I'm not going to pretend that I wasn't happy to hear that the guy was dead. If that makes me a bad person, I guess that seems a little unfair to me. But I will say this. The perpetrators of the crime in this case clearly did not choose their paths in life. The Mayes family was constantly on the move. Perhaps on the run even. We don't know for sure what was going on. But we have read that Johnny Mayes had mental health problems. Clearly, Adam Mayes had mental health problems. Mary Mayes, it is believed, was subjected to abuse. Teresa Mayes was subjected to abuse.
I believe some victims of abuse develop mental illness when they are constantly subjected to the abuse and never have the opportunity to receive treatment. There certainly must have been something amiss with Adam Mayes if he demanded peanut butter and mayo crackers, etc. Obviously, he had problems and he obviously never received the help he needed. This is why I am so troubled when schools just try to avoid the elephant in the room with some of the students. In my daughter's kindergarten class, there are a few kids who show clear signs of abuse and neglect. Yet the school only deals with it by putting up with the kid and meeting with the parents. Someone needs social services to get involved. Then again, some of the states have terrible track records with social services.
What I'm saying is that we can be part of the solution and speak up when we think a person needs help. If someone had spoken up about Adam Mayes three years ago, perhaps two ladies would still be alive right now, and perhaps Mayes would be one of the guys searching for the bad guy instead of being the bad guy himself.
