Two Murders: Too Bad

Three hundred thousand poor souls die in an earthquake in Haiti and it's difficult for me to put my finger on the 'grief' button. I mean, that's just way too many people to comprehend. However, there were two murder stories in Columbus, Ohio, yesterday that have given me a twenty-four hour "reflection" period. This City, the capital of Ohio, has a fairly low yearly murder rate. It's usually around one hundred. For a metropolitan area of 1.5 million this isn't too bad. Most of these crimes are black on black or for drug money or both. Domestics would fall in there, too.
In the summer of 2009 a number of female body parts, arms and legs, were discovered in a pond on Columbus' west side. Today, a man, Robert Knight, plead guilty to the crime. Somebody got wise and searched Knights' home and discovered a womans' head in his kitchen freezer. According to our City Prosecutor Knight could receive from fifteen years to life for the crime. Fifteen years! What is it about a Jeffrey Dahmer(another Ohioan) style murder that can net a guy a measley fifteen years? As a side note, news people stated that the couple, live-ins, did not get along sometimes. Ya think? Guess what? I have to believe Mr. Knight had given the lady one or two relationship clues that he might have been, how does one write it, oh yeah: Wacko.
Not to be outdone in the "sad" department was this nugget and I got it from one of our news TV channels. Two nights ago a woman of twenty-nine years, Tina Banks, was murdered. Three of our citizens were interviewed about the lady. I now know she was a kind and caring person. I also know she would never harm a soul even though she had had some struggles in life. Here's the rest of the story. The woman was a mother of six children, the oldest of whom was fourteen. Did I mention she was the victim of a random shooting in an after hours bar at one-thirty in the morning? The assailant was a nineteen-year old who had earlier been booted for causing trouble? This is how the story should read: "An irresponsible twenty-nine year old mother of six children; ages 14, 12, 9, 7, 4, and 2, was shot and killed as she was out for a night on the town. The murder took place at one-thirty AM when she should have been home with her children. No mention was made of a father(s).
Lord knows I don't want this young mother to be dead and it isn't right that a women was carved up by her boyfriend. I feel badly for the six children and I feel terrible for those who cared about both women and are in a period of intense grief. Irresponsible and thoughtless actions lead to some terrible consequences. In these cases, two very deadly consequences.