This true crime story was written by the probation/parole agent who wrote the presentencing report on the two defendants for use by the judge in considering sentencing.
It is a tragic tale, and most people have probably never heard about this kidnapping, rape and murder of a young woman in her early 20s which happened in Maricopa County, Arizona in 1980. Sad to say the media makes a regular print party about many, many other cases (usually the most sensational), but in this case, the victim could have been your sister, best friend, cousin, room mate, etc. Her own family knew something tragic had happened to her because she was extremely punctual and reliable and she never showed up to take her parents to the airport. However, when the parents called several police departments, none of them would even take a missing persons report for at least 24 hours, which would not have made a difference in this particular case. I cringe to think that there are cases where early reporting could make a difference. The other part of this is that I believe we are all equals as human beings and should be treated that way, especially by agencies which have control over a person's life. Too many times, it is only the mass murders, serial killings and other extreme crimes which are even given the briefest of reports.
This was an especially heinous crime for several reasons and the writer did an excellent job of telling the story. I disagree with him, though, that it is okay to rationalize capital punishment by saying we send our young men to war and death is common; not all of them are killed, and war is NOT okay. It has been shown that it is actually less expensive to house a prisoner for the rest of his life than to carry out the death penalty with all its legal requirements, appeals, possible stays of execution and other legal hearings. We as a society simply do not know how to "fix" sociopathic and violent people. Perhaps we should spend less money on war and the space program and more on brain research to find out what causes certain people to do horrible things. It really is a bad joke that so many jails and prisons are called "correctional facilities". If there is any correction, it is because an individual decides to change his or her life, if they are capable of doing so.