I won’t disclose real names or anyone involved / revealing information but this is a true story.
I was in my sophomore year of high school back in 2013. It was a very normal year in my relatively quiet hometown. I was trying out for the varsity baseball team along with some of my classmates. There was another kid who I’d known now for several years who I’d always thought to be on the stranger side of the spectrum (we’ll call him Eric). He happened to be trying out for the same position as me, so naturally we were put into the same group.
I kinda just remember seeing Eric on the first day of try outs and thinking that he was acting extra weird. I really couldn’t put my thumb on it but I KNEW something was off.
As the tryouts went on, the competition got better, things got more heated. I ended up getting in a small scuffle with Eric. Me being a physical kid anyhow (I played hockey and football) was no noobie to contact and physical altercations / fights. This time it was different. I mean really different. I remember telling some of my friends that I felt like Eric wanted to kill me but I wasn’t exaggerating.
He just had this sick look on his face. It was menacing. I’ll never forget that face.
That altercation had taken place on Thursday of that week. Friday comes around and I notice Eric is not at the try outs.
Little did I know that he was taken into custody by local police and being investigated for a double homicide.
The news didn’t come out until a few months later about what had happened. It was strange, it was like he disappeared after that day. I hadn’t seen him in school for months at that point. I really was so naïve to think he didn’t come back to the try outs because of me, and what had happened between us two.
I wont lie, I was actually very scared for a while. Living in a small town, everyone knows everyone, and its not too hard to find out where someone lives where I’m from. At the time, I didn’t think (okay, hes gonna come to my house and kill me) but there was always a potential for some ass whoopin’.
Apparently Eric was baby sitting for a friend of his families, staying multiple nights in their houses over the course of the week.
Eric had brutally beaten two children by slamming the refrigerator door on their heads. One after another. He carried the bodies and tucked them back into bed and returned to his life as if nothing had ever happened.
The ETD of the children was DAYS before their parents got home. It was reported by Eric’s family that Eric was staying in their home every night as requested by the parents of the victims. SO this means during the entirety of our baseball try outs, Eric was dealing with what he had done and still attending school.
He was sentenced 10 years in juvenile detention… he was actually just released last year at the age of 25.
I was interacting with a murderer each of those days of that week without even knowing. It makes you think how many other people have you been around that are capable of doing something like this?
I think about this from time to time and it gives me chills to this day. Staring into the eyes of a murderer.