homicide

today i was checking out one of my high school alumni websites and i noticed a memorial page. there were only three listed that graduated from the 1990s and only one where i actually recognized the name. derek andrew marston. i didn't really know him at all cause he had graduated the year i moved to berlin. but i knew of him. (i dated his younger brother, kyle, for a few weeks my junior year.) i do remember hearing about his death or that he had died but i didn't know any details. the power of google. i typed in his name and found a few articles about his death. here's a short synopsis of what happened:

National News Briefs; Fugitive in 2 Killings Is Caught in Wilderness
Published: August 6, 1998

The man sought in the killing of two campers last weekend was captured tonight after a six-day search, the authorities said.

The man, James A. Finley Jr., 21, of Hickory, was arrested about 7:30 P.M. near a hunting lodge, Sheriff Jeff Jordan of Montgomery County said. Mr. Finley was armed with a rifle and a handgun when he was confronted by deputies on foot, the authorities said.

The police said Mr. Finley pointed one of the weapons at officers as they approached, prompting one officer to a fire a shot. No one was injured.

The campers, Derek Andrew Marston and Tommi Danielle Byrd, both 24, were found shot and slashed on Sunday at their campsite in Linville Gorge Wilderness Area in western North Carolina.

Mr. Finley was thought to be an admirer of the man charged in the Birmingham, Ala., abortion clinic bombing, Eric Robert Rudolph, who has evaded a search in the western North Carolina mountains.

***and what's crazy about the whole thing is where it happened. it's less than 20 miles away. insane.***