I never imagined that I would ever be a crime reporter. It wasn't my goal at all, but in this economy, in this business, you take what you can get.Its a mixture of excitement and misery. I honestly am in love with my job, but I still have have a lot of growing to do. If anything, this place is going to do it, it may even jade me a little.
I currently live in a county with over 19% of the population unemployed. The drugs are ridiculous, the murder rate is high, and violence is nothing new to the citizens of Robeson County.
I've only been here for a little over seven weeks. So far I have covered around three murders, four murder trials (one gavel to gavel), and two escaped inmates along with a flurry of other crimes and happenings.
This county has a sickening amount of crime. After talking to the District Attorney of Robeson County, I found out that an alarming rate of 300-800 hearings happen daily at the Lumberton Courthouse alone, between district and superior court cases.
I sit back, everyday, after going through stacks of police reports and doing my usual rounds, and wonder why people do what they do.
Its desperation. Complete and utter desperation.
People steal and kill to live. They do it to get money to either feed their stomachs or feed their addictions.
And some of it is pure hate.
My first gavel to gavel murder trial was actually a retrial after the Superior Court found the last trial to be insufficiant when the transcript was filled with blank spaces. Thanks to some previously sloppy work, the family and friends of Betty Oxendine had to relive her death. From the testimonies, the girl was killed in 1998 while working the nightshift at Hardees when Travis Walters walked in, demanded money, then shot her and fled. He was upset with an ex-girlfriend and was "going to take it out on someone."
I suppose the worst part of the whole trial was watching the mother and father see the photograph of their dead daughter in a crumpled heap on a tile floor, with blood surrounding her head. Her mother buried her head in the father's shoulder. The father gripped a necklace that held a picture of his slained child.
I was nervous to even talk to them, but they were very nice and warm. They offered me their feelings of the retrial with ease and composure, even with a lot of strength.
I tried speaking to Walters' mother. Her family had been through just as much. She turned her own son in to the police because she had to do the right thing. His sister testified against him. They were suffering just as much. In essence, they too have lost a child. She didn't want to comment. I wish she did, she deserved to be heard, too.
The trial ended the way it should have, with Walters going to prison for life without parole for 1st-degree murder.
Two escapes connected to Sheriff's Office have also occurred in the last three weeks. An escape from the actual jail hasn't happened since it opened in the early 90's. One was a man charged with attempted murder and rape, another was accused of 2nd degree burglary.
One escaped after assaulting a jailer and running out of a randomly unlocked fire escape door. I'm still waiting for the investigation to be concluded. I'm wanting answers, not as much as my readers, but I'm curious of what happened.
Another, whom I call the Houdini of Inmates, was able to remove his feet shackles while being transported to a court facility for a hearing. He disappeared in the woods, hopping five-feet fences, and surviving by the very skill he was charged with, burglarizing the area to survive while on the run.
I feel like I'm in a movie. I know this isn't the worst place in the world, not even close. There are a lot of decent people here, but for a civilized society in the United States, it seems a little barbaric.
And I went from reporting on candlemakers, ambitious Americans, and man caves to the larceny of property, comfort, and life.
A man, who has lived in this county his entire life, once told me while sitting in the Sheriff's Office that this used to be God's country.
He looked at me and asked, "What happened to my home?"
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