The following entry, unlike the others, is an excerpt from the Southwest Kansas Gazette. The publishing date is September 1, 2004.
Early this morning, before even the animals were out, tragedy struck in our happy town of Ulysses.
A retired couple, Abigail and Jonathan Murphy, were traveling to the graduation of their granddaughter when they found a horrifying crime scene. I spoke to this couple, our only witnesses, and asked what happened. Jonathan said, “Well, we were driving along when I saw a car crashed on the side of the road. We thought someone might be hurt, seeing as how bad the crash looked, so we pulled over and stepped out. That’s when we saw the bullet hole. I ran forward and found the man, dead in the driver’s seat. Then I looked up, and Abigail was gone.”
I asked where the woman went. “Well, you see, when I was standing there I heard a baby crying. And, of course, I had to see what it was. I went beyond the trees and found that poor, defenseless little boy lying all bare in the cold morning air. When I went to go pick him up I saw the woman.” At this moment Abigail, recalling the horrid sight, was so choked with emotion that she could not continue with her story. All Jonathan had to say was “Obviously, we called the police.”
After talking to this couple, I went to Officer Smith and asked him about what happened. Who are these two people? “I’m afraid I don’t know. Right now we have a John and Jane Doe on our hands.” What do you think happened here? “Well, I’m just guessing now, but from what I can see this all happened early this morning, around 5 or 6 a.m. We think that they may have been getting ready to travel, due to the bags in the back of the car. It seems that somebody didn’t want them to leave, though. They may have been chased by whoever did this. I can deduce that the culprit had a gun and shot through the back window and went through the man’s head, killing him instantly. The man fell onto the steering wheel, and the car swerved out of control and smashed into that tree, as you can see. What probably happened next was the woman ran out of the car to get her baby, as women are known to do. With the baby in her arms she tried to run from her murderer, trying to protect herself and the little boy. Unfortunately, he caught up. The baby was ripped out of the woman’s arms and thrown to the ground. It’s a miracle the thing survived. The attacker then proceeded to beat the woman in the most brutal way I have ever seen, and I’ve been doing this for over forty years. He hit, kicked, slammed, stabbed, cut, and even raped the poor woman. He did everything short of killing her. Then left the scene, taking any form of identification with him.”
But if the assailant didn’t kill her, what was the cause of death? “It could’ve been any number of things; loss of blood, any number of injuries to internal organs, or simply death due to unbearable pain. But I can tell you one thing, death was probably an answer to this woman’s prayers.” What are you doing to try to find the murder? “I’m going to be putting my best men on the case, and will be participating myself. I will not rest until these people are identified and the murder is behind bars.”
Well, there you have it folks. An orphaned infant and a John Doe. And a Jane Doe tortured so horribly that my editor would not allow me to put any pictures of her in this article because of the gruesome content. Please, if you have any information about who these people are or who may have done this contact the authorities. For a look at the victims, visit the newspaper’s website, although I must warn you that they are extremely graphic and not for the faint-of-heart. A crime like this should never go unsolved, and the police need as much help as they can get. And this reporter promises to follow the story so my readers can know when the demon who did this is caught.
Well, there you have it. The end of The Diary of Jane Doe. Hope you enjoyed reading it.