October 2009: Morgan Harrington, disappeared after a Metallica concert at JPJ. She was a Virginia Tech student here in Cville for the weekend. As she looked for a ride, she was likely kidnapped. Her decomposed body was found 101 days later in January. Furthermore, her tshirt was found in a bush on 15th street mid April. The investigation continues...
November 2009: John Jones, a second year medical student at UVA Med died in Utah on a hiking trip when he became trapped in a cave. More than 50 members of a rescue team tried to release him, but he was stuck in a tricky position, hanging upside down. He died in the cave and was survived by his wife and 8-month old daughter.
January 2010: Stephanie Jean-Charles, a UVA grad student was killed in the Haiti Earthquake. She was home visiting family in Port-au-Prince over break when the quake hit. Jean-Charles was pursuing her masters through the Batten School of Public Policy. I can only wonder if her body ended up in the piles of mass graves...?
April 5, 2010: Joe Luke Arwood, was a 4th year psychology, Russian language and lit and Arabic major. He had done a lot of research within the psych department on how the brain processes music and had plans to publish a paper soon. He hoped to earn a Ph.D. in cognitive science. His fraternity brothers in SERP were particularly grieved. Arwood was found unconscious likely from an alcohol or drug related overdose.
April 19, 2010: Matt King, a 23-year old graduate student in the Mathematics department at UVA was killed in a bike accident on the morning of the 19th as he returned to Grounds after feeding the homeless at the Haven. He was hit by a city truck at the intersection of West Main and 4th Street. I saw the police and ambulances approach the scene on my way to get my thesis bound that morning and I have dear friends who knew King well. Crazy.
May 4, 2010: Yeardley Love, a 4th year and star lacrosse player at UVA, just weeks away from graduation, was killed today by another UVA student. A male lacrosse player, George Huguely, is the prime suspect and was taken into custody early this morning. Last night, I actually happened to be sitting outside West Main restaurant around 2am looking at the spot where King died as I head sirens probably attending to the incident on 14th St. I didn't know Yeardley well but I did have a class with her last semester and would run into her often. She seemed like a lovely woman with charisma and shy smile that really caught your attention. I am shocked and disgusted by the situation but my heart breaks for the beautiful girl who is no longer with us.
Which leads me to the age-old question of why the good die, and why they die young? God's got a plan that only He understands... I certainly don't get it.
I was friends with Stephanie. I like to think that she had a proper burial. Her family was well off and I can only hope that she had a proper burial and did not end up in some mass grave.
ReplyDelete