Yes.
Far too many.
When I was 14, a pair of serial murderers went on a 3-state killing spree. They murdered the parents of a pair of 5-year old twins while the boys hid in the basement. This was just a few blocks away.
When I was 17, a family friend was killed by her boyfriend. I found out on the evening news.
While I lived in a small college town, the only two murders in the last 30 years both took place within 50 yards of me. One was a lover’s quarrel, the other was an otherwise normal guy flipped out on drugs.
I’ve been a high school teacher for 15 years. I think we’ve had 3 or 4 students murdered in that time.
Such is life in a dying Rust Belt city.
My cousin Mike was shot dead in December 1987, outside a shopping center in suburban Houston, TX. The killers supposedly did it as part of a gang initiation.
One was executed by the state of Texas, in '94 or '95; the other’s doing life.
A supervisor I worked with for several years was beaten to death by her (sometimes) estranged husband. She was such a sweet, silly scatter-brain. More than once she wore different colored shoes to work. It was heart-breaking.
When my husband was a junior in highschool, his girlfriend was kidnapped raped and murdered on her way to school. He puts flowers at her memorial each year.
Yes.
My cousin was killed by a friend of his when the guy he was chilling with pointed a loaded gun he’d found in his house and fired at him, jokingly. After being met with resistance from my cousin on the whole “game”. The guy later tried to ditch the gun but later admitted where it was.
The bullet went into his neck and he was in the hospital for several days, hooked up, before they finally pulled the plug. The last thing he said, while they were lying him down on the thing they use to load you into ambulances, was, “Don’t lay me down, I can’t breathe.”
The guy is still in jail for it.
I recently learned about the murder of Don Belton, who was one of my professors back when I was an undergrad at the University of Michigan. I didn’t actually care for him much personally, but damn, no one deserves to be killed like that.
The victim in this case was a colleague of my wife’s. Weirdly, I got called to sit in the jury pool for this trial over two years later.
Yeah, I meant that I see the kids around town sometimes, not the murderers. All of her attackers got life in prison.
My sons’s soccer coach was killed while riding his bike down the street. The teenage guy who did it was speeding and weaving in and out of traffic as fast as he could. He then left the scene of the accident and was later found to have been drunk.
He wasn’t specifically aiming for him, but driving drunk and killing someone is murder, imho.
Someone I was in the high school band with became a police officer after graduation and shot and killed in the line of duty.
One of my staff when I was a theater manager was an exceptionally sweet girl. You can’t ask for a nicer, more genuine person. After I left the job, I heard that she was killed by her boyfriend. 
I haven’t known anyone who was murdered… but I had a college study-buddy who, some years later, murdered her husband by shooting him twice. Once in the front, once in the back as he tried to run away.
My drum major in my high school band was murdered for insurance money. She was in the group that I ran with in high school. Her husband and his friend are serving life sentences.
Another one of the people in that group of friends was murdered on her way to work while were still in high school. The killer is still awaiting execution.
Another one died while trying do disarm an IED. I know it was in the course of a war, but car bombs, suicide bombs and IEDs arguably fall under the category of murder.
I’ve known three, all friends from the same crowd in high school.
Troy had gone to the big city to hang-out with an ex. I guess the girl was having trouble with her m0ost recent ex and Troy decided that he’d shining-armour the situation by slashing the guy’s tires. The guy caught him, the fought and in the process Troy was stabbed with his own knife. I was 15 and this was the 1st person I’d ever “known” who’d died.
Laura - Killed in the big city by her boyfriend. I hadn’t seen her in a decade or so.
Tina - Killed in a big city a few provinces westward by an ex. He used a phone cord to strangle her. It had been a number of years since I’d seen her too.
Likely I’ve known others who have met their end this way but I tend to lose track of people quickly and easily so I’ve just not heard of them.
I went to high school with Julie Theilman The Age - Google News Archive Search
She was a “mean girl” but I liked her & she once did me a very big favour. I didn’t start watching the 2nd series of Australian show “Underbelly” until after her murder was shown.
The other ones I only knew slightly - murder & attempted suicide. The husband couldn’t stand watching his wife deteriorate mentally from Alzheimers & killed her, but botched his own suicide. He went to prison quite happily as he said he deserved it for committing murder. He had his own code of honour. I believe he is dead now.
Yup…
I knew one of R. Gene Simmons’ killing spree victims from college; she dated a friend. She was the law office receptionist who had previously spurned his advances.
What an appalling case. Even though I live in NZ, I’m surprised I have never heard of it before.
Condolences on the loss of your friend.
Yes, I think I told this story before. Someone I met at dinner, was raped and murder about 6 hours later.
I was playing in a member-guest golf tournament at a upscale country club. There was a dinner party/dance at a nearby hotel on Friday night. I was guest, with my date, sitting with several other players and their dates. One of the wives got sick and went to her hotel room. When her husband got back to the room, he found his wife raped and bludgeoned to death.
My date and me had already gone back to our room, and we were passed out drunk in our room. The police came knocking and my date and I were in no condition to answer any questions. Finally we sobered up and answered questions to the satisfaction of the police.
To my knowledge, this crime is unsolved. This happened over 20 years ago.
Back when I was in high school, two kids that I knew of and had enough friends in common with to say hi to them when we met in public but wasn’t really friends with myself were murdered. I had (and still have) a sick feeling that I knew the people responsible, but there was not enough evidence to make an arrest. The story was even featured on Unsolved Mysteries a couple years later. I called in to the hotline and anonymously gave every piece of knowledge I may have had including names, dates, and places, but still no arrests were ever made that I am aware of.
And I just found out last year that a boy (when I knew him) that I went to school with was murdered a year or so after we graduated. It was an odd story. He had just gotten married and went missing- never to be seen again- then in 2008 or so one of his bones was found and identified by DNA as his. His then-wife (who had divorced him when he was just listed as “missing” claiming abandonment) was arrested and her trial either recently started or will start soon (I forget). It was an odd feeling to learn of his fate. I went to school with him from 7th grade or so onward and we were never really “friends” but it was a tiny, tiny elementary school (up through 8th grade) and a small high school, so there was no getting around knowing him. After my family moved stateside (oh yeah- it was also an overseas school) I rarely thought about him, but knowing now what happened makes me so sad and I wish I had been a lot nicer to him when we were kids.
Then there was a girl who went to school with my step-son who was kidnapped and murdered. She was a year or two ahead of my son, but was popular at school and everyone knew who she was. The suspect was arrested and confessed in a matter of hours after her body was found.
Last year there was another death at the same high school where a girl supposedly committed suicide, but there is some speculation that it might have been murder. She either jumped or was pushed off a highway overpass. I did not know her, but my step-son knew her enough to say hi.
I have not kept in touch with most of the people I grew up with or went to school with- and as a military brat that would involve a lot of people in many places, so there may be more murders of people with whom I was friends, that I am just not aware of.
Wow, sad and interesting replies here. I have not known anyone who was murdered and hope it does not change.