More details in the New Year’s Eve murder on 15th Ave have been released and the Slog is churning with speculation about the suspect’s description:
Witnesses estimate that the man was white, about 6-feet tall and in his 40s, Jamieson said. At the time of the attack the man was wearing baggy pants, a blue parka or athletic-style jacket and a dark knit hat. He may also have been wearing a yellow hooded sweatshirt.
Jamieson said the man had a 3- to 4-inch-long beard and that witnesses described him as “described as scruffy or transientlike, but ‘not too dirty.'”
A Slogger thinks the description sounds like a character they’ve seen around the neighborhood. Can’t say anybody we’ve encountered around the ‘hood immediately comes to mind. Makes you wish you paid a different kind of attention to the streets around you, though, no? Easy to walk by lots of humans every day and not give them a notice.
Including the description above in hopes that somebody else might have been paying attention. More than likely, there won’t be any breakthroughs thanks to this blog. Instead, reading the description is an opportunity to obsess about a scary incident and stay involved with something that concerns us.
Knowing more about the victim also helps us stay connected. The folks at Capitol Hill Triangle caught a TV news report with the victim’s name — Shannon Harps, reportedly — and have posted this picture of the woman they found on flickr. Next will come Facebook or MySpace profiles, surely. It helps to see her and wonder whether you’d ever passed her on the way to Victrola.
I’m am really saddened about these events, I live about a block from where this happened, I can see 16th and howell from my bedroom window, it’s so scary that something happened this close to home.
Well, I work at one of the group homes (for mentally ill) in the area, and the police have been around twice now in the last 24 hours, asking about residents and whatnot. They seem to really think it was random, which makes it all the more scary. I beleive one officer said that he followed her around for awhile before the stabbing, I am not exactly sure how they know this; but it does leave me feeling a little in the dark, which I do not like, since I have to worry about this directly.
a sad beginning
take my time, and take a breath
and let it sink in
This crime is eerily similar to the Capitol Hill slayings of a couple of years ago: out of the blue killings of innocent young people. The Slog speculations suggest a deranged stalker, similar to the Capitol Hill murderer (I am unwilling to use his name and perpetuate the notoriety that he craved).
So, let’s not look for deep lessons here. We should press for better and more easily accessed mental health services for all.
And we should all live life to the fullest and remember the short but exemplary life of one we never knew.
Kind of hard to talk to you way up there on your high horse, Andrew. I’ll shout!
First, you’re fighting an uphill battle re: the “capitol hill slayings.” As this murder is evidence of, soon, saying “capitol hill slayings” will elicit the logical “which one?” Sadly, even calling it “the Capitol Hill massacre” might not be specific enough someday. The Kyle Huff murders, they were.
Second, don’t know what your definition of deep is but why not look for a lesson or three? No, not advocating freaking out here. But the idea we should look away in reverence seems to skip a few steps.
Third, we’re with you on the fullest part.