Thursday, May 20, 2010

The Killers I have known...pt 2

This is St Patrick's Catholic Church
in Nashville TN.
It was my home (along with my husband and 6 kids)
in 1985...
actually we 'lived' on the second floor..
in St Patrick's Shelter...from about 6 pm to 6 am every night.
We stayed there from October 1985 to January 1986...
so...a little over 3 months.
That's another story that I won't go into now...
but
it's necessary to the substance of the story behind
this segment of
'The Killers I have Known'.

Enough time has passed...that I can't remember
exact dates and last names...and trying
to find the information online has only resulted
in going to pages that pop up that annoying damned
'your computer is infected' page that I ran into on my last computers..
so I gave up trying to find the information.

This story is probably the most 'gruesome'...and on a Bible...I swear it
really is true...one day I might be able to actually find a link
to some of the facts in the case...
anyway...like I said...the story actually begins in St Patrick's Shelter.

My husband and I became volunteers for the Shelter
once we'd finally been able to move into a place of our own...
that's how we came to be introduced to
Dave and Kenny.

Dave was staying there with his two little girls..
Kenny was there with his wife and (I think a little boy and little girl)..
I was better acquainted with Dave..and my
oldest daughter watched his girls a couple of times.

They were in the shelter for several months..and we sat and had conversations..
both guys seemed to be very good fellows..
warm, friendly...just down on their luck and trying to get
back on their feet.
We certainly knew where they were coming from there.

About midway through their stay...a gal named Michele came to the shelter
with her son.
This was a manly looking gal who kept to herself..I don't think
we exchanged a dozen words...
she was from Canada...pretty evasive...and didn't really want
to open up like most of the folks at the shelter usually did.

Well...long story short...
Dave and Kenny left the shelter and moved
their families into a duplex
where Michele also resided.
As volunteers, we met with all of them
at one of the storage facilities, so they could select some
furniture for their new homes
and helped haul the furniture.

A couple months later...
a multilated body was found floating in one of the bodies
of water near Nashville.
The hands had been cut off and all the teeth
hammered out.

Turns out it was Michele...who was actually Michael..
the boy actually did belong to him/her...

What happened...?
Michele was collecting the rent
where they all lived and taking it to the landlord...
only she wasn't.
When Dave and Kenny were told they'd have to
pay the rent or move...
there was a fight and Michele was knocked down
on the base of a fireplace.
The killing was an accident...but the attempted
cover up was terribly gruesome.
Kenny's wife witnessed the 'accident'...and just
couldn't keep something like that to herself.
I can't imagine...

I believe Dave got Life...and Kenny got something like
10 to 20 years...
turned out his dad was a VP with an oil company in
Texas...
made me wonder how he and his family ever ended
up homeless in the first place.
But..if memory serves...his lawyer got him off with a pretty
light sentence..considering.

So...though I didn't know them well...and it was a huge
mess..all the way around...
the victim's parents ended up with custody of the
boy
and took him back to Canada...
Kenny's family just kind of 'disappeared'...
and it seems Dave was actually
trying to 'hide' his girls from his ex-wife...
so very sad.

What a waste.






4 comments:

cArLa said...

very sad indeed... :(

The Words Crafter said...

wow...that's so sad and tragic and so unnecessary...I have dozens of questions and my inner "wanna be" psychologist wants out...I wonder about all the children, if they've had a happier ending to those chapters or just continued darkness...it would be interesting to find out...

BlacknickSculpture said...

That is a weird/creepy story! I'm sure it will be profiled sooner or later on one of those crime documentaries.

CMZ Art/ Rustic Goth said...

Since Dave was kind of 'kidnapping' his daughters...I'm pretty sure they ended up with their mom.
Kenny's father was a 'big wig' with an oil company...I'm pretty sure he probably ended up with his kid(s).
I can't imagine how hard it would be though, to be the child of a killer...and know that your dad is in prison..probably for life...wow!
That just boggles my mind!