The December Killings always give me pause.
During this month, we lost Maria Ridulph, Shawn K. Simmons, Officer Deriek Crouse, Kimberly Ann Thompson went missing, Leo Resk, and Gregory McRoberts was killed in a hit-and-run. Michelle Martinko was murdered, Eric Beasley was killed, and Amber, Karmon, and Kameron Willingham died during the accidental fire that led to their father’s wrongful execution. Patty Vaughan went missing and left behind small children.
In this month in 2009, the Criminal Cases Review Commission declared that the court of appeal will not pardon Hawley Harvey Crippen posthumously despite the fact that DNA disproves the prosecution’s charges.
It is quite a list.
But it is on Christmas Eve that I really pause and say a silent prayer.
On Christmas Eve, the murders of Charles Mays, Perry & Virginia Edwards, and Eunice Edwards-Zeigler led to the wrongful conviction of William Thomas Zeigler who remains on death row. Betty Gene Hull, a woman who embodied the spirit of giving, was brutally murdered.
When I stand in front of our Christmas tree, I wish for a solution to stop the madness that endures for Tommy Zeigler. I don’t want him exonerated posthumously. I wish to clear his name in court while he’s still alive. I wish for an M-Vac led forensic squad to re-examine the Hull and Vaughan evidence pieces for touch DNA. And I wish for peace.
I would like to thank all my blog readers and supporters on social media for reading and sharing these posts. Thanks to your sharing we reach new news feeds every day.
I wish to thank all the families who reach out every day with stories and details about their loved ones, who share photographs, and correct/add information in the posts. Your support and kind words mean the world to me.
Thank you all for placing the victims in the spotlights. I hope you will continue to do so in 2015.
Happy Holidays and the very best for the New Year!
