Rope swings and childhood friends
In the summer before my 4th year of school, a tight group of about 6-10 of us little girls would meet at the local swimming hole every day, the tumbly tumultuous waters of a dam. In turn, one of our parents would take the reign as lifeguard and chief lunch-maker, making sure we were well-fed and didn’t drown.

There was a massive rope swing nearby which, when I was small, felt like it sent me into orbit then deposited me in a billion feet of water. It was great bloody fun, so we took turns screeeeeee!ing off the end of this rope. Hop out of the water, run down the trail into the woods, grab the rope and SPLASH. Again and again and again. Endlessly, for hours on end.

R ran up to use the rope and didn’t come back. Well, we all lived nearby and popped home from time to time, so we didn’t think anything of it. We carried on using the rope swing and, an hour or so later, we dispersed for the evening.

R never made it home. When R ran up to use the rope, she was abducted, pulled into the woods, raped and stabbed to death. This was metres from where we were. She was buried in a hole in the woods just off the trail, right next to that rope swing. We ran past her again and again and again.

This man watched us, day in and day out, waiting for his moment. It just happened that she was the unlucky one, not one of us.
(TheSnark oh, c'mon, like you didn't see me coming, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 11:04, 27 replies)

that is horrifying.

(Poppet some assembly required., Mon 23 Aug 2010, 11:08, closed)

She wasn't really a part of our 'core' gang.
She had just moved in and made friends with us because we were going to be in the same school year. As such, we all felt slightly detached from it.

Also, our families kept the gruesome details from us until we were old enough to understand.

Her family moved away by the end of the summer.
(TheSnark oh, c'mon, like you didn't see me coming, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 11:13, closed)

but still, that's a pretty awful thing to happen.
Not surprised her family moved away though. God.
(Poppet some assembly required., Mon 23 Aug 2010, 11:36, closed)

For the life of me...
...I can't figure out why anybody would want to move there in the first place.
(TheSnark oh, c'mon, like you didn't see me coming, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 11:42, closed)

Fuuuuucccckkkk
That really *is* a narrow escape!
(Psymon_Spark Jesus Saves! The rest of you take 4d6 damage, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 11:08, closed)

Holy shit
Where and when was this?
(Reverend Fister "a disciplined fuckwit", Mon 23 Aug 2010, 11:23, closed)

...
1986, the Northern Midwest.
(TheSnark oh, c'mon, like you didn't see me coming, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 11:32, closed)

The sad fact of my hometown...
...this wasn't the first, nor was it the last of my friends to be murdered.

*edit*
"Our town boasted the highest rate of child poverty in all of the United States, but was runner-up in child abuse. Our consolation prize was murder, an incredible amount of violence against our fellow man."
(TheSnark oh, c'mon, like you didn't see me coming, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 11:33, closed)

Glad you're still here Snarkers
Thank heavens you were an ugly kid .....
(TwinkleFuckingToes Has a ingrown toe nail, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 11:29, closed)

Saved by the ginger!

(TheSnark oh, c'mon, like you didn't see me coming, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 11:35, closed)

holy shit
I was expecting a run of the mill snapping rope or sucked over dam story.

"I like this" really isn't appropriate sometimes.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 11:59, closed)

I think you're right.
I think I might delete this on the zero hour. It's Ronnie's tale, not mine.
(TheSnark oh, c'mon, like you didn't see me coming, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 12:08, closed)

Jesus Christ.

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 12:38, closed)

Nah they ruled him out pretty quickly,
couldn't run in sandals...
( ..wil, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 13:04, closed)

No - really.
This is perhaps one of the most unexpected, intense, and hard-hitting stories I've read here.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 13:13, closed)

I know,
just trying to lighten things a little without being too irreverent to the subject...
( ..wil, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 13:15, closed)

Ladies and gentlemen
We have a desperately heart rending sad indictment on humanity jaw dropping and horrifying 'winner'.I only hope my kids never have to come close to that sort of horror. You have my respect for being able to talk about it all.
( number5 has been fighting tramps and losing., Mon 23 Aug 2010, 13:12, closed)

As I said...
...I was young and our parents kept us out of the loop. I remember it and I remember it well. I remember the day, I remember her funeral, I remember the cops, I remember that everybody in my hometown of 2000 somehow placed the blame on themselves, but I don't remember my mother ever grabbing me with The Paedo-Scare and holding onto me too tightly. The truth came out long after it really had the ability to fuck me up.
(TheSnark oh, c'mon, like you didn't see me coming, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 14:04, closed)

'Lucky'...
...inappropriate word but you know what I mean. Just today I overheard someone complaining about a 'suspicious' bloke loitering near a sports hall and suggesting "he must be a paedo". They still didn't look convinced when he collected his child!!! The media have a lot to answer for.
( number5 has been fighting tramps and losing., Tue 24 Aug 2010, 14:52, closed)

Boneshiverring
That is all.
( the pink chicken sniffer sniffs pink chickens., Mon 23 Aug 2010, 13:32, closed)

Ah, no no no...
I think you've all gotten me wrong. We all knew that Ronnie had been killed at the dam *at some point*, but the details of it were kept from us. Our families saved us from serious scarring, so this is more just a tale of a girl I briefly liked but lost. It's more heartbreaking for her family, even though this happened 24 years ago.

We even went back to swimming there.
(TheSnark oh, c'mon, like you didn't see me coming, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 14:00, closed)

Was the killer ever caught?
(ParaSitius is an Optimistic Pessimist, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 14:59, closed)

That night, I think.
Typical loner, lived in an apartment on the other side of town.

I've Googled her named and come up with nothing. We live in an odd world now, like it didn't happen if it you can't Google it.

He was caught when he arrived back to his apartment covered in blood; the knife was found straight away, two and two were put together rather quickly.

I remember my neighbour crying that, because he sold the murderer his old truck, he helped cause it.
(TheSnark oh, c'mon, like you didn't see me coming, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 15:22, closed)

i think my brain did a full revolution inside my head when i read that! My sympathies for the girl and those it affected.
(Deligrams, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 15:56, closed)

Jesus fucking christ
i was not expecting that one, my brain had a spasm there, really, truly horrifying
(Rco has been clean and sober since, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 17:14, closed)

fuck
that went from The Waltons to CSI
shiver right up my spine :(
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 22:50, closed)

Shit...
Or just Wow. Superlatives aren't going to do any justice.
( Blind Meach Cautiously optimistic, Wed 25 Aug 2010, 13:53, closed)