Personal post

**Warning: this particular post may be a bit graphic for some folks.

Tonight, I can't sleep.  I feel overwhelmed and hollowed out by tragic news.  Death seems to be looming close these days to my family and although death is inevitable there are some things that just feels like your looking into the mouth of a dark abyss.  We received news from my family in Mexico that a body found of a 14-year old girl was in fact a cousin.  The DNA results have taken months to come back to confirm this.  The state that her body was found made it impossible for her mother to identify her.  You see, she was beheaded and her body was stabbed and mutilated.  People in the town have an idea of the man who did this to her but the family has been warned not to speak up, not to speak out otherwise her remaining daughters would come to the same end.  So much violence in this world against women.  It makes me angry to the very core of my being.

You see, this man is very well connected and therefore protected.  She was last seen getting into his vehicle before she went missing.  Weeks later they found her body.  Months later her identity confirmed through DNA testing.  Her best friend met the same fate because she went along with my cousin.  How harmless would getting a lift from a guy they knew be?

I haven't used their names to allow my family some level of privacy.  But I wanted to tell folks out there about these two young 14-year old girls whose lives were cut tragically short.  Even as I write these words out I know it's not enough.  May their souls rest in peace. ~


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