R.I.P. Kelsey

Kelsey,

I did not know you, and neither did most people outside of Overland Park, Kansas. However, your friends and family loved you. Over the last 100 years, many others in this country have been abducted, raped, and/or killed, and some received media coverage, and some didn't. Your abduction got massive coverage, which doesn't make your death any less tragic or mean that you earned or didn't earn attention. You were a human being who needed our concern and prayers, our skills and manpower, our love and empathy. But it reminds us that all should get the same attention, black or Asian or Hispanic or white, educated or drop-out, beautiful or plain or disfigured or handicapped, male or female, preteen or teenager or adult, married or single, runaway or church-goer. Children, friends, family, neighbors...in fact, all of us in this country need to be safe. Period.

We're all thinking of and praying for you, your family and friends, and even total strangers who put their all into finding you. Kelsey, you are not forgotten, even by this total stranger. Rest in Peace, Kelsey, and know that your family, friends, volunteers, neighbors, and law enforcement agents put their all into making sure that you were found and properly laid to rest, that your attacker will never have another chance to hurt someone else, and that we're one step closer to making sure that sadists and perverts and abusers and killers like him disappear. We'll miss your contributions to this world (which I have no doubt would have been tremendous!), but you unintentionally captured a freak of nature who enjoyed harming other beings.

Thank you, Kelsey, for being you; from what I've seen and heard, you were a strong and vibrant young lady on her way to wisdom and success and contribution to humanity.

I, and the rest of our great country, are sorry for not getting to know you.

Sweet dreams, Kelsey,

Sunny