Murder in Austin, Tx

Don DeLillo’s Videotape explains the story of how a young girl videotaped a gruesome crime of the Texas Highway Killer. DeLillo immediately wraps us into the footage of a young man being videotaped on a highway from the car in front of him. The tape is so innocent, so real, and footage is raw and uncut. DeLillo captures our attention and we become obsessed. Without seeing the videotape we can picture everything; we can feel what the little girl feels. In a split second and a jolt, the man’s life comes to an end, which draws us in even more. Readers and viewers become addicted to the footage because of the thrill they receive. As DeLillo states, “…it’s on all the time, they show it a thousand times a day. They show it because it exists, because they

On September 30, 2007, a dear friend of mine was shot and killed on the campus where I attended school. Taylor Bradford was a 21-year-old football player who attended the University of Memphis. His murder not only shocked fellow students but was felt nationwide. It was uncommon that a crime such as this would take place on a college campus; however, the reality of it was mentally and emotionally damaging. Therefore when asked to write about an obstacle that I’ve had to overcome, the impact of his death was my initial thought.

On September 30,2007, a dear friend of mine was shot and killed on the campus where I attended school. Taylor Bradford was a 21 year old football player who attended the University of Memphis,whose murder not only shocked fellow students, but impacted the world nationwide. It was uncommon that a crime such as this would take place on a college campus; however, the reality of it was mentally and emotionally damaging. Therefore when asked to write about an obstacle that I’ve had to overcome, the impact of his death was my initial thought.

No one had been murdered in Falls City for nearly half a decade until New Year’s Eve, 1993. Falls City stood about one hundred miles south of Lincoln and outside of Nebraskan commoners, the area was seldom mentioned or heard of. Moreover, the town’s lifelessness was a precise emulation of its residents, whom never deviated from their habitual routine: sleep, work, drink, smoke. There was not much for anyone in Falls City besides a local bar on the corner of Seward Place and the twenty-four hour liquor store adjacent to Dewey Avenue, but there was enough to make Brandon stay.

The day Wesson passed away was one I will never forget. Wesson had been struggling a lot with his battle, and I knew things were not going good. That day I went to school, hoping everything would be okay. All day Wesson had been on my mind and when I got called to the office in the afternoon, I knew something had happened. My dad explained that my mom had went to Tennessee to help Kristi, because Wesson had passed away. His loss had not only saddened me, but lots

The smell of panic deep within all of us , it was so unexpected, one minute Cheryl, Jackie, and I are fine and next we are all panicking for our lives trying to protect each other from dying , where did our savings go? I was scared and we were all screaming and running, I couldn’t hear a damn thing and the things I seen I would’ve never expected to , kids being shot that were enjoying celebrating their birthday , couples going on a date, us chatting about what we were excited to see next half injured and half of them dead. Me and Cheryl ended up running so fast from the shooter that we lost Jackie so we were crying hysterically looking for her then when we found her she was dead on the ground , I would’ve never have expected to see a best friend of mines dead by 21 , we had so many plans and now here she was on the floor shot and dead, that's when Cheryl grabbed me like a mad person , she told me that we needed to go now but me I couldn’t just leave Jackie dead like that and that was when the shooter took his last shots before feeling in a car , shooting Cheryl in her two legs leaving her handicapped for

We are gathered here today to remind ourselves of a woman who changed our lives forever. Even after death claimed Kaylie Alexis Spencer we still find ways to grow through her actions and decisions. Her death was something that could be seen as tragic or something we can all carry with light thought. She didn't go out with a bang or a cry but with a conclusion and full understanding of life. Natural causes swept her away after solving her 250th cold case.

It was an early September afternoon. The weather was warm with a light breeze of lake air. My mother and I were in a small garage trying to enjoy that last weeks of summer. My mom started to ask me a question about school and how I am doing, but while she was asking she started to slur her sentence she was going to say. The slur made her voice slow, as a snail. She realized what was happening and she stopped, like a bullet hitting a target a meter away.

