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Date Posted: 16:14:46 02/25/05 Fri
Author: BL
Author Host/IP: pool-141-149-12-11.alb.east.verizon.net / 141.149.12.11
Subject: prayer request for victim's daughter

In this quiet little city of less than 20,000 it's a long time between murders, usually 10 years or more, but last Sunday we had our third in three years. A 42 year old woman was shot to death by her 48 year old ex-husband with her 13 year old daughter standing only a few feet away from her. This happened in the parking lot of a local Cumberland Farms store where she pulled in to get gas, in broad daylight, in front of several witnesses, less than ten minutes after she visited the police station about four blocks away, where she had been told that there was nothing they could do until she went to family court and got an order of protection.

She had gone there to talk to them about her ex following both her and a new friend around, sending her obscene and threatening notes along with defaced family pictures, calling her cell phone repeatedly (leaving nasty messages), believed to have been the one who damaged her car while it was parked in front of a friend's house, etc. She had filed for divorce and been given custody of the daughter in the fall, but they had separated last May after over 20 years of abuse, most of which had only been reported to family members and her lawyer.

A nineteen year old son Christopher had moved into his own apartment sometime recently, and the father had moved in with him a few weeks ago, less than a block from where the shooting occurred. The ex then sped from the scene, drove to an area outside a nearby town where he had family and ditched his car, which was found the next morning. He then hitchhiked back towards town and was dropped off at an on-ramp of the local interstate, just west of the city, eventually winding up in Syracuse, about 160 miles southwest of here where he was finally arrested on Wednesday morning at a homeless shelter where he'd spent the night, after spending the previous night at a casino and being taken from there that morning by ambulance to a hospital in that area for a heart problem, in both cases using an alias.

Please pray for Laurie's family, especially Christin, the 13 year old who was present when her father pulled up in his car, parked diagonally in front of her mother's, so she couldn't drive away, got out and walked up to the driver's window and blew her mother's head all over the inside of her car with a shotgun just after Christin stepped out of the car to go inside the store. I can only imagine what this chain of events is doing to that poor girl's psyche. She has in essence lost both of her parents and is temporarily in the custody of her mother's sister. For her sake, I also pray that Raymond pleads guilty right away and she is not forced to testify in court or go through a trial that may be years off, (because of the way the legal system works),
and extend the healing process for this poor young lady.

I didn't know Laurie personally, but she has done a few abdominal ultrasound scans on me at the hospital where she was a technician in the GI department for the past 20+ years. She was always very pleasant and caring during the exams. I didn't know that the friendly acting and chatty security guard who opened doors for the ladies at the hospital was her husband, until I read about the murder in the online version of the local newspaper and saw his picture. It's really heart-breaking to think that Laurie had finally found the courage to break free of the abuse and wound up dead anyway because the controller discovered he couldn't pull her strings anymore, if he couldn't have her, nobody would. Police found evidence at their old home that he planned to kill not only Laurie but her new boyfriend and
Laurie's sister, (who had finally convinced her to get out of the marriage before she got killed). He had trashed the inside of the house, spray painted threats on walls in four or five rooms, used a marker to deface boxes of family photes and to write threats on the fridge even. If only the cops had taken things more seriously and gone there and seen that before turning her out on the street! Nobody even thought to check the house that was being sold until after she was killed. This awful thing might have been prevented if only....... , and he'll probably get off with a temporary insanity plea and have the charges reduced to assault and battery or something less even.

Please pray for Christen and her family as they attend Laurie's funeral today and in the trying days ahead.

Peace and love,
Betty

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