Hirp Reaction

The big news in Kansas City this week, ended up getting national attention, as an 18 year old girl was murdered after being kidnapped outside a local Target. There aren’t many more scenarios that are more terrifying than the exact one that played out in this case. My first ever website, nine years ago, was my response to a local tragedy that claimed the lives of three teenage girls. At the time, it really hit me hard being that I wasn’t much older than they were. This time, I see it from a slightly different perspective. As most of my friends are now parents, and my own nieces and nephews are near the age of the victim, Kelsey Smith, I’m looking at it more through those eyes.

And it’s even more horrifying from this point of view. In a way, it’s a relief that I don’t have children of my own. The Smith family, it goes without saying are the real victims, but aren’t the only victims. Along with their family and friends, every parent is victimized by a case like this. I have one friend who is admittedly a bit over protective, but its hard to find fault in her thinking after something like this happens.

I used to work right next to the Target in which she was abducted from, and in the mall where they found her car. I also just drove within a few blocks of where t hey found her body just two days ago, all of which makes it just a little closer to home. I share the same first name as her father, although we spell it differently. To see a similar story on the news that takes place else where, and they talk about unfamiliar street names, is one thing. To see stores I’ve been in, streets I’ve driven on, and to hear she went to a high school my niece once attended takes it away from Nancy Grace and puts in my world. But at the same time, I can’t help but think, that the only reason it drew so much national attention across the nation is because she’s a cute white girl in the ‘burbs. Some years ago, there was Baby Doe in Kansas City, and that case never came close to being a part of the countries conscious.

Anyway, I really don’t even have a point. I can’t imagine what her family has gone through, and if it were up to me, they’d take t he guy who did it and throw him in a room with her father, uncles and brothers. Turn off the camera, lock the door and let them do whatever they want. If they just want to tell him stories about Kelsey, they could do that. Or if they wanted to beat him to within an inch of death with his own foot, cut off his balls and make him choke on them; well they could do that too.