Thanks for posting. It has been said so many times, it has become almost a cliche, but I simply cannot imagine the pain that this family is experiencing. I am new to this site having stumbled upon it by reading up on several young girls who went missing over 30 years ago from my hometown in PA and still have not been found.
I have long had an interest in understanding how a person could take another's life. I just cannot wrap my brain around how they can watch someone suffer the pain and see the terror in their eyes as they watch them take their last breath. I don't understand how they callously dispose of the body to cover their tracks. I don't know how they go on with life as if nothing ever happened. How they sleep at night and not wake up with nightmares of what they have done. I cannot imagine how they don't see the permanency of what they have done. Don't they realize that we are all given a short time on earth that we get one life and they just took it away from someone...for ever.? Do they think about that by taking one life, they have destroyed the lives of countless others. How it ruins each and every day for their family and friends? Have they thought through in their selfish minds the repercussions of getting caught and spending day after day for years sitting in a dangerous prison?
As a father of 3 young children, it scares me to think about these cases. I try to put myself in TE's place and wonder how I could survive. I think it literally could be the worst pain anyone could suffer. How could I ever stop looking? How could I ever eat, sleep, or return to work.? I just don't know. I respectfully think it's worse not being able to find someone than finding them with the worst result, but maybe that's just me. I am not religious, but I have been blessed with a very strong conscience and a great deal of empathy. I thank my parents for that and pray that I can help instill it in my children. I think empathy is so important yet I rarely see it valued nor the lack of it even noticed.
Although some people around me may sometimes think it is odd that I am drawn to these cases, I think most recognize it is empathy that brings me here. I suspect that is why many of you are here too. Keep up the good work. You are all amazing.
BTW, there is a picture of Heather wearing glasses and making a face that I have seen. She looks like her mom.
Excellent post Ski1987, imo. Although there are indicators of an active predator in Horry County, SC, imo, due to the abnormally high number of unsolved missing/murdered female cases. Due to info known, as are many others, I am leaning towards a love triangle that went tragically south.
I have been on a dark six year journey seeking the answers to shed light on many of the questions that you have posed above. Night stalker SK Richard Ramirez said to the CA jury that sentenced him to death, "Lucifer dwells within us all, I don't expect you to understand me, I am beyond good & evil, Lucifer will avenge me"..
BBM Below is prolly the best description of a psychopath that I have ran across. Also the second link By Lt. Nelson Andreu MDCPD will provide more info on psychopaths/predators, their thought patterns and motives, etc.
Blame the brain: Psychopaths are wired Differently
There's a lot more to it than that. Psycopaths (now often coyly
labelled sociopaths) are the only real persons, places, things, in
their world. The rest of us are figments of their imagination, in
effect, to be manipulated and used in anyway appropriate and
convenient to their needs. If they believe it to be ultimately useful
to their purposes to be kind and generous and considerate towards
someone, they will -- without limit, if helpful to their ends -- or
if they believe it to be more convenient to destroy someone, they
will.
There is no such thing as truth or lies external to them --
which explains why such persons can readily pass lie detector tests,
for example.
A quasi-religious psychiatrist I knew said they were born without
souls. A philosopher long ago came to literally believe that there
are people in this world who are actually not really human beings,
but who absolutely emulate the real thing and are basically
impossible to recognize as non-human. I think he was trying to
explain the psychopath.
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/science-scope/blame-the-brain-psychopaths-are-wired-differently/
______
Serial Killers - A Homicide Detective's Take
http://www.expertlaw.com/library/investigators/serial_killers.html
By Lieutenant Nelson Andreu (Retired)
Miami Police Department May, 2005
Credentials and Interest
Common Knowledge
Genesis of a Serial Killer
Victim Selection
Victim Objectification
Denouement
Case Histories