A Tale of Two Deaths

It was the best of times

Carl Karcher, founder of Carl's Jr., died on Friday at the age of 90. He turned a minor hot dog cart business into the empire that became Carl Karcher Enterprises. He stayed involved in his business until health issues forced him to retire several years ago. He had a long and happy live, stayed involved with his business and his growing family.

We're having lunch at Carl's Jr. today in his honor.

Here's an article about his death.


It was the worst of times

I happened to catch a story on the news a little while ago because the television was on where I was grabbing some lunch. A female pregnant marine had gone missing, and there was concern that she'd been kidnapped, her disappearance happening days after her meeting with military prosecutors, though they didn't disclose what the issue was about. I had figured that she must have been a witness in a case or something, and whoever the case was about might have arranged for her disappearance. It has since been revealed that she was accusing a fellow Marine of rape, and the rape is what resulted in her pregnancy. They have now found the burned and buried remains of someone on the property of the man who she said raped her. He left a note denying he had killed her, but saying instead that he'd buried her after she committed suicide in front of him. Evidence apparently refutes the suicide claim and instead points to her being killed. The male Marine has gone missing. They're examining the remains to see if it's the female marine, and there's an ongoing investigation. Authorities have so far declined to state whether the remains include those of a child. She was due to give birth in mid-February, so the child she was carrying was close to full term.

Once she went missing, I would figure it was presumed that they weren't going to find her alive. But the discovery of what are presumed to be her remains is still devastating, all the more so given the circumstances of her rape. And then there's the child. No one knows yet if the child is alive or if it's another case where the biological father killed the mother and the child him/herself. Yeah, I know, there's no conviction, and he's not even been charged with a crime yet. But all the evidence seems to point to it. Authorities had figured that once the child was born, DNA tests could be done to prove the paternity of the child, thereby providing proof of the rape if the results came back positive. Maybe that would provide additional motivation for killing the child. But I'm hoping and praying that whatever happened that resulted in the death of the mother, that the child was spared. That's about the most that can be hoped for at this point.

Here's a story about the case.