An 18-year old has apparently confessed to murdering a 16-year-old girl out of “morbid curiousity”:
Police for the first time revealed a motive in the death of Sugar Land teenager Ashton Glover on Monday, saying suspect Matthew R. McCombs admitted he shot the girl out of “morbid curiosity.”
McCombs and Sean H. Brown, both 18, then left Glover’s body in a remote muddy field and calmly drove to a late-night Sugar Land restaurant and ate breakfast, police said.
This pretty much pegs the meter on sociopathology; it’s hard to imagine a more empathetically disconnected statement.
Too bad he wasn’t morbidly curious about how it would feel to fall from the top of a tall building, eh? ::shudder::
Thanks Houston!
“Thanks Houston!”
Sugar Land is not Houston, any more than Slidell is NOLA. I should know, I have lived in both places. (In fact, I currently live in both places. I have a mailing address in Sugar Land, but I live in Houston’s ETJ. Curious…)
Anyway, PM I agree with you here. This is truly bizarre – and I frequent both the latte haus where they met, as well as the IHOP those 2 ate breakfast at after doing the deed.
It scares me to think that we have kids who have grown up thinking it is OK to kill someone else just to see how it feels. It is even scarier when that actually act on those impulses.
Of course, being in TX these two may be able to satisfy their “morbid curiosity” and experience first-hand the sensations of being executed by lethal injection. Too bad they won’t be able to report back as to how much pain they felt…
~EdT.
EdT, I think ashley Morris is from New Orleans and was saying thanks for what we di last year. But I could be wrong. Click on her name to see her blog. Everybody’s got one.
Her?
Comment deleted.
— Polimom
911 = 411
I’m going back to quill, ink well and blotter.
“I think ashley Morris is from New Orleans and was saying thanks for what we di last year.”
Could have been… I clicked on the link, and saw the NOLA-focused content on the blog. However I read the comment in the context of PM’s article, which left me somewhat confused.
~EdT.
I find myself morbidly curious to know what details the police are not releasing about the confession. The news stories all say “morbidly curious” but then tthey follow with something about ‘exactly what he was cuirious about, the cops aren’t saying.’ We may find out that what he was ‘morbidly curious’ about was ‘whether if I pulled a gun on a girl she would scream,’ but instead of screaming, she grabbed it and it went off by accident… or the three of them agreed out of morbid curiosity to try a game of russian roulette… or … who knows what weird games teen-agers play??
Pollyanna here is willing to go for the ‘innocent until proven guilty’ thing even when the cops have a ‘confession’ — especially when they don’t really disclose anything except the good sound bite.
This isn’t to excuse someone who was involved in the death of another person, and it sickens me as well, but… we don’t know enough yet to make him into the manifestation of evil that the ‘morbidly curious’ sound bite makes him out to be.
For the first time ever, I’ve deleted a comment.
The ethical dilemma caused me enormous angst, but my reasons can be found here and here.
Since I reside in the country where she died – and therefore could easily find myself in the jury pool for the trial – I will happily refrain from having my curiousity satisfied any further until after the trial is over.
Having a son in this age range, it is scary nonetheless.
~EdT.
“For the first time ever, I’ve deleted a comment.”
I don’t think there was any malicious intent which drove the posting of that particular comment – but I understand why you did what you did, and respect your right as blogger-in-charge to do it.
~EdT.
Ed T – – Yes, I’m in the potential jury-pool someday, also. I suspect I’d be seen as prejudicial against the defense for having posted this.
Interestingly, when I last served as a juror, it came out that I was a blogger. The attorneys, judge (seemed like everybody) checked out my writing…. and I was evidently “good to go”. Of course, I hadn’t said anything about a particular case.
They’re already talking about moving the venue, btw. (link here)
And thanks for the comment about the deletion.
So I get branded as a bad guy because I didn’t reply to your email fast enough??
Great just made my week. They guy put the info on HIS SITE which HE LINKED TO IN THIS BLOG and I’m the bad guy. Real kewl
Laz
Buy Y’all
Just to be clear –
I have NO PROBLEM with deleting the post. No problem at all.
But then to turn around and post that it’s being done AND blog on it, is holding me up to public ridicule, with that I have a major problem.
The person had LOST all expectations of privacy on the Internet when he post the information on the Net and then LINKED TO THAT INFORMATION FROM HIS BLOG which he linked to here.
So in acting like you’re taking the “high ground” by removing an inconsequential post, you sully the reputation of someone who has done nothing wrong.
Bush league
I guess that’s what I get for expecting professionalism from amateurs.
Most readers probably didn’t know whose comment had been deleted or what the situation was, so I think you just pretty much held your own self up for public ridicule. Polimom simply deleted a comment and explained — very professionally — why she did it, without ever identifying the commenter or the specifics. I sure didn’t know who it was, or what had been posted, until you raised your own flag to announce it.
Study the law Smukke. I’m a trained AP journalist and what she did is libel. I know the law. I’ve been to court MANY times as a writer and never lost a case.
I won’t lose this one either. Yes, it’s going to court.
And Smukke, you need to read before you write. It SAYS whose post was deleted!
Duhhhhhhhhhh
Now, here’s an interesting question: Can you libel someone if their real name is not known? I personally don’t think there’s any libel in this case — kind of a stretch there, Laz … — but it raises a very intriguing issue.
Can you libel someone if his/her real name is not known? Can you, basically, libel an avatar? I am not sure if there have been any court cases on this. Not that I’d wish a court case on anyone, much less Polimom, but it would be a fascinating exercise.
