Sadly, it appears that the Carlie Brucia abduction has reached tragic conclusion with the discovery of her body this morning behind a Sarasota, Florida church.

Everything about the case makes my skin crawl and screams "why did this have to happen?" - an 11-year old girl takes a shortcut behind a car wash, and is literally grabbed off the street by a hardened career criminal...and chillingly, a video camera captured the exact moment Carlie was snatched, but neither the widely-aired tape nor a massive police search could save her in time.

The way Carlie died qualifies as the nuclear blast of parental nightmares.

I can barely imagine the pain they must be in: the suddenness of the events that transpired, and the cold, unimaginable reality of their daughter's murder. Many parents who have lost a child in an abduction/murder wait relentlessly for weeks, months, even years not knowing if their child is dead or alive: Carlie Brucia's parents barely had time to absorb the abduction before they were faced with the news of her fate.

Only, her death wasn't 'fate.'

'Fate' is that boiling stew of chance, opportunity, motivation and a host of external natural (and perhaps supernatural) elements: but her abduction and murder are the purest, darkest, most concentrated form of criminal intent conceivable.

Though misadventure can bypass the sternest locks, many parents will watch this case unfold and hold their children closer and tighter, latching the barn and hiding the key...but the fact is, it isn't our children that need to be locked up.

Have you seen the film Se7en? The killer - John Doe - played by Kevin Spacey, bears a similarly monchromatic name to the suspect in the Brucia murder - Joseph Smith. Both names are almost pseudonymous in their blandness, but in both fiction and reality, what malice can hide inside the everyday.

One moment, one simple decision.

One shortcut.

---