Amazing: How a Mother Gets Closure Five Years After Daughter is Raped and Murdered [+video]
By Hailey Winslow. The home where Somer Thompson was killed 5 years ago was burned to the ground Thursday afternoon. Officially, it was done for firefighter training, but it also helped the victim’s mother and her community gain another bit of closure by eliminating a permanent reminder of the tragedy.
Small fires were started and extinguished in the Gano Avenue house all morning while firefighters with the Orange Park, Clay County and NAS Jacksonville fire departments conducted training. About 1:10 p.m., the murdered girl’s mother joined firefighters, setting the house on fire.
“I get to burn their house down,” Diena Thompson said. “I am the big bad wolf this time, knocking down your door.”
A round of cheers went up when smoke started pouring from the windows of the burning house, and again when flames became visible about 10 minutes later . . .
Seven-year-old Somer disappeared in 2009 while walking home from school. The Clay County Sheriff’s Office said she was kidnapped, raped and suffocated inside the home before her body was found in a Georgia landfill days later. (Read more from “A Mother Gets Closure After Burning Murderer’s House Down” HERE)
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Man Pleads Guilty in the Murder of Somer Thompson
By Fox News. A man pleaded guilty in the abduction and slaying of a 7-year-old Florida girl who was found in a landfill.
Jarred Harrell, 26, was sentenced to life in prison. Somer Thompson, a second-grader, disappeared Oct. 19, 2009, while walking home from Grove Park Elementary School. She was with her sister and some friends, but ran ahead of them after they had a spat. Two days later, she was discovered in the landfill.
Dozens of Somer’s family and friends sat in the courtroom for the hearing, wearing shades of purple — the little girl’s favorite color. So many people, including law enforcement, attended the hearing that officials opened an overflow room.
Harrell wasn’t arrested until about three months after Somer’s death. Initially, authorities interviewed convicted sex offenders within a 5-mile radius of Somer’s suburban north Florida home, but didn’t come up with any substantial leads.
On a hunch, they tailed nine garbage trucks from Somer’s neighborhood to the landfill and picked through the trash as each rig spilled its load. They sorted through more than 225 tons of garbage before they spotted her legs sticking out of the garbage. (Read more from this story HERE)
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