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was driving to Mount Shasta with my friend, Marley, and her parents for the weekend. It was about a four-and-a-half-hour car ride full of two eight year olds giggling in the back of the car and two parents blasting Disney radio in the front seats. Marley’s mom’s phone rings and she picks it up as we continue to sing our young hearts out to the Jonas Brothers. All of a sudden my friend and I hear her mother shriek with a pain we have never heard before. Her mother cries out, with tears bursting uncontrollably from her eyes. Marley and I go silent and wide-eyed with shivers down our spines. We had never seen a grown up act this way. She hits her husband’s bicep repeatedly rocking back and forth in her passenger seat screaming, “WHY!” Her husband is in the driver’s seat and he is pale. He is repeatedly yelling at his wife “What happened?” getting louder and louder. We are swerving off the highway to pull over and she yells “Dean died!” My friend and I look at each other. We didn’t know a Dean. The father forces his weight on the brake as we enter the shoulder of the highway, we jolt forward as our seatbelts lock. Marley’s mother immediately gets out and crawls into a fetal position on the curb. Her husband gets out of the driver’s seat and walks onto the highway, unfazed by the cars passing him on the freeway. Her parents talk for what felt like hours to us children sitting silently in the back

My world was altered on January 23, 2009. Candace took her own life through a gun. Sorrow pierced my heart like a stray bullet. I wept. At only eleven-years-old, I didn’t quite understand the situation; confusion flooded my thoughts. The situation became confusing for our whole family. Candace disliked guns, and wasn’t even fully aware of how to operate one; this led to many questions. She also constantly took note of the events she would need to complete, therefore our family found it peculiar that no note of goodbyes lay on her bedside table. In addition, she spent the previous night out with her sisters; why didn’t she ask for help? We all knew what prompted her decision: Richard. Steamy tears flowed off the cheeks of everyone while exchanging comforting embraces. Blame spread itself across the hearts of my entire family as we gathered in my great-grandmother’s living room. I wish we had helped sooner. Sadly, our time to guide her expired, and we were left broken.

I experienced a devastating moment on December 21, 2013. Alex and I were childhood friends who grew up playing basketball and we were always writing poetry down. But it was a difficult environment where we lived because there always a fight going down, illegal substances, and even worse someone dying. Alex died from severe gunshot wounds. After I heard the news about him, I cried like a pouring waterfall. My tears dropped down to the ground and then the dirt turned soggy. Alex’s death was one of the most devastating times in my entire life.

Stop and imagine this, your best friend, one of your family members, your cousin could end their life without you knowing about it. April 2015, I had a shock of the life time. It was the time everyone in my family came together as one. You always think it can’t happen to you when it does. Till this day I think of this moment, when my cousin attempted to commit suicide.

It was February 4, 2015 when the world around our community flipped upside down for a few days. A time that was so surreal for the families and friends for Breanna Nicole Rodriguez. To some, she is the light; she is the image of love for everyone in her life. Others see her as the young girl who had her life taken from her at an early age. And others still see her as the young girl that was always the life of the party; with a couple of beers in her hand and no care in the world. I had the chance to know Breanna for more than half of my life and I see her from every aspect. She was and still is the light to many lives; the crazy party girl who had her life taken away so quick and easy. Despite the negative impact her death had on many lives,

I’m lost back in thought; I remembered the beach trip back in Florida at Coco Beach with: my immediate family, including three of my cousins, my aunt and uncle, and my grandparents. From what I gathered in memory, it was a day of sunshine, memory and swallowing a bunch of salt water. During the time I had been reminiscing, there’s a sudden yell that sounded foreign. It knew who it’d been, but the tone of the screech is what made it difficult to comprehend the voice. It had been my grandma, Patricia Watson. I get up from the couch, quickly faltering my undivided attention towards the noise. She was on her knees, in tears, as a couple of her sisters helped my grandmother up from the ground. That’s when I knew that he was gone. I couldn’t fully understand it, though I knew it was going to

Everything stood still in the kingdom, and peace was easy to find. Safrax was a magical place and everyone had a purpose within the city walls. The castle had about one hundred and fifty personnel and the city consisted of about eight thousand people. The city streets were always packed and the markets full of food. You could probably say though, that a good portion of the men didn’t eat anything because their bellies were always full of mead. This is what the kingdom was known for, their strong noble men and the wonderful mead that washes worries away. It did just that until today. The day that a maid was murdered.