Thanksgiving is approaching and I would like to extend my series of posts on this (Part 1, Part 2) with the hope in all of this. The victims sister has asked me to pass on the following to our community of Murrieta and my neighborhood:

I would appreciate a message to be passed on to your neighborhood and community. It would mean the world to myself and our entire family. The message is: Our words cannot express how much we appreciate you all. Your cooperativeness in the investigation, your flowers, stuffed animals, candles, words of encouragement and empathy left us speechless. We had to move to get away from the memory of losing Isabelle there so tragically. Please know that we know things no media, no paper, no network, will ever know so we assure you that you are in a safe neighborhood and the murderer that caused our lives to be hell is not amongst you. Be grateful to have the police department you do. Again, our love and thank you’s to all of you. God bless…….  -M

I sure hope my neighbors will read this. I am going to copy this and hand it to as many as I get to meet the next week or so. Thanks does indeed go out to our police force for doing their job. Even though I am not applauding the TV media in the exploitative nature they portrayed things (no surprised there) I am supportive of our local law enforcement for letting us all know that they are working hard to protect us and enforce law and order.

The other thanks is to God for providing us an amazing home in a great neighborhood. I pray that we enjoy and thrive here and bless this block as I know the memory of Isabelle and her surviving children deserves such. Isabelle’s sister let me know how much she and Isabelle enjoyed espresso in the very kitchen that is now ours. I will remember to pray often for the family as I pour many many cups of coffee in the years to come.

Happy Thanksgiving and God Bless!

Here is PART 1 if you have not read that yet…

ABC’s 20/20 ran the story of the murder that happened in my house. Imagine seeing your house with your kitchen, the front of your house and more juxtaposed with crime scene photos and police video of a bloody murder. It was a bit unnerving and proof that allowing the film crew to “reenact” the scene in our home would have been a terrible choice.

Murrieta police and the District Attorney’s office I am sure enjoy the publicity of their success, but as the newer home owner its a bit gruesome and disappointing see how our community allowed the media to exploit the situation. One of ABC’s camera angles showed a document with our full address on it, for instance. My wife had repeated requests for our home to be filmed.

With the man behind bars with a life sentence my house has a story but not the full story told. This neighborhood is a great neighborhood and our city an incredible place to live. We love the house and will live well in it.

The sad news here is how a family and neighborhood were assaulted and how evil destroys. The house is just a house but my prayer is that our family would redeem this house and bless our neighborhood and city. God has my family living here for a purpose.

Here are some bizarre factoids:

• The killer was a devout Jehovah’s Witness and elder in the church (I am a pastor.)
• The public defenders last name is Kirkpatrick
• The day of the filming, we saw the crew filming in a similar house and the crews awkwardness at our glaring at them
• Our house was shown on national TV and my lawn had a brown spot (At least they could have warned me so I could have painted it green!)
• ABC showed very gruesome pictures of the crime scene…flashing the victim’s body into every single cut to and away from commercials and in the footage as a motif. Seriously! (ABC, you SUCK by the way).
• The circumstantial evidence was so huge, the jury took only 3 hours after a full three week trial but all the evidence was circumstantial. (I guess buying life $1M in life insurance, googling ways to kill and not telling 911 about your dead wife first before talking about the supposed break in swayed the vote.)