The Dead Girl Part II

This post is the follow up to The Dead Girl. I am the kind of blogger who cant plan posts. I wrote The Dead Girl Part II the same day I wrote Part I. I was afraid I'd lose the 'urge'. Does that make sense? Anyhow, it felt wrong to not publish it after I was immediately done writing it.

The rest of the story I can only remember bits and pieces of. I didnt feel right about asking my dad about the details he remembered, not sure why, I guess because we never talk about the dead girl. Most of what I remember after finding the dead girl came from being present at the murder trial. I was allowed into the court room when I was no longer needed as a witness to testify. My Uncle Frank was the only one called to the stand to tell our story, even tho the rest of us were all subpoenaed to the trial. It was my first time ever being inside a court room and to a real trial of any sort. I was distracted with all of the people present and the procedures, the jury, as well as the killer.

Here is what my 10 yo mind remembers from way back in 1978-79:

The Dead Girl had a name, her name was Victoria Lynn(Iam not 100% sure of her lastname's spelling but it was something like this: Wickersham). She was from the lower part of Michigan. When I try to recall the city she hailed from, Rose City stands out, altho I am not certain this was her hometown. The day she disappeared, she was riding with her brother in his car, they had a fight, Victoria Lynn insisted he pull over, she jumped out of his vehicle and refused to get back inside.

17 yo Victoria Lynn hitched a ride from a small time, loser criminal Raymond (Iam not sure of the lastname's spelling but it went similar to:Sloane). Raymond drove Victoria far North to my part of Michigan. His parents owned a summer cottage near the area where we found Victoria's body. Raymond and Victoria went to the summer house, smoked weed, had consensual sex. Somewhere in their meeting, they got into a fight. I think it was over money for either the drugs or something to do with sex or both. Raymond blugeoned Victoria in the face with the claw of a hammer until she was not only dead, but beyond resembling a human being. Then he wrapped her dead body in the sofa slip-cover that she was murdered on, loaded her into the trunk of his car, drove a few miles from his parent's summer cottage, and dumped her in the woods. She had only been laying in the woods about 5-7 days before we found her. Then Raymond went back to the summer house, cleaned up best he could and then drove back down state to his home. Luckily for the prosecution, Raymond was a bad housekeeper....he left blood spatter, the murder weapon, and hairs belonging to Victoria Lynn behind to incriminate him.

Raymond was already under Law Enforcement's radar for stealing, something about riding lawn mowers and snow-blowers. Raymond was very paranoid and his friends picked up on it immediately. He also had blood inside his car's trunk he was unable to get cleaned up . One of his friends became suspicious after noticing Raymond became obsessedwith watching the news and asking others about the dead girl, and what was reported in the news. When the suspicious friend asked Raymond about the blood in the trunk, Raymond told him it was from a deer he had poached. The friend didnt buy his story. I can vividly remember the friend testifying about the trunk and the blood inside it. I can also remember he stated he asked Raymond if he had hurt that girl, where Raymond answered him "no way."

Raymond's parents also became suspicious. They drove North to their summer cottage and discovered all was not well. The sofa was missing the slip-cover and the house itself showed signs of no good. Raymond's parents notified police with their suspicions. The police contacted Raymond's friends and questioned them. The murder weapon was found, the victims blood in the car's trunk, and Raymond was arrested.

Victoria Lynn's family was seated 2 rows in front of us during the trial. Her brother sobbed openly thru out the trial. I was amazed at the resemblence between Victoria Lynn and her brother. I always wondered if they were twins. I do not remember if it was a fact or not, but I am almost certain that they were very close in age. They both had long, silky, dark blonde hair and narrow faces. Victoria Lynn's parents were sitting in silence. Her mother was a regal, coiffed looking lady, she dabbed her eyes with a hanky. Victoria's silver-haired, father sat like a statue staring stonily ahead.

The killer, Raymond, had enough balls to actually plead not guilty. He did not resemble the scary, crazed killer my young mind had conjured up-he wasnt even scary, he was just dirty looking. He was wearing a blue striped shirt and corduroy dress pants. He was dirty and greasy looking. He had long, sparse, stringy, black hair, beady eyes, and a thin build. He had some teeth missing, I am sure of that. My mother was a big teeth freak and as a kid, I was reminded daily of how my pearly whites would look if I neglected their hygiene. Yes, really-murder trial or not. Mouth care was never far from my mother's mind, bless her.

A few days after the last day we attended the trial, State Police Trooper and friend of the family, Ken came over and told us about the guilty verdict. To this day I am still not sure of exactly what the killer was convicted of. Which degree of murder or what kind of murder charge it was. I do know for a fact he was paroled the year I graduated from high school, 1987. I read it in the local paper close to the time I was getting ready to graduate.

That would mean, Victoria Lynn's murderer spent less than a decade in prison for killing her viciously and dumping her body in the woods like garbage......

I do not see any justice in that.