You Think Things Like This Only Happen "Somewhere Else"

[hekawi]

....till it happens in your own neighborhood. these people lived on the same street as me, 6 houses away from ours. we didn't know them, but we are good friends with their next door neighbors (5 houses away).

here is the news report from the local newspaper's website today:

A Travelers Rest man killed his wife Monday night, took their 4-year-old son to daycare the next day and then returned home and killed himself in a murder-suicide, authorities said today.

The son wasn’t harmed.

Greenville County Deputy Coroner Kent Dill identified the victims as Dale Patrick Wetzelberger, 47, and his wife, Michele Marie Wetzelberger, 41.

Michele Wetzelberger was a group exercise instructor at the George I. Theisen YMCA in Travelers Rest, according to a statement released by Zach Hall, the Y’s executive director.

“Yesterday, we were shocked to learn of the death of Michele Wetzelberger,” the statement said. “Michele was a valued Y employee and a caring person. Our prayers go out to her family and friends. We will remember Michele fondly as she meant so much to so many. We will miss her very much.”

Y officials had no other comment.

Police discovered the couple’s bodies Tuesday after their 4-year-old son wasn’t picked up from a day-care facility at the Y, Dill said. Autopsies were conducted earlier today.

Dill said investigators believe Michele Wetzelberger was shot three times between supper-time and bedtime Monday. The next morning, Dale Wetzelberger took their son to the Y, where his wife was scheduled to teach a class, Dill said.

When she didn’t show up and no one came to pick up their son about lunchtime, the day-care staff became concerned and called police, Dill said.

Travelers Rest Police Capt. John Gardner said the bodies were found in the Northcliff Way home about 1:30 p.m.

He said the child was in the custody of the state Department of Social Services.



very disturbing. how messed up must someone be can be to carry out such an act? when it says "the son was not harmed"...maybe not physically, but
imagine growing up knowing that your dad did that.

[Bones]

I wish people would learn how to kill themselves first without killing anyone else.

[Brad Pittiful]

i wonder what bob costas has to say about this

[stankepanck]

I like how it says victimS I only see 1 victim and 1 nutcase. Not counting the child who would also be a victim.

[emu!]

:(

[boris bubbanov]

That's terrible.

Travelers Rest is such a little place, a place where stuff like this doesn't happen. Folks there are gonna have one heck of a hard time coping with this.

When will this little kid understand fully what has happened? I almost don't want to know.

[getbent]

The distance between order and calm and complete and utter chaos is not very great.

I see people all day long in traffic, at the store, walking the street, at work (even here) and I am acutely aware that many people are just a few small disasters away from complete chaos where very bad things can happen.

In our town, the daughter in law of some very close family friends was murdered by a long time friend of hers. He had gotten involved with drugs and while they'd all been friends since high school, he was too close to the edge of chaos and drifted over and beat her to death. It wasn't an affair or a drug deal... It was someone just losing control after containing the 'silent desperation' that so many walk around with.

My good friend (and our lead singer/fiddle player) had a son this time last year. He was 22 in community college, working at his feed store, a nice kid, affable, kind, completely loved in his little town. He was a little wild, a little drinking, a little pot, nothing worse than his old man back in his youth. In 2 months, he tried meth, got in with some people who were living chaotic lives and he was murdered by them in a haze....

Over the years, I've seen neighbors that I was acquainted with exhibit signs of going over that edge into chaos and then bringing it back from the brink.... we all try to live with the illusion that we live in nice neighborhoods and that our friends and neighbors are 'solid'... and they are... until the ingredients for chaos get together and if the timing is right...

you have what you are experiencing... What possessed the guy? boy, who knows... one thing I know about a lot of people who I have known who went through this kind of stuff... if, for some reason, they hadn't done it... they probably never would have... what I mean is... the moment was just 'right' for all those things to happen...

if the phone had rung or a neighbor had come over or....


one thing is for sure.... people need people. people need community and they need connections and attention... they need support and love and they need people to care for them... when you notice someone isolating themselves... show concern. bug them. pay attention to them... the more isolated people get, the more likely a series of really bad thoughts have to fester, grow and result in a regrettable conclusion.

I'd bet the man who did that.... is like a lot of people except he went over that edge and into the abyss and he is probably as flummoxed as we are as to why... but the why is there....

[Joe Baggadonitz]

That is horrible. I feel so bad for the child. Some people are so ****ed up!

[Frodebro]

A seventeen-year-old girl was murdered by her 19YO ex-boyfriend about three blocks from my house back in May. He then set the house on fire to try to cover up the crime and fled cross-country (he was caught in Oklahoma).

The damage from the fire was minor, but her parents have been so devastated by the loss of their daughter that they eventually tore the entire house down. The demolition is about done now, and they are going to be rebuilding a new home that doesn't haunt them.

The ex-boyfriend is still in the court system, and I hope that at the end of it all he is sentenced to a long and miserable existence in prison. The death penalty would be too easy an out for the little punk.

[Jamie Black]

That is a tragedy and I feel sorry for that poor child. I think these things have a way of touching everyone at some point in their lives. When I was a senior in high school I gave a junior in one of my classes a ride home from school. He killed his little sister a day later. It was over something stupid like she was going to tell the parents about his gambling troubles.

[Ringo]

Most folks don't know all their neighbors these days, even if you do , stuff happens.

There was a shoot out last year on the same cove where one of my best friends lives, fortunately no one was killed, turned out to be the guy renting the place was dealing drugs and some guys busted in hoping to rip him off, he opened up on them with an automatic rifle.
The guy got arrested, and he and his family were evicted, so it's peaceful again, but you never know what can happen.

[TeleKato]

Originally Posted by getbent

The distance between order and calm and complete and utter chaos is not very great.
....
I'd bet the man who did that.... is like a lot of people except he went over that edge and into the abyss and he is probably as flummoxed as we are as to why... but the why is there....

Although many will deny it, one has to wonder if any of us are just a wake-up away from some kind of 'why' that pushes us over the edge and into the abyss. How it may truly be easily the case that one is 'fine' one moment and then the next ... not fine.

I think it best not to think on that too much.

[elihu]

Originally Posted by getbent

one thing is for sure.... people need people. people need community and they need connections and attention... they need support and love and they need people to care for them... when you notice someone isolating themselves... show concern. bug them. pay attention to them... the more isolated people get, the more likely a series of really bad thoughts have to fester, grow and result in a regrettable conclusion.

I think this is the wisest thing i've ever read by you Randy...it's the solution for sure. One thing i've noticed in these situations is the way people on the periphery distance themselves from the people involved in the tragedy, like they'd never do that or never let it happen to them or whatever....but i'm of the opinion that we all contain the potential for the worst evil (or the greatest good) that any of us have ever heard of.