We've been traveling, so my apologies if some of this has all ready been addressed (only caught up to page 19, and wanted to address it before the posters themselves forgot about the post!).
Well...the article states that Leila and her brother were home alone on the "night of the murder." So....:facepalm:
Was this perhaps an "away" game, or a game that took families further away than usual? We've been discussing timelines and local ball fields, but this news comment makes me wonder if they'd traveled the night before to a locale further away than we'd considered. Hardly seems likely for such a small town, though; maybe the news article just made a mistake. (In any case, it'd be 'the night of the attack' not 'the night of the murder.')
<snipped by me>
Most very young kid killers actually do not go on to kill again. Mary Bell, the most disturbing of killer kids, killed two boys but never killed again. She was 10 and 11 when she lured and murdered two very young boys (4 and 3). It was premeditated. This most likely was a crime of passion.
Kid killers are so rare that it's hard to have any kind of profile.
I think 12 is far too young to be tried as an adult. It is completely possible for a child that age to do something horrific without being evil. Most kids are still redeemable at that age. Even those with conduct disorder. Dr. Hare showed that young, potentially psychopathic brains can be rehabbed.
But here's the problem: it is highly unlikely that this boy would Receive the intensive, psych help he would need to change. We just had a kid sentenced to age 25 for his murder via a single bullet to his sleeping, highly abusive neo-Nazi fathers head. He was 10 when the murder occurred. The judge refused to place him in an intensive, locked psych facility. Instead, he will be learning from other juvenile offenders and then adults and then released to the world. Scary.
BBM
To me that is the scariest part. He could have been a very sweet boy, it could have been a very unusual sudden flash of anger for him. But now he is going through the system. Once in JD he will be getting a totally different type of education. And no matter what he was really like, he will be very different when he comes out.
Though rare, even not-so-sweet boys age 12 have undergone treatment in centers specially designed for severely psychologically disturbed kids (eg. RAD-diagnosed) and have emerged rehabilitated. A case in point would be the 12yr old boy who had been setting fires since age 5, set an apartment fire resulting in a death, and who confessed at age 12 to setting the Our Lady of the Angels school fire at age 10 (a horrific 1950s tragedy resulting in 95 deaths and many more injuries). After his 'sentence' to the out-of-state facility was completed, he enlisted in the army, served in the Vietnam War, and went on to lead an otherwise undistinguished life--but one without violence. Died in 2004, I believe.
I say, if there's a chance at ALL, give the kid a chance in a suitable psych facility (especially if it is known that his early home environment was one of abuse or neglect, or was otherwise severely deficient, psychologically, as was the case with the fire-setter). It may mean not only his salvation, but that of unknown others down the road.
Not to mention that with the cost of burials, cemetery plots, etc. it is very unlikely that enough money was raised to even cover those costs, let alone enough left over to apply to the defense.
If they are really really concerned, they could make an arrangement with the funeral home and family to pay the funeral home directly and not give the money to the family to disperse. Family could advise them of the amount needed to pay funeral home for instance, then they could go write the funeral home a check. If any monies are left, they could be applied for a headstone.
IIRC, it was reported with a link i believe, upthread, that a donor covered LF's funeral expenses.
But I can imagine other needs for money besides IF's defense: The cost of staying elsewhere during the investigation (even if staying at relative's, there's food, gas, etc), possible leave of absence without pay from job or jobs, and the cost of moving- i can only imagine never, ever wanting to go back to that house again.
There has reportedly been $70,000 raised for the Fowler family according to the Valley Springs Fundraising group on Facebook. This has been done through extensive community involvement including bake sales, benefit concerts, jewelry sales, car washes, etc. On an emotional level, I can see why this community feels "betrayed" -- even if the parents didn't know their son had done this. The amount of effort put forth by this tiny community has been staggering. Some of those who contributed to this fund were themselves deeply hurting financially, and in need of help, but gave sacrificially due to the closeness and unity felt in this small town. To try to refund now would be extraordinarily messy, as much of this was raised through group efforts. But it's a lesson in giving...especially in a day and age where Facebook funding pages spring up almost overnight at every disaster. Give specifically--no blank checks, if you fear regrets later.
