A Community Responds the Way it Should

by Pat Brown

It might seem impossible to see any silver lining in the horrific abduction and murder of little eight-year-old Sandra Cantu, but I am actually ecstatic over one issue related to this case: family, community, and police response.

For once, we don't see a muted, shrug-shoulders, "stuff happens" reaction from anyone. I have been in this business for over a decade and I have been forever frustrated with the general acceptance of heinous crimes as passing sad events that we just have to accept. The answer is "WE DON'T!"

In 1998, biologist Christine Mirzayan was raped and murdered on a path near Georgetown University where Mirzayan was returning after a barbecue with friends. At the time, only a paragraph about her murder made the newspapers and no one at the university or the community made much of a ruckus about this crime. If you Google her name now, you will see a few articles, but only because reporters were criticizing the Chandra Levy case and her name was brought up because it was another unsolved murder of an intern. Of course, she had no family in the area and she was somewhat blamed for walking in the dark. I guess those are good reasons to ignore the fact innocent women are getting killed and a serial killer is on the loose.

Fourteen-year-old Nia Owens had a similar fate in 1996 (you won't find a picture of her on the Internet). She was strangled and left in some bushes near her school. She got two or three small stories. Perhaps the lack of concern had something to do with her being African-American and making the mistake of playing around with phone dating. But there still remained a serial killer in town.

Just a few miles down the road in Greenbelt, Maryland in 1995, seventeen-year-old Julie Ferguson (no picture around of her either), a very popular girl at the local high school, was abducted and found on the side of the road with her throat cut. She got a few more stories because she was white, local, and very pretty. Still, I don't remember citizens swarming about in protest of such a horrible crime in our community. Unsolved, a killer remained at large.

But, finally, we see the appropriate response to Sandra Cantu's murder. The community is furious. They are keeping the pressure up to find her killer. They are calling for "the monster" to be caught. Law enforcement has worked around the clock putting all the manpower they can into the investigation. They have put up roadblocks and checked cars and gotten search warrant after search warrant in an attempt to prevent Sandra's killer from getting away with his crime.

Finally, the mother of Sandra appeared on the Today Show (sitting on the right), and, for once, instead of the viewers seeing a parent struggling to stay composed and speaking calmly, a national audience got to see the depth of devastation the family experiences when their loved one is brutally murdered. Maria Chavez could get no more than a few words out as she choked up and hyperventilated. Her grief was so overwhelming that she gave the best interview I have ever seen; she couldn't put on an act, and just sat there unable to speak. I cried watching her and I am sure other viewers did as well. Ms. Chavez made people aware, even if unintentionally, of just how much damage these monsters in our society are doing.

I would like to see every community, family member, and police force go berserk when such murders are committed. I would like every jury to lose all sympathy for these son-of-bitches and give them the full punishment the law will allow (preferably the death penalty). These creatures deserve no sympathy, no breaks, no life. The killer gave Sandra Cantu, a totally innocent child, the death penalty without any trial or lawyer. He gave the family life in prison. He deserves the same response from us.

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