Hello.
I was skimming through the net for cases about the Angie Housman Murder after watching the news and the mention of Jean Benet Ramsey. Once they said that name, Angie's face popped into mind and the year it happened in the community I still live in.
I came across this forum thread and after seeing the comments you had to say, I got one of my own.
I remember the day when they lowered that American flag half way down the pole at Buder Elementary School when the news strangled us all. I was in the third grade if I remember correctly. She was one year older than me, and she rode the same bus I did.
I can still remember(being twenty one now) the crayon and colored pencil fragrance in the school hall ways and the words traveling around the school from student to student, and teacher to teacher about Angie. I only have a second image glimpse of her face in the corner of my peripheral vision while riding the bus as a memory when she was still alive. I do, however, remember the funeral. Being only eight years old I still knew the pain and sorrow her mother must have been going through, and may very well still be going through. I went to the funeral as a matter of respect, and being a part of the
immediate community. I wanted only to see Angie's face for memories sake and to say good bye to a person my age who's chance to live and grow up was brutally ruined by some...well, the insult I'm thinking of is an understatement. A word can not possibly be uttered from my lips strong enough to kill the person who murdered Angie and murder by words is all I believe I can ever do. Her murder was only on the news for a week or so, but that Ramsey case was on for a long time, and is strangely still being talked about on the news today. How come they don't mention Angie anymore. Have they forgotten? I still haven't and never will, especially after seeing the overwhelming sorrow on Angie's mother's face, forget about it. A tear wants to squeeze its way out of my eye just thinking about it, still. That look on her face...so heart breaking. That funeral was like a kristallnaucht from all the hearts breaking, and her mothers heart took the prize for the loudest shatter.
It's a damn shame, that's what it is. A funeral for a child is different. It's an inexplicable shame when we have to see child in a coffin, and think about what she/he went through after knowing what happened.
At least they found her. That's the only thing that calms me down when I think about that time and Angie's mother. A barely knew that family but I have the respect for them. Being eight year's old I still understood it. We were about to leave the funeral and I had forgotten one important thing. I stopped, turned around, and made my way back up to the coffin where Angie lay. Her face was placid and calm and she was at piece. Her arms were crossed over her chest as if she was sleeping. I said one word, with my big innocent brown eyes tearing up. "Bye." Do you think it's weird to have such feelings for somebody you barely know when your that young?
They also have a tree up there at Buder in memory of Angie Housman. I have not been up there in about half of a year. The last time I visited was when I wanted to see one of my teacher's again.
After seeing Angie's picture it then makes my heart bleed when I imagine what she could have grown up to be. A nurse, a model, an actress, a writer, a dancer, a singer, or anything. Anything. That's one good innocent person taken from us in this tainted world. That's one more child to add to the list of hundreds of kidnappings and murders. I'm a twenty one year old man and I'm sitting here right now crying just thinking about it. I barely knew Angie Housman when this happened and have no chance of knowing her now. Perhaps, maybe, I don't have the right to talk about Angie because I didn't know her. I knew of her. But I don't care. It's still one of the biggest shames that has dug itself into my sub conscience over these last thirteen years and I'm compelled to let people know about it, and to hope that her mother knows about this site. Perhaps, she may have gotten over it. In any case, this is for her, even though I don't know her at all. Even though I don't know them, I still love them.
In memory of Angie Housman.
Later...
