The Evil That Men Do

It seems like every time I start to seriously consider whether we should ban capital punishment in the United States, a case like the murder of Jamie Rose Bolen comes along.

A 26-year old lunatic named Kevin Ray Underwood kidnapped and killed 10 year old Bolen last week.  The crime took place in Purcell, OK, a small town about 40 miles south of Oklahoma City.  Purcell is a typical Oklahoma small town, where most residents know one another and where violent crime is a rarity.  Both the victim and the perpetrator were long-time residents of Purcell, and the impact of the crime on the town has been great.

This story has been the lead on local newscasts for the past five days, and the details of the story are unbelievably grisly.  Underwood is something like a real-life Hannibal Lecter.  Police found enough evidence in Underwood's apartment to conclude that Underwood planned to "kidnap a person, rape them, torture them, kill them, cut off their head, drain the body of blood, rape the corpse, eat the corpse, then dispose of the organs and bones."

It appears that Underwood and Bolen lived in the same apartment complex, and that Underwood spotted Bolen riding her bicycle toward the local library, which she visited often.  Apparently Underwood coaxed Bolen into coming back with him to his apartment.  Once inside the apartment, Underwood killed Bolen by striking her over the head with a wooden cutting board and then strangling her.  After Bolen disappeared, one of Bolen's friends told police that she and Bolen had both engaged in a sexually explicit online "chat" with an anonymous person.  At this time, it is unclear if that person was Underwood, or if that incident was unrelated to the killing.

Underwood's crime was so horrific that only God will be able to forgive him for it.  But we can pray that God's spirit of peace would descend on this thoroughly devastated community, and on the grieving families involved in this unspeakably evil crime.

Google News Search: "Kevin Underwood" Purcell
Court TV: "Added to the blogroll of evil: Kevin Ray Underwood"
Norman Transcript: "He Seemed So Normal"
WizBang Blog: "The Online Face Of Evil: Kevin Ray Underwood"
KOCO TV: "Purcell Man Faces Murder Charge" (page also contains many video links to various news reports about the case)