Galloping Goose Trail
Does early exposure to evil contaminate? Can murderous genes be passed to offspring? Where does that old adage spring from, that an apple doesn't fall far from the tree? Is it even remotely possible that a child born of a misogynistic predator and murderer will emulate his father? Deliberately, or by the chance of deep-seated psychopathy?
For most people the very thought that a teen-age boy is capable of torturing and brutally murdering another human being is incomprehensible. We think of boys of 16 and 17 as yet children in so many ways. Most children are compassionate, most children can understand pain inflicted on others and through empathy are capable of restraining their baser instincts.
Children can also be casually cruel. As children, their social conscience has yet often to surface, and to mature. But this is not simply yet another instance of social cruelty, of maintaining 'elite', or outsider status, and shutting out those not deemed appropriate to some cliques.
To even contemplate that two young boys would set out to ensnare, abduct, rape and torment a young woman, and finally murder her is a torment of the imagination. Yet a young woman of 18, a fellow student at a school in a suburb of Victoria, British Columbia, was targeted and horrendously murdered. Again, thirteen years after an earlier such horrific event.
The mangled body found, of all places, at a beautifully-named nature spot, popular with the young, a paved trail called the Galloping Goose. Now, that's quaint and quite lovely. It's where what was left of a young woman by the name of Kimberly Proctor was found, after she had suffered the most dreadful experience any human being could be subjected to.
One imagines that psychologists examining the criminal mind would be interested in having an idea how such a plan could be conceived of, let alone carried through. A criminal mind is not generally associated with 16 and 17-year-olds. And then questions arise, did the girl know these boys other than as casual acquaintances?
Might the issue of danger have been the furthest thing from her mind? Danger emanating from two boys whom she knew from the school she had attended for years? Most people are trusting of others, and predators instinctively work on that trust. The 16-year-old had revealed later to another girl through an email that he "had dreamed about killing someone since he was young."
That is completely chilling, it defies belief. The father of that boy is serving a prison sentence for murder. When the boy was very young his father had targeted a teen-aged girl, and murdered her. Could it be remotely conceivable that this horrible act by a man had inspired his son? And how does that explain the partnership between that boy and another, a year older?
For most of us - living in a civil society, where the foremost wish of most people is to see their children grow from a comfortable, well-adjusted childhood through to mature, socially integrated adults who will find satisfaction and happiness in their lives - the motivation is to see that universal instinct realized.
Lives lost to this kind of unspeakable tragedy, a travesty of social normalcy gone awry, lead survivors to an unspeakably barren future of tragic, irreparable loss. A personal tragedy and one that degrades an entire society.
For most people the very thought that a teen-age boy is capable of torturing and brutally murdering another human being is incomprehensible. We think of boys of 16 and 17 as yet children in so many ways. Most children are compassionate, most children can understand pain inflicted on others and through empathy are capable of restraining their baser instincts.
Children can also be casually cruel. As children, their social conscience has yet often to surface, and to mature. But this is not simply yet another instance of social cruelty, of maintaining 'elite', or outsider status, and shutting out those not deemed appropriate to some cliques.
To even contemplate that two young boys would set out to ensnare, abduct, rape and torment a young woman, and finally murder her is a torment of the imagination. Yet a young woman of 18, a fellow student at a school in a suburb of Victoria, British Columbia, was targeted and horrendously murdered. Again, thirteen years after an earlier such horrific event.
The mangled body found, of all places, at a beautifully-named nature spot, popular with the young, a paved trail called the Galloping Goose. Now, that's quaint and quite lovely. It's where what was left of a young woman by the name of Kimberly Proctor was found, after she had suffered the most dreadful experience any human being could be subjected to.
"In their exchange of computer messages, they discussed their plan to lure [Ms.Proctor] to the 16-year-old's house, to seduce her, bind her, sexually assault her, murder her, then burn and dispose of her body. It was a plan they had discussed before. She was choked and suffocated and eventually died. A knife was used to mutilate her body." Victoria Times ColonistDo parents have such a tenuous grip on their children's interests, their values, their activities? Do parents have no responsibility in the manner in which their children develop and behave? The girl's body hauled out to the garage, left in a freezer. The following day her body stuffed into a duffel bag, taken aboard a city bus and carried to the bridge at the Galloping Goose Trail.
One imagines that psychologists examining the criminal mind would be interested in having an idea how such a plan could be conceived of, let alone carried through. A criminal mind is not generally associated with 16 and 17-year-olds. And then questions arise, did the girl know these boys other than as casual acquaintances?
Might the issue of danger have been the furthest thing from her mind? Danger emanating from two boys whom she knew from the school she had attended for years? Most people are trusting of others, and predators instinctively work on that trust. The 16-year-old had revealed later to another girl through an email that he "had dreamed about killing someone since he was young."
That is completely chilling, it defies belief. The father of that boy is serving a prison sentence for murder. When the boy was very young his father had targeted a teen-aged girl, and murdered her. Could it be remotely conceivable that this horrible act by a man had inspired his son? And how does that explain the partnership between that boy and another, a year older?
For most of us - living in a civil society, where the foremost wish of most people is to see their children grow from a comfortable, well-adjusted childhood through to mature, socially integrated adults who will find satisfaction and happiness in their lives - the motivation is to see that universal instinct realized.
Lives lost to this kind of unspeakable tragedy, a travesty of social normalcy gone awry, lead survivors to an unspeakably barren future of tragic, irreparable loss. A personal tragedy and one that degrades an entire society.
Labels: Canada, Health, Human Relations, Justice, societal failures
posted by Pieface @ 5:50 PM
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