While I agree in remembering Jill how she lived for people who knew her. But a tribute to where she was found is still befitting. All those crosses where people have been killed along the roads always makes me slow down and think about how I am living my life.
Allison Baden-Clay - another Aussie murder with suspect (hubby) in jail - has a sunflower memorial on the bridge where her body was found. A lot of people - many who did not know Allison, stop and rearrange the flowers, or add another, or simply remember.
I think someone has lovingly made a memorial for Jill and it should not have been removed.
It's a pretty personally emotive and evocative situation that's for sure. This what I write is in line as being rhetoric rather than meant as being anything else. When it comes to the crunch, I always feel it's the 'spirtual' memory one has within their heart that is the true memorial. As I see it, you don't need a physical place nor a physical structure (all which can easily be destroyed and taken away) to pay homage.
Those crosses you see from road accidents are only temporary and eventually they disappear and new ones take their place. None of them are made of any permanent type materials nor ever remain ad infinatum. When we pass them, most people think of their own lives and how fragile life can be, rather than actually
know or think about the person who was actually killed in that spot.
None of us really know (do we?) what Jill's family thought of having a shrine, a monument placed in the spot her body was found. A monument in a spot that is
not a choice Jill or any of her family and friends have chosen,
but a spot chosen for Jill by an uncaring ruthless murderer.
Maybe some locals don't want a constant day after day reminder of a spot where a murder victim's body was dumped. That's all you can call it, dumped by a killer. That would be pretty unnerving to some people I would think. If Jill had been found in someone's front garden, would there be this issue about a monument being put in place in the spot her body was found even if it was done in loving memory and with good intent?
Some places do eventually get developed and can become built up, roads get redeveloped and new ones built.... people move on. In 20 years time who are the ones who place the flowers on monuments and on graves? Maybe family and friends and the odd interested bystander might on occassion, but people eventually move on as years go by and the acuteness of the memory fades. Will people still be stopping to put up flowers and rearrage them in 20 years time where Allison' Baden Clay was found?
You only need to look at the poster and guest activity in these threads to see how quickly people move on. I can almost guarantee, that if I were to mention Jill's name (or Allison's) to the average person in the street where I live, most would have long forgotten their names or the exact crime unless first given some reminder of what happened.
Who remembers and pays homage to 9 year old Ebony Simpson, abducted and murdered in 1992, who thinks of the family who were murdered in their own home in 2001 by their own son and brother Sef Gonzales.
How about in 1993, the sexual assaults and axe murders of Karen MacKenzie 31, and her three children, Daniel 16, Amara, 7 and Katrina 5, at their remote rural property in Western Australia.
According to Crime Investigation Australia, a judge ruled that the exact way in which Daniel, Amara and Katrina were killed to be sealed. In fact the crime has been called 'One of the worst crimes in Western Australia' and details of the murders were withheld from the public as they were deemed too gruesome and horrific. The case was so heinous that 'cries for the return of the death penalty could be heard echoing around the State'.
Greenough Family Massacre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
