When I was in college, a girl used to hand out with my group of friends. Nobody considered her a friend, she just hung out with us. One Monday morning, we learned that over the weekend she had been brutally murdered. Don’t know whether the murderer was ever caught.
Someone I went to high school with–lived on my block, even–was murdered by a obsessive boyfriend right out of high school. Tried to break it off and was strangled by the boyfriend in a jealous rage.
The first reports were that cause of death was fire, caused by smoking in bed, but the killer tried to cover his tracks by lighting the house on fire.
I once started a thread here that asked if anyone really commits suicide due to a broken heart (since so many people threaten it), so I guess this one qualifies. That said, I didn’t ask how many involved a murder beforehand (which may have been the bigger factor in the suicide).
I am somewhat surprised us dopers are so murder-adjacent. (I’m gonna trademark that word!)
Two of my high school classmates (one of whom was also a fairly close friend) later committed suicide, which is, I suppose, a form of murder.
But, I’ve never personally known another murder victim, or murderer. (As close as I can get is through my sister, who briefly worked with Jeffrey Dahmer.)
Yes, and I recounted it here more-or-less in real time. That thread led to the well-deserved banning of a long-time poster and my utter disdain for another long-term poster that unfortunately still participates on the boards. It’s also the reason I will not participate in any discussion about guns, gun rights, or especially school shootings.
I just remembered a multiple murder at a law school in southwestern Virginia. One of the victims was a student who had gone to a college where I worked when she was an undergraduate. I didn’t know her well, but I was the reference librarian and did interact with her.
One of each.
One of our neighbors (and friends) was killed by her estranged husband, while she was with a police officer who was supposed to be protecting her after said husband made a specific, immediate threat to kill her. Literally stabbed over a dozen times while the office was in the same room. The officer said (to the victims children and stepchildren) something to the tune of “he wasn’t going to get involved in disputes between a man and wife”
An employee of mine, a seemingly very normal middle class family man, went off the rails after his wife left him and started drinking heavily. He killed a couple of teenagers in a horrific car accident when drunk and high out of his mind. Based on the police reports, he had no idea what he had done at the time. Was convicted of second degree murder. This was a couple years after I lost contact with him and about five years after his divorce.
I was also once assigned to a store as an assistant manager, after my predecessor had been shot and killed in an armed robbery or burglary gone wrong. They didn’t tell me this was the reason the position was vacant. I found out after I started in my new store.
I used to play a lot of break room Foosball with a former co-worker at a startup many years ago. He was known to have some anger issues, but was generally regarded as a big lovable guy. About a year after there were some layoffs, he shot his wife and then himself. No one else was there to know why, but he left a baby daughter behind.
Yes to both for the same incident. So a morbid 2-for-1.
My sister was in a years long relationship with a guy, he ended up murdering the next woman he dated and is serving life without parole.
I knew both. My next door neighbor was murdered by his son. Boy and his drug buddy dragged dad into the basement to demand drug money. Ended with an execution-style shot to the head.
One of my Navy friends got home and found his girlfriend cheating on him with an old High School friend. He killed both of them and then himself.
My Mom’s cousin was NYPD but he was moonlighting delivering for a bakery. This was back in the early 80s. His truck was robbed and he was murdered. I didn’t know him well, but my Mom sure did.
My cousin married an idiot involved with the Mob, he was too stupid to live. That was apparently corrected. I don’t know the details and don’t want to. I barely knew him.
Yes to both. Sadly.
A college friend was murdered by a stranger a few years later. A colleague was murdered by her husband.
Didn’t know, but I am related to a murderer. My maternal grandfather’s father was imprisoned for murder, and committed suicide in lockup. I didn’t find out about this until fairly recently when a cousin did some family tree research.
Oh, and eons ago, a college friend fixed me up with a guy who, it turned out, was out on bail in a murder-for-hire plot. He didn’t go thru with it and he ratted out the guy who hired him, but he still ended up locked up for conspiracy or something.
My sister’s stepdaughter was murdered in a road rage incident in which she was an innocent bystander. Only a few months ago. My sister’s daughter was devastated by the death of her half sister.
A middle school classmate of mine who I knew vaguely was one of the victims of a family annihilation. Sobering stuff.
A coworker at a previous job was killed by her ex over a bitter custody dispute. I remember seeing her at lunch the Friday before. When she was a no call no show for a second day in a row, our employer asked for a welfare check. One of my supervisors was edging on tears when he broke the news to the rest of us,
@Lancia would you care to share the link to what you recounted? Of course I understand if you prefer not to.
As for a murder victim, the 25 year old son of a friend was found dead in an alleyway. Police said it looked like a drug deal gone wrong.
And many years ago, Ray, a longtime family friend, was probably killed by his wife. My parents and I spent Christmas Eve with their family that year. Ray and his brother Jon were both doctors; Ray was working abroad and came home for Xmas with his wife. He seemed very nice and normal but after just a few minutes interacting with her it was clear that the wife was difficult, argumentative and just plain mean.
Months later Ray died abroad, and Jon told us that he was sure that the wife had done it. Ray had spoken to Jon on the phone and told him that he had found out that the wife was cheating on him, he was planning to divorce her, and a few odd things had happened that made him think that she was trying to get rid of him. He was dead a few weeks after that conversation, but it was in a foreign country with a complicated legal system and no way to prove that it was murder.
Not sure if this counts. A family acquaintance was killed in a bar fight.