Sarah Michelle Lunde

I was afraid that the news would be bad. It’s been a week since Sarah went missing and today a body was found about a half mile from her home. The Hillsborough County Sheriff, David Gee, held a news conference where he said he had spoken to the family and told them there was a high degree of probability that the body was Sarah.

The terrain where the body was found is swampy and difficult to travel through. It’s a former fish farm. This part of Florida has more than a few fish farms; it’s become a very profitable industry. Many of the fish you eat, especially those bought in supermarkets, are farm raised. In any case, the chances that Sarah lived, if indeed it is Sarah, for more than a few hours are slim. Most of the time, sexual predators don’t want to leave a living witness, especially when the victim is a child. He knows how the public will react.

If this is indeed Sarah, the best we can do is to first remember that she had a difficult life and now it’s over. She hadn’t had contact with her father in ten years. I don’t know details of why, but she was in the foster care system for a time. That in itself is a difficult situation. Her family seems to be somewhat dysfunctional. I won’t say more than that until I have more facts, but that seems to be the kindest way to put it right now. But, even so, her life should not have ended the way it did. She was thirteen years old and should have been looking forward to high school, proms, homecomings, college, boyfriends, a husband, a family of her own, and everything else that each one of us dreams of. Sarah was robbed of her future and her dreams. By someone who was so selfish that he couldn’t think past his own desires and reasons. And no reason is good enough to explain why this young life was taken.

I don’t know who took Sarah, and probably raped and murdered her. It’s up to the Sheriff’s Office to put together a case with solid evidence that will convict whoever the creature is who could do such a thing. It will be up to the Hillsborough County State’s Attorney’s Office to use that evidence to prosecute someone. And believe me, the Sheriff’s Office and the State Attorney’s Office will do everything they can to put someone behind bars. Many of them are parents and every time they have to deal with the death of a child, it hits them hard. It makes them think about their own kids. And it will affect even those who weren’t involved in the search. I know; I’ve been there.

It hurts us almost as deeply as it does the family and friends. We’re in law enforcement because we want to help and to protect innocent lives. And this time we failed. Maybe through no fault of our own, but we’ll feel it just the same. Our job is to protect the Sarah’s of the world. And we couldn’t.

And so, the detectives will work as hard as they can to find the person responsible and take him to trial. They will make sure that his civil liberties are not violated, as Sarah’s were, so that he will get a fair trail. They will make sure that the evidence is solid so that a jury of his peers will be able to convict him and sentence him so that justice is served.