Sometime last Wednesday, between 8:30-10:00pm, Joshua Lall walked down to his basement and surprised his friend and tenant Amber Bowerman with a knife. Shortly after, Joshua walked back upstairs and entered his bedroom where he cornered his wife Alison and two little girls Kristen and Rochelle before doing the unthinkable once again. Having killed 4 people in less than an hour, Joshua walked down the hall to his one year old Anna lying in her crib. A few minutes later Joshua lay dead. Anna, meanwhile, remained in her crib. Screaming, presumably.
If this sounds like a scene from a horror movie, let me assure you its much worse. For the past 5 days Calgarians have woken up to the Lall family. The first few nights I slept ok, but as the story continued to unfold I slept less and less. It's one thing if you're dealing with a psychopath, a maniac, a sick bastard. But Joshua wasn't any of these. He was a loyal husband, loving father, involved community member, and dedicated employee.
This case has messed with my mind, my sense of what's black white. The grey is slowly making me crazy. How could a loyal, loving, involved and dedicated human being do something so inhumane? Sources say in the weeks leading up, Joshua had been hearing voices . These same sources point to a phone call he had made to his parents only 2 days before, expressing his distress. His parents were concerned enough to board a plane and fly to Calgary, arriving only hours too late. Others say he was overwhelmed by work feeling incredible pressure to maintain his perfectionistic lifestyle. Still others are saying "psychotic episodes of this kind rarely materialize this quickly and so warning signs had to have been missed."
Every day a new theory, email, source seems to emerge as people, press and parents try desperately to find the rational in the irrational, the sense in the nonsense. God knows I have.
In the end though, no matter what is uncovered, discovered, recovered or just covered, nobody will ever know what possessed 34 yr old Joshua Lall to do what he did. His crime will forever lie shrouded in mystery known only to the killer and his maker.
Does this make me feel better? Hell no. What could?
John
Monday, June 02, 2008
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2 comments:
Nothing - this is going to be one of those things that haunts me forever. My brain can't process it and all I can do is try to push the thoughts out and try to forget. And we all know that will never happen.
The Bible says that God called his creation good. I heard someone say that that statement is true. The world is good. It's people are good. The order of things is good. The wonder and beauty of all creation is good. Good, but not perfect.
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