Here in Houston it looks like we may have a serial killer on the loose (and quite active - with 2 killings in the past 2 weeks). Quite simply, prostitutes, runaways, the homeless are all more likely to be victims of crime because they are less likely to be missed.
I will be sending new donations to the shelters I support in the area - and hope you will consider doing the same in your own area. Obviously we need funding to be re-directed from things like the defense budget to actually helping folks on the national level, but please keep them in your hearts and minds as we go about trying to make the political/economic changes for the long-term. No one deserves to be killed like this, and our homeless citizens are some of our most vulnerable peers.
Houston women warned after 2 street killings
Similar cases in downtown appear to target the homeless
By PEGGY O'HARE
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Oct. 11, