Our Loss of Innocence

There's something that is in my past that I only think of from time to time. Well, now, anyway. It was a horrible thing that happened in my little, happy, safe area.

For a long while, the only time it ever crossed my mind was back in the day when I would head to Narrows, the town where my dear Mamaw (died 1991) lived. Because it was "on the way."

But this past week, when I did Paw Duty and ended up at his house after unloading groceries, yes, coming right into Granny and Paw's to read the day's paper as I always do (and I mean, it's B'field, that usually takes 5 minutes), it was all brought back to me.

Because Paw Duty was on Sunday this week, and the Memorial Day Weekend version of the Telegraph (or the "Tell-a-Lie," as it's lovingly called around here) did a major story on the event.

It was 1978. I was a senior in high school.

And the headlines of the Memorial Day Weekend that year screamed, "Two Local Youths Murdered."

There were two B'field young folks. They'd met for a Sunday night date and headed down Rt 61, which is known to us all as Wolf Creek.

It's a beautiful drive. A winding road along that very Wolf Creek, with points on the road where one can pull off and experience a lovely place, full of nature. Small beaches, that creek, and endless greenery.

Which is what these two young lovers did.

However. Another young boy and his girlfriend, who were simply driving home from their own date, drove by a fire on Rt 61.

They thought it was simply a case of kids setting a fire in the trash bins on the picnic areas of Rt 61. But they decided to investigate. And what they found.

The fire was not a trash bin, but a pickup. The boy of the couple investigated, and found that the truck on fire also held a man in its bed, burned, with a bullet in his head.

They went to a local residence to call police. Who came with the fire department, and while whey were trying to put out the fire of the truck by getting buckets of water from the nearby creek - they discovered in the creek - a girl draped over a log with her face in the creek.

Our local happy loving couple.

I can tell you, because it was what I knew at that time. The girl was a former cheerleader for a local high school, big in civil studies, was a new enrolee at Marshall University. The boy was loved by all who knew him, was a page in the House of Representatives in our own Congress, and was also a Marshall University student.

I can actually remember the girl of the couple being a cheerleader for our rival (B'field, WV) school. I saw her cheer at basketball games.

They were our best and brightest. And now they were murdered, with no clues as to why.

And so they were gone. And the investigations began.

There were two or three persons they honed in on, now all dead, of course, but there was never a person they were sure of. No indictments ever came.

As it stands now, the murder is considered a "cold case."

All I can say at this point is that their sad murders were a total loss of innocence in our lives here.

Before this happened, no doors were locked. House or car. No one ever thought anyone might break into a house, to steal, vandalize, harm. No one thought their persons might be at risk for people wanting to kill. That ended overnight.

Then we all became wary of anyone on the streets who might approach us. No hitchhikers were picked up. No strangers were welcomed into homes. No more taking off with friends without a care in the world.

We became like the rest of the Big, Bad World.

Sad, but understandable.

The saddest addendum, though, is that no one has ever been indicted for the crime. No closure. I can only hope some reality TV factory could pick it up and at least give us a lead.

It would be nice if life's mysteries got wrapped up and solved and little bows tied around them.

It was the end of my innocence, and a lot of other folks in this town.