Update on Sarah Parks' death

Silas Parks was arrested on June 30th. He was charged with two counts of homicide and one count of arson. The relief was unbelievable. So many people were feeling like it was just an open-and-shut case and there was a lot of frustration concerning the delay in his arrest. I understand why it took so long. I know the authorities were making sure they had enough solid evidence so that they could nail him as solidly as possible. Bastard.

Sarah's memorial was two days later on July 2nd. Travis wouldn't go. He said he knew it would be "too sad". I think he was really afraid of seeing me being that sad. All I did for a solid week was cry and he would put his arms around me or pat my arm. I am a really emotional person anyway--to the point that I can't watch a movie or even a commercial sometimes if it contains anything that will make me tear up a little bit. I get choked up easily (especially if it's anywhere near time for my period!) and it used to be okay but now it kind of freaks Travis out so I have to be careful. So he didn't go. Riley went and was so good. There were about 300 people there and the thing went on forever but she didn't complain and didn't even fidget very much. Not bad for a kid who hasn't been "trained" in this sort of quiet time by going to church! The service, of course was sad. Sarah was very active in her church and so it was a very religious service. Lots of singing, too. The thing that got to me most was the photograph montage they had going before everything got started. It killed me to look at those photos of her, so happy and smiling in all of them. There was even the class photo taken the year Trav was in her class. It was almost unbearably sad.

Things have quieted down for now. There hasn't been much in the paper about the trial or anything yet. One thing I did note, however: The articles in the paper were all listing the baby as "Serenity". I thought that was odd at the time because it just didn't seem something Sarah would name her baby. I read the police report and the officer stated that he confirmed with Silas that his wife was pregnant and Silas said that they had decided to name the baby Serenity if it was a girl and the officer talked with a friend who said that she had been with them (Sarah and Silas) while they were discussing names and that Serenity was the name Silas liked. At the memorial service, however, the program had two names on it: Sarah Jean Sheffield Parks and Lilly Ann. Hah! It makes me even more angry that, even after he killed her and the baby, he still tried to name their unborn child, even when he knew she didn't want that name! The papers are still listing the baby as Serenity and it bothers me a lot. I wish someone would set them straight. I don't know, maybe there's some weird, twisted law that says that the surviving parent of an unborn child gets to name it,even if he's the one responsible for the death. It sounds about right for our legal system. It makes me want to gouge out his eyes! There's hope, though. As Val said, since Silas is so young and fairly good-looking, "he'll probably be very popular in prison".

Look where I'm going with this! I need to do something to get rid of all this anger! I am really in the mood to sew this week but there's no time. It's Rendezvous 4 Kids this week, coming up on Thursday and Friday. Lots to do. I'm glad for that, it takes my mind off of all this other, negative stuff.