Sorry, I was looking at Polimom’s note where she doesn’t mention the commenter’s name. I didn’t notice that deleting a comment leaves the comment header way up there on the comment chain — until you brought it up.
I still think Polimom acted very professionally and thoughtfully on this. I’m not related to her, and I don’t always agree with her (grin) but I am a ‘trained journalist,’ whatever that means (in my case it means 25ish yrs as a newspaper and magazine writer/editor) and I don’t agree with your opinion on this. Nevertheless, it’s cool that we live in a country where we can freely offer our opinions, and I will fight your right to do so, even when I disagree.
eDwight – that’s easy , yes. It’s not an avatar, it’s an alias. Tons on case law on that. Local radio and television are full of people who use aliases, do they lose their rights because of it? Nope and damage to their AKAs is real damage to the individual. Additionally, as with the case of ashley Morris, I have left numerous links that go to my personal profile. So your argument goes out the window.
Why don’t you do Polimom another favor and check with Houston Chronicle’s legal council about the Supreme Court’s ruling some years back concerning the future legal liability she incurred by deleting a post. Look at the TOU or TOS agreement and other instructions on the chron.com message boards. For that matter consider why you use a program like Movable Type on your blog forcing users to submit their posts BEFORE they are published.
BTW, thanks Smukke for agreeing I was held up to “public ridicule.” I’ve been in the media business and first went on the air (radio) in 1966.
Laz –
People on TV show their faces, and in many cases their real names are discernible through legal searches. But in the case of some random Joe — or random Laz, in your case — there’s no connection between you and your meatspace personage that’s readily discernible. So that’s what makes it more interesting. Is the online-only persona capable of being libeled if it doesn’t affect the “real” person’s livelihood, reputation, etc.
Cite us some case law, Laz, on online aliases & libel. Link & discussions, please.
By the way, I used “avatar” instead of alias deliberately because I wanted the emphasize the notion of online persona vs. simply a name. The behavior you evidence behind an alias, and the content you produce as a result, generates a body of work that constitutes an online personality, or avatar. I suspect someone wanting to claim “damages” to an online reputation would have to claim damage to an avatar as a concept, not as an image, which is what I think you were thinking of. (Maybe persona is a better word.)
But anyway, show us some case law, my man. I’m interested in this.
Evil Dwight says – there’s no connection between you and your meatspace personage
Uhhhhhhhhh, wrong! I haven’t been a “random Laz” on the Internet or on the air waves for more than a decade. It doesn’t matter what “you used” or why. The only thing that matters are the facts. And the facts are my everyday public identity and much more personal private information is available with two clicks of a mouse.
Evil Dwight says – I suspect someone wanting to claim “damages” to an online reputation would have to claim damage to an avatar as a concept, not as an image, which is what I think you were thinking of.
Wrong again. My “on line reputation “, professional reputation, and U.S> Government certified reputation are all connected and the same. That’s three strikes – you’re OUT.
Speaking of strikes and outs, talk to your boyhood hero Dirk. I used to play tricks on him back in the day when he was a ‘Stros announcer in the Dome and I was a member of the “working media”. I was the “cut up” of BBWAA and it was fun. Once, I lost a bet with Billy Doran and had to fetch beers for him. Been to Nolan’s ranch and “steak house” with the old guys. At different times, I wrote for UPI and AP, and did photography for AP plus I did radio.
I did all those jobs so I could reach the “American Dream” and own my own business. Anyway, radio doesn’t show a face. (Here’s your SIGN!) As for as legal cases locally, check out the KILT/Hudson&Harrigan suit in late 1970s. I’m much more busy than you so do your own research lazy. Or you can just wait for the discovery phase of the case. Besides a simple “whois” is all that’s needed on any of the the 25+ domains many of which I’ve linked to in my name at chron.com.
I own a few servers, a small (VERY VERY SMALL) television station and in my spare time am the station manager for one of Houston’s top radio stations. In addition, I gave Polimom all my personal info if she needs to contact me. I also told her she had my FULL SUPPORT in deleting the message about which she contacted me. But see Evil Dwight, she didn’t stop there. She decided to use her site to hold me up to ridicule as opposed to simply deleting the post and moving on with things.
Evil Dwight (by the way I use that term because you said you like it *S*) as a professional journalist (?) why don’t you tell her what she needs to do to “correct an error of action or publishing”? Having owned a couple of newspapers (both sold for a nice profit) I know all that’s required, do you geek guy? *LOL*
forgot to close a markup – sorry
Gee, you need to use a “close all markup” script.
I’ll do it for you here
No more ITAL
grrrrr,
Better?
To paraphrase Meatloaf, 3 out of 4 ain’t bad
I wonder if you can sue yourself for holding yourself up for public ridicule. I think it might be easy to make that case.
Yep, I agree laz. You definitely are holding yourself up for public ridicule.
Hello,
Sorry for the long delay. I had a heart attack and no one would bring me a laptop to the hospital as it’s believed the stress from this issue helped cause it. That’s not important, at least not today.
The attorneys agree with me so I suspect papers to be filed.
I find it interesting that two people (?) who appear not to have any markup language knowledge at all find failing to close an anchor some type of public ridicule. *LMAO*
By the way eDwight, as I told you before, Lazarus is a filed DBA, an entity in both the meat and virtual worlds. Stick to the geek stuff. You have someone dumping data in you lap for that and you do a better than fair job of rehashing it and churning it out. Although I don’t care much for the one-idea one-page style, it’s your choice and it kind of works for you.