What is the world coming to? Girl, 9, found hanging from tree; boy arrested

[WillParkinson]

Girl, 9, found hanging from tree; boy arrested

RAGLAND, Ala. -- When 9-year-old Katelynn Arnold didn't appear right away after one of her frequent bicycle rides along her rural Alabama road, her concerned aunt went to look for the girl.

The woman, who is the girl's foster mother, checked with a neighbor whose daughter often played with Katelynn, but he hadn't seen her. When she returned home Thursday evening, she found the girl hanged from a tree with an old tire swing rope, deliberately, authorities say, by her 14-year-old half-brother who was charged Friday with murder.

The cotton rope was tied in a simple knot around the girl's neck, but was not a hangman's noose, said St. Clair County Sheriff Terry Surles. County Coroner Dennis Russell said an autopsy found the cause of death was homicide due to ligature strangulation.

The neighbor, Ricky Campbell, could only shake his head when thinking about what happened.

"She never got a chance to grow up. Her life was taken away," he said.

The accused boy admitted to killing her by hanging, Surles said. He said the boy told investigators a motive but Surles did not release it. A call came into the sheriff's department about 8:10 p.m. Thursday and by the time investigators arrived, rescuers had removed the girl from the tree and she was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/05/11/20120511alabama-girl-found-hanging-from-tree-boy-arrested.html#ixzz1ule5PzWd

[cindyperry2010]

1. I wonder all the time god help us

[Lionessa]

2. Sibling murders are not new. So the world isn't coming to anything different than yesteryear.

Or the years before that. One of the only tales of the old testament that nearly all know regardless or religious/non-religious choice is that of Cain and Abel.

Is it tragic? Absolutely. Is it evidence of where we are "coming to"? No. It's evidence of where we've always been and our apparent inability to advance past it.

[DavidDvorkin]

4. Yes. Well said.

[TorchTheWitch]

11. Cain and Abel were adults

This was a kid murdering a kid right out in the open to boot. Though the bible is full of stories that cover pretty much all of the worst of human failings I don't recall any stories about kids murdering kids.

My childhood was relatively carefree and uncomplicated and generally no different than any other kid. Even THINKING about killing someone or being that angry or hating someone that much if at all would never had happened. That's what being a kid should be like. They shouldn't have any feeling for any reason that compels them to murder a kid.

[NYC_SKP]

3. God help us. Poor child.

RIP



.

.

.

[hlthe2b]

5. These stories overwhelm me... How horrific must her last moments have been...

May these children--victims of the most horrific violence find peace in their new realm.

I find any other words to be meaningless...sigh...

[Lionessa]

7. Thank you for hitting the reason I don't think we've advanced part this sort of thing...

Because somehow God, real or imagined, is supposed to fix it, help us, etc.

FREE WILL people! God, imagined or real, has put our lives into our own hands, it is ours to fix, not his, relying on some aerial entity to solve this or help us solve it only delays any actual solutions to the problems that cause disenfranchised children to act out, sometimes to the point of murder.

[NYC_SKP]

9. It's just an expression. I'm agnostic.

But spiritual enough to believe in an energy, a power, a something that might only be the sum of all the life forces.

I call that God, in the most abstract sense.

Though I do get your point.

[Speck Tater]

6. I'm old enough to remember...

people saying "What's this world coming to" back in the 40's and 50's.

It's not that the world is getting worse, it's that each new generation has to wake up to how bad it gets sometimes.

[exboyfil]

8. So will the 14 year old serve time until

he is 21?

Like the Jonesboro shooters (13 and 11).

The 12 year old who beat the 6 year old to death in Florida got life in prison which was later overturned and led to acceptance of original plea deal (3 years but 10 years probation). He later pled to armed robbery and parole violation in another case.

[Odin2005]

10. OMG!!!

[tammywammy]

12. Reminds me of this thread from yesterday

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002678643

Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath? (well in this case a 14 year old)

[Brigid]

13. Why?