did it, but police could never close the case. I later went to work at a paper that covered craptown and I asked the police reporter about it. She shrugged and said the police couldn't prove anything.

 

Guy I grew up playing football with was shot in the chest with a shotgun when he answered his door one night. No one's quite sure why and the killer was never captured.

I'm close with two people who lost both parents in separate murder/suicide incidents, though I didn't actually know any of them because both sets of parents died before I met them.

 

Closest I've ever come to knowing a murder victim was a high school friend whose uncle was a high-ranking labor union honcho with Mob connections. The uncle was gunned down in a hotel parking lot.

 

Ask me tomorrow.

 

Oddly enough, the woman who I knew was featured in a Facebook group photo someone posted today. Very strange. I don't think I'd seen her picture for 10 years or so, jogging past a memorial in her honor posted on the running trail I used to use.