# 450 - Nephew Murdered

I knew post # 450 was coming up and I was hoping to have exciting news about the steps we are taking since we moved to the country a little over a month ago.

However, I don't have much joy to report right now because even though we moved from the big city, violence still found a way into our lives because our nephew has been murdered. He'd just moved out of the Houston area as well, into another large city in Texas, but things did not go well for him.

My husband's nephew, who just turned 23 years old this month, was murdered on Father's Day --- June 16th. This is Sgt. Dave's oldest brother's child...his brother's only biological child. The nephew who I read books to when he was a child, until he'd fall asleep. He tried so hard to stay awake to hear the pile of books he'd selected. Every night he'd fall asleep soundly before I could read two books.

I'd play the piano for him --- well, at first I didn't know he was listening, then he would appear from the corner of the room where he'd been standing motionless, listening, and he'd say, "Play it again! Again! Again!" This child LOVED classical music! My heart be still!

But, this past weekend, we woke up to a beautiful day this past Sunday...Father's Day. We had not a clue that our world was about to become a spiral of devastation. That morning, my husband and I spent the day with my mother and father-in-law. We started the morning visiting a local art festival, then we had lunch together and played cards. The four of us spent the day together because it was also my mother-in-law's birthday. She even made us a delicious lunch at their RV which has been parked at the Indian Reservation.

My husband's oldest brother phoned while the four of us were playing cards and said he'd not yet heard from his son that day, which was unusual. It was getting to be later in the day. Since he now lived about four hours outside of Houston, there was no way to run by his apartment and check on him. We had a beautiful day, yet none of us had any idea that he'd been murdered hours earlier by a companion.

At that point, unknown to us, the local Sheriff's Dept. and Medical Examiner was doing their part to identify his body, which would take another 24 hours --- the family would get the call the next day that it was believed that he had been murdered, but identification was taking some time. Torturous time.

Sgt. Dave and his nephew --- happy days.

As my husband said during that time, "I'm holding onto straws that it's not him." However, the news came that it was indeed our nephew. He'd been killed by someone he knew and trusted. Youthful ignorance and folly gave way to a person with violent tendencies who grabbed a nearby knife and stabbed our nephew multiple times.

My husband's nephew tried to run away, but it would be too late. He died about an hour after being taken to the hospital.

And I am angry that someone took his life.

As you can imagine, our family is devastated. We will be putting him to rest this weekend. My daughters are devastated that their cousin has been murdered.

My husband is in deep mourning for his nephew and for his oldest brother.

Stefie and her cousin at a family reunion, years ago.
I always referred to them as "The Twins" because during an
outing, when they were babies, someone asked me if they were twins.
It stuck.

I am so sad for my in-laws as they have never lost a grand-child and we were hoping they never would. They mourn their loss and that of their son's.

Everyone is experiencing their own way of grieving while trying to provide support for each other. Most people understand that the grieving process is as unique as the individual, so there are no right or wrong ways of dealing with it.

Since our nephew was an extremely talented artist, we are so sad to know the art productions from his creative mind and hand have come to a stop.

And I find it incredibly ironic that we four went to an art festival on the morning he was murdered. I somehow find that weirdly comforting.