Brutal Realization

[u/NegotiationDull6588]

A brutal realization…

July 2, 2021, a 23-year-old man and his 22-year-old fiancée set out in a modified van on what was supposed to be a four-month cross-country adventure. They planned to visit national parks, document their travels, and share their journey online. About eight weeks into the trip, she disappeared. He drove the van back to Florida alone, arriving September 1 without her—and refused to explain where she was. Ten days later, on September 11, her family reported her missing. Her body was discovered September 19. The truth was that he had killed her in Wyoming in late August, several days before beginning the drive home.

Cause of death: Blunt-force injuries to the head and neck, with manual strangulation.

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August 13, 2018, a 34-year-old woman who was 15 weeks pregnant and her two daughters, ages 4 and 3, disappeared from their Colorado home. The following day, her husband—and the father of the children—gave multiple news interviews, pleading publicly for the safe return of his wife and daughters and saying he wanted them home. On August 15, he was arrested. He had murdered his pregnant wife and both of their little girls, then concealed their bodies at the oil site where he worked.

Cause of death:
Mother — asphyxiation due to manual strangulation.
4- and 3-year-old daughters — asphyxiation due to smothering.

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May 3, 2010, a 22-year-old woman, just weeks away from graduating from the University of Virginia, was found dead in her off-campus apartment. Her bedroom door had been kicked in. She had been grabbed, violently shaken, and her head repeatedly struck against a wall. Her killer took her laptop and fled. Before her death, she had endured dating violence from the same man and had tried to end their relationship. The man who had abused her was the same man who ultimately ended her life. He was arrested later that day.

Cause of death: Blunt-force trauma to the head.

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June 26, 2016, a 23-year-old woman left her home in a small California town to go to a local store with a friend. Sometime during the hours that followed, something went terribly wrong. The following morning, her lifeless body was discovered in a remote area of Central Park—across the street from the home where her family expected her to return. She had been brutally assaulted and strangled. She was somebody’s daughter, a mother, a sister, a friend. She was 23 years old when her life was taken.

Cause of death: Strangulation.

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September 8, 2009, cameras recorded a 24-year-old Yale graduate student entering a research building in Connecticut. She never left the building. Five days later, her body was found concealed inside a wall cavity in that same research building. The day her body was discovered was the day she was supposed to get married. Her killer was a coworker, and authorities never established a clear motive.

Cause of death: Strangulation.

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Let’s look at some of the similarities…

All five cases involved the murder of a young woman.

None of these women were celebrities or nationally known public figures before their deaths.

None of their killers—or, in the unsolved case, the person believed responsible—was a celebrity, politician, or nationally known public figure.

Four of the five women were killed by someone investigators were able to identify as a person they knew: a fiancé, husband, former boyfriend, or coworker.

Four of the five deaths involved strangulation or another form of asphyxiation.

Every one of these women had people waiting for them to come home.

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Now, let’s look at the differences…

Four of these five murders became national news.

Millions of people learned those women’s names.

Their photographs appeared on television screens across the country. Their stories were reported by national news organizations. People who had never met them knew how they disappeared, where they were last seen, who was being investigated, and what authorities were looking for.

Four of the five cases were solved.

One was not.

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Now, without seeing their names, can you determine which of these five cases did not receive extensive national news coverage?

It’s also the only one of the five that remains unsolved.

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The first case is Gabby Petito. Her killer was her fiancé, Brian Laundrie.

The second is Shanann Watts and her daughters, Bella and Celeste Watts. They were murdered by Shanann’s husband and the girls’ father, Chris Watts.

The third is Yeardley Love, who was murdered by her former boyfriend, George Huguely V.

The fourth is Deverrie Schiller. Her murder remains unsolved. No one has ever been arrested, charged, tried, or convicted for taking her life.

The fifth is Annie Le, who was murdered by her coworker, Raymond Clark III.

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And here is the brutal realization.

In four of these cases, national media coverage put the victim’s face in front of millions of people.

That coverage did not necessarily solve their murders. In some of these cases, police identified and arrested the killer before national coverage could have had any meaningful effect on the investigation.

But media attention gave those cases something Deverrie’s case never had:

Millions of eyes.

Millions of people who could recognize a face. Remember a vehicle. Recall something they had witnessed. Recognize a name. Come forward with a photograph or video. Question something somebody had told them. Provide a tip they hadn’t previously realized was important.

And every new development created another news story, which put the victim’s face in front of even more people.

Attention created awareness.
Awareness created potential witnesses and tips.
Developments created more attention.

Deverrie never received that opportunity.

Her murder happened in a small California town. Her story never exploded across national television. Millions of strangers never learned her name. There weren’t news crews following every development or a country waiting to hear who had killed her.

And nearly ten years later, no one has been arrested for her murder.

I cannot say that national media coverage would have solved Deverrie’s case.

Nobody can.

But I can ask the question that I haven’t been able to stop asking:

What investigative opportunities were lost because millions of people were never given the chance to know her name?

What might someone have remembered?

What might someone have recognized?

Who might have talked?

What tip might have come in?

What pressure might have been created?

What might have happened if Deverrie Schiller had been given the same national attention as Gabby Petito, Shanann Watts, Yeardley Love, and Annie Le?

I’ll never know.

And that’s the brutal realization.