The Candlelight Vigil

By

Bonnie M. Wells

www.starlightinnerprizes.com

Pure Coincidence Book # 18-C

Part Three...The Trial Of A Trooper

The Domestic Violence Task Force

Washington County Ohio formed a "Domestic Violence Task Force" several years before Jenifer McCrady was murdered. In fact it was formed prior to most of the murders that took place in our area.

I had been a founding member of that task force, and had some pretty high hopes for it......at least in the beginning. Then, as everything does in this area, it seemed to turn into nonsense and childish foolishness. I remember that I was the head of the Communications Committee.....for awhile. Then I realized that whenever we had a meeting all the other committee chairperson's turned in a report, but Communications was ignored. Then I went to a meeting and discovered that the communications committee had been "done away with." No one had bothered to inform me.

Well, that irritated me just slightly, but I considered the sources and decided to hang in there for awhile. The next project on the agenda was to adopt a mascot, design a slogan and develop a logo.

I'd always been pretty creative so I dove right into the triple project. By the next meeting I'd outlined several ideas for each proposal. For the mascot I'd taken a picture of my grandson and presented the idea (from the Bible) ..."And A Small Child Shall Lead Them." I thought it was a nice idea since domestic violence almost always hurts the children worse than anyone else. Guess the rest of the committee members didn't care much for my idea. One woman informed me that she had a grandson too. Idiot. I didn't care what child was on the picture. It was the idea in general and the slogan that I was presenting. When that fell through, I presented my "back up" idea. The picture of a German Shepherd Dog .... an animal bred to serve and protect. I figured that would be an excellent mascot" for our group. That one didn't sit well with the elite either. I think the sheriff was afraid it would "intimidate" someone!

My third proposal was a long stemmed red rose, piercing a heart which dripped tear shaped droplets of blood. Underneath was the caption.....Love Doesn't Hurt. Personally, I thought it was brilliant! Nobody shared my opinion.

The Contest

Eventually they decided to hold a contest within (just the Marietta school) system.....the rest of the school kids in the county were excluded, just like it had always been .... and a bunch of third graders were asked to draw pictures and to write something about domestic violence! Third graders. One of the most important issues of the decade and we have third graders leading the parade!

When the drawings were finally in, the one that got the most attention was Bart Simpson, and it made me so damned angry that I don't even recall what the slogan was that went with it! I was absolutely and completely insulted with the idea that we were expected to wear t-shirts, jackets, etc with this degenerate on them! Bart Simpson was one of the worst examples of a decent kid that I'd ever seen in my life. And besides that, he didn't even look human. In my opinion, this taught children to accept the abnormal, the bizarre, the depraved as "normal." Didn't they see this is exactly what got our nation into the mess it's in today? Perhaps they seen it all too well. Didn't matter to me what any of them seen anymore. I said kiss my royal ass, and I walked out for the last time.

I could be one stubborn little bitch when I wanted to be. And when I drew the line, that was it. I didn't walk back across it, and nobody was ever allowed to cross it. Bart Simpson ..... it still pissed me off royally!

They did eventually decide against Bart Simpson and selected a runner up.... the picture of a house being struck by lightening, and the slogan...Do Not Do Violence.

Didn't matter to me. I was finished with them.

2011 Note: It seems I may have been ahead of the times -- again!

Recently FOX NEWS has carried several stories concerning certain people in our nation that seem intent on converting our country to a communist nation. One of the comments that commentators on FOX has objected to the most is one of Obama's people making the statement that once you realize there's a little Bart Simpson in all of us, then it becomes easier to manipulate people!

This character should phone someone in Marietta, Ohio and ask them just how damned easy it is to manipulate me. They might be surprised at the answer.

Still, this idea, coupled with a statement a Marietta lawman once made to a friend of mine -- "He could twist and manipulate things enough to make anyone appear guilty of murder," went a long ways toward telling me exactly what I was dealing with in Marietta, Ohio.

The Marietta Click

The years crept slowly by. One Washington County girl/woman after another was murdered. I wondered where the experts were hiding.

I often wondered why no one ever asked the question....Is Domestic Violence on the increase or the decrease? I could have answered it, but of course that wasn't what was wanted. They didn't want me saying very much of anything because I tended to ask questions that they didn't want people to hear the answers to. My answer would have been..."It's on the increase."

Our cops were working their asses off to catch the criminals, and in far too many cases, by the time they got back to the department, the criminals were already back on the streets. In other cases, the prosecuting attorney refused to prosecute the case because he wasn't guaranteed a win in the court room. It made me sick. My loyalty remained with the cops who were doing everything they could do to stop the nonsense, but they didn't have much better chance than I had. In fact, they didn't have as good a chance as I had. They had to follow orders or they wouldn't draw their next pay check. I didn't need their damned money, and my boss had to prove to me that he was smarter than me or I wouldn't follow his orders!

We didn't hear much about the DV Task Force, and I figured that was because they were still trying to decide what color to make their t-shirts or some other non-important matter while our people were being slaughtered on a regular basis.

Some Count .... Some Don't

By the time Jenifer McCrady was murdered, we'd already lost Lila Sindeldecker, Kimberly Fulton and Sheree Petry. After waiting to see what the outcome of the trials would be .... the task force decided McCrady, Petry and Fulton would be their champions, since all three were killed within their own homes. There was absolutely no doubt that Sindeldecker had been murdered in her own home and by her own husband, but there was never any mention of her name. She was never included in their tear jerking speeches or their heart felt sympathies for family and friends.

I knew Lila. Not well, but when I was a kid I went to her house on occasion with my friend Lois. Lila had been a single mother back in those days, but later she married Cecil Sindeldecker, whom I went to school with. But they didn't live in Marietta, didn't work there, and obviously didn't belong to the same "social click" that others belonged to, so Lila was cast aside in favor of those whose families had more money, more determination, more influence. Didn't matter to me. I remembered Lila .... and I was beginning to think that Little Hocking should consider "seceding from the union!"

To Name Just A Few

Jackie McCrady had already been convicted of murdering his wife, and as another anniversary of his arrest approached, I began hearing rumors of a "candle light vigil" that was to be held in memory of Jenifer McCrady.

Eventually Sheree Petry and Kimberly Fulton's names were added to the list, and I felt that old familiar pang of anger. What about Lisa Burkhammer, Anna Marie Brown, Jill Bohl, Marie Blough, Terri Roach, Patsy Sparks, Ronda Manley......and a dozen others?

What about them? They'd been murdered too. Why didn't anyone remember them? Why didn't anyone care about them? Because they weren't the "cream of the crop." They didn't have important parents or other family members to keep their cases alive.

They didn't have anyone except a few old, hard nosed cops and me. And the cops could only work what they were told to work, and I couldn't attract enough media attention to the cases to even get the girls mentioned. That's okay. I'll just design my own memorial web site and just pass it around all over the world! Talk about "coverage".....I'd get coverage, one way or another!

The Candle Light Vigil

I didn't attend the candle light vigil that was held at the City Park in Parkersburg, West Virginia. And I had a good reason for not attending. Still, I watched it on the tv news that night and complained to my husband as they specifically mentioned Kimberly, Sheree and Jenifer.

It was the anniversary of Jackie McCrady's arrest, and I knew that's why they were holding the event. I wished they had selected another date. I felt it put too much emphasis on Jenifer McCrady. If her husband really wasn't the one who murdered her, then whoever her killer was....he was still out here with the rest of us. We knew for a fact that Kimberly Fulton's killer was still out here because her case remained unsolved.

I waited and watched. If I was right, the killer would play off that vigil, and his next strike would combine one of the dead women mentioned with me......again. For some reason, I was always part of the equation......always on the killers mind. That seemed strange to me, especially since I'd never known Dennis Rydbom or Jackie McCrady. Why would they be thinking of me? Well....if they really were the killers, then perhaps nothing would come of this vigil.

Time would tell.....and then, so would I.

Martin .... Again

The candlelight vigil was spearheaded by the Washington County Domestic Violence Task Force and E.V.E. Incorporated.....a shelter for battered women. It was held by the pond at the City park on the night of October 3rd, 2000.

I didn't know who lived directly across the street from where the vigil was held .... until the next day, that is. In the early morning hours of October 4th, 2000, someone set fire to a permastone house, directly across from where the vigil had been held. The house was owned by a woman named "Martin." She and two guests in her home nearly died that night. The fire was determined to be arson, but as far as I know, no one was ever named as a suspect and no arrests have ever been made in the case.

It spoke volumes to me, but no one else noticed. Especially the family members of the murdered women. None of them ever stopped to consider that my maiden name was Martin. None of them wondered if there could possibly be a connection between McCrady and Martin that was a thorn in someone's side. No one ever considered the fact that my sister dated Jackie McCrady before he and Jenifer met and married. Did it mean anything? Not here. Nothing mattered here. No amount of circumstantial evidence was ever enough to merit an investigation of certain people. And yet, where others were concerned, the smallest piece could be converted to a mountain within days.

Stella

Terry Lee Hook and his wife Diane were friends of mine. I'd known his wife Diane since the second grade of school. The couple lived about a mile from me in Little Hocking and Diane and I spoke almost every day via the telephone. In 1996, Terry had been accused of a crime against an Athens County woman by the name of Hayes.

That accusation against Terry Hook involved October 16th, as that's when he was supposed to have committed the crime. If I was right we were in for some re-runs on "crime dates." I decided to watch October 16th real close. I was not to be disappointed.

A permastone house on "Stella" Street in Parkersburg was set on fire on October 16th. No one was injured in this fire and I was relieved about that. The house was empty at the time of the fire and was owned by some people who lived down around Charleston, West Virginia. Didn't matter to me. I saw exactly what I was waiting and watching for.

My mother's name was "Stella Martin." For a short time, my sister dated Jackie McCrady, who owned a home on "Stella Street" in Parkersburg at the time he and Jenifer Barrett married. Dr. Barrett was "my" veterinarian; "My" friend Terry Hook was accused of a crime on October 16th.

I'd figured it would be connected to me......one way or another.....and it was. Jackie McCrady sat in prison for murdering his wife, and ....

Mr. Coincidence was still out here with me......

More Connections / Same Names / Same Games

'Jack'

'Diane'

'Hayes' mid 'October'

September Story Selections

Symbolic Cases

Bonnie M. Wells

Starlight Inner-Prizes

Posted: 11/07/2002 Updated: 5-27-2003 - 9-03-04 / 11-09-04 / 12-13-05 / 9-06 / 2-13-07 / Sept. 2007 / Jan. 25, 2011 // BMW all rights reserved: Special Note: My friend Diane Hook passed away with cancer on January 20th, 2011. I miss her.