Tag Archives: victim

Another Person Killed by Murder-Suicide

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Photo of a House On Fire

How long must we sing this song? Why can’t people realize that hurting other people, particularly those you profess to love, is just not okay? What is wrong with society that this kind of thing happens every freaking day?

Okay, I’m taking a deep breath now …

So basically, a recently retired teacher named Evelyn Spodnik died after her live-in boyfriend, a mucho classy dude named Barry Winters, doused her with gasoline and set her ablaze (perhaps he was taking Eminem and Rihanna’s “Love the Way You Lie” literally).

Oh, I’m sorry, she died at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital …

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Rape Victim Vindicated … But Does it Change Anything for Other Women?

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Photo of Rapist Willis in Handcuffs

Rape is arguably the worst possible crime in existence.  While the physical damage generally heals, the emotional repercussions of a sexual assault are lifelong.  Perhaps the worst thing about surviving a rape is the intrinsic need to keep it secret.

It is very difficult to say the words, “I was raped.”  It is even harder, however, to must the courage to say the words and face a firestorm of people casting doubt.  Since sexual assault is often difficult if not impossible to prove (never mind define), there is a surprisingly high percentage of people (and some of them are regular Zelda Lily readers) that automatically assume a woman claiming rape is lying.

I was raped.  It happened in 1998, I was drunk, and it was unspeakable.  While the physical effects healed fairly quickly, I will never fully recover emotionally.  To this day, I am not able to …

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Murdered New Hampshire Mother: Victim, Scumbag, or Both?

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Photo of Murder Victim Krista Dittmeyer

Tragic incidents and the often-horrifying accompanying details were once covered daily through newspapers, the morning and evening news, and AM radio (which I’m not sure even exists anymore). News updates occur via the internet far more rapidly nowadays; however, there seems to be a certain trade-off that has passed in terms of quality, whether it be accuracy, scope, or spin.

The frequency of news updates can really engage a reader, can personalize a tragedy … but there is a dark underbelly sometimes, when things aren’t exactly what they seem.

Take the recent death of 20-year-old Krista Dittmeyer, a single mother from Maine.

On a Saturday night in April, Dittmeyer’s car was found abandoned, flashers on, in the parking lot of a ski resort. Her 14-month-old daughter, Aliyah, was unharmed in her carseat, but there …

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Death Stops Elderly Father from Death Penalty Activism

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Photo of Death Penalty Activist George Cullins

In situations of murder, those affected ripple outward from the victim like rings in water.  The closest of those proverbial rings is almost always the immediate family of the victim, and the savage 1984 strangling of 24-year-old Janette Cullins is no exception.

The perpetrator, Dean Carter, was a real gem.   Strangling Janette Cullins and sticking her body into a closet in her San Diego home,  was not his first crime.  In fact, he’d killed three women just the day before in L.A. and had a history of raping women who didn’t exactly think he was Rico Suave.  Sick.

Anyway, this douchebag went to trial in 1991 and was convicted of all four murders and two rapes.  He was sentenced to death for his desecration of Janette …

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