A week ago, one of the most disturbing and heartbreaking crime cases happened at a sleepover. It involved three twelve-year-old girls, and had been carefully executed and planned over a period of months. Two of the girls invite their best friend to this party, and she was so excited. Then she found herself being lured into the woods, where the other two girls were ready to carry out their plan. One girl called the shots and the other girl, the compliant one, followed orders. Then, the two young girls proceeded to wield knives and stabbed their best friend, over and over. Driven to please an imaginary character on a website, they were resolved to finish this hideous job. Then they left their best friend for dead; miraculously, she survived and was rescued. Her two friends now face first-degree murder charges and may be charged as adults, though they are not even teenagers.
What Is Going On?
It was a website character that gave these two pre-teen girls the notion to commit their brutal crime that all accounts tell us that they fully premeditated with the intent to murder. It is well documented. What is so disturbing about this case is the young age of the perpetrators, who have not even entered their teens, are girls, and committed this act against their best friend. The controversy surrounding this case is, Should these girls be tried as adults because of the sheer brutality of their crime, even though the victims survived? Another controversy is that, since science tells us that the girls' brains are still developing at age twelve, can they be held accountable for their actions? These two girls are two years younger than my daughter. The other disturbing aspect of this is that the victim and her family had no idea that their two friends were capable of such violence. The victim was reported to have said to her two friends turned attackers: "I trusted you." Sadly, we have entered an era where we have to do due diligence on anyone who wants to enter our lives, whether in our homes, our churches, or businesses. Forever gone are those days where we could just tell a nonprofit or congregation, "I want to help" and be welcome to volunteer, no questions asked. Now interviews are likely to be conducted, background checks done, and references used. Because of eroding trust and honesty along with a spike in and awareness of crime and abuse, we have entered a new age. Gone are the days where we did not have to do our homework on every friend or partner our children want to hang out with. Now, to keep them safe from evil influences and potentially violent peers, we need to get to know their parents and ask questions.
Know Those Who Want To Be With Our Vulnerable
Over these past decades, numerous disturbing cases of sexual abuse, physical abuse, and other crimes by volunteers have come out in the local and national news. Even more frequent and disturbing are reports of cases of abuse, violation, or other crimes by caring professionals or clergy against children, youth and vulnerable adults. These cases pepper the local and national news and on true crime channels like Investigation Discovery. Has all this abuse just gotten much worse or have we just become much more aware of it because of the greater access to information we have because of social media? It is unclear. But now it has reached the point that we have to be screened to do the most basic of tasks that involve contact with vulnerable populations, even handing out snacks or doing laundry services. It is saddening that we have gotten to this point but we have reached the point where we must put protecting the vulnerable above risking running some potentially good volunteers or employees away. A pediatrician was exposed for molesting many very young patients. A well-known singer was accused of incest with his now grown daughter. A popular singer was accused of molesting a young girl. Numerous priests are exposed for sexual abuse of mostly boys. More and more teachers are being exposed for physically abusing their special needs students. Years ago, I was shocked and saddened when the much-admired and heroic Director of a Christian nonprofit was exposed as molesting a ten-year-old girl; when these allegations came out, he killed himself. I can go on and on.
Know Who Wants To Enter Your Life or Your Family
In these past few decades, high-profile cases of horrific crimes by young people have shown us that we need to do due diligence on the peers or partners our children show interest in. Years ago, a book was written about the case of a then fourteen-year-old girl who was seeing a boy who was nineteen. Her parents, opposed to their relationship, threatened to turn him in to the cops for statutory rape if he did not stop seeing her. Furious, he killed both her her mom and dad. There was a case of a fifteen-year-old girl who vanished; her mom suspected that she was with her older boyfriend. Thankfully, many months later, the girl was found safe but she remained brainwashed and traumatized for a long time. Years ago, a case of four "vampire killers" formed a gang and killed one of the member's parents. Her eighteen-year-old sister had found her parents dead and called cops. And most recently, we hear of two twelve-year-old girls who almost kill their best friend. There are numerous cases of friends and dating partners who prove to be destructive forces in the lives of our children, getting them into drugs, alcohol, and crime. It's true that we should be accepting and welcoming, but when it comes to impressionable children who are easily influenced, their company has to be screened for bad influences and predators. Now I know that many young people sneak out and do things behind their parents' back, but we need to do all we can do prevent these things from happening in the first place. We can do only so much, but we need to try and we owe it to them to do that. When the recent case of the two violent twelve-year-old girls came out, many people blamed the parents of the one girl who held the sleepover, asking things like, "Was it how they were raised?" or "Did anyone know about that character they were obsessed with?" or "Why were they allowed to walk into those woods when somethings could have happened to any of them?" But we don't know much of the story.
What This Tells Us About Human Nature
These many cases tell us that all of us are far more complex than we can ever know. The Bible tells us that "The human heart is deceitful and desperately wicked: Who can know it?" This means that we cannot even fully know ourselves, much less truly know others. Many people have said of those two girls after learning of their brutal murder attempt, "They are pure evil." But before this crime, everyone saw them as normal, ordinary children. Over and over, whether talking about murderers and abusers of any age, it has often been said, "He was so nice" or "She was so pleasant." I get tired of mental illness being scapegoated when these crimes make news. The factors in these crimes are complex: Decaying morals, a lessening value for all life, the entitled mentality of many of us, the abundance of mind-altering recreational and prescription drugs, illicit sex and violence in the media, and the availability of guns and knives. All we can do is know those who want to enter our lives in any way, whether personally or professionally. We need to also embrace the truth that those we want to enter the lives of also have this same right and responsibility to check us out. The reason that even the most horrific criminals look so ordinary? It's because this same evil exists in all of us! Most of us just have, by the grace of God and favorable circumstances and (possibly) skill in not getting caught, have not been caught doing anything that would label us as criminals. But, knowing this, we don't want to get paranoid and look for red flags where they don't exist, and run good people out of our lives. Yes, it's a tightrope that we walk, right?
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