Grave Concerns

Knowing that there are certain things that happen in Baltimore that don't tend to happen all across the nation (e.g. sauerkraut with Thanksgiving dinner, pit beef stands dotting the roadways, door screens painted with waterfall scenes), I have to ask if every other big town has a problem with murderers dumping their victims in parks.

From WBAL radio today, this story:

State Police Identify Body Found At State Park

State Police have identified the body of a man found over the weekend at a state park. Two fishermen found the partly decomposed remains in a shallow grave at Patapsco Valley State Park. The victim was identified overnight as 31 year old Matthew Martin of Baltimore. He was reported missing last month. The Medical Examiner's office ruled that the man was murdered. Positive identification was made with fingerprints. State Police are asking anyone with information about Martin to contact them at the Glen Burnie barracks. All calls remain confidential.

For many years, the tradition of dumping the recently-deceased at Leakin Park in Baltimore City has been observed. For a while there, it got so bad that one could hardly enjoy the sylvan wonderland without tripping over the permanently-recumbent form of someone who Knew Too Much or somehow Got In The Way.

Granted, the murder rate in the City remains sky-high, and so, as Sir Isaac Newton so wisely postulated, "Everybody's gotta be somewhere!" But you don't want to find yourself in Leakin Park without a ride home.

I am very sorry for the man whose body was found by the fishermen, and mourn him along with his friends and family. I have to wonder how callous a person can be to kill someone and just dump him someplace. How did we ever change from being sensitive little kids to people who will kill another human being like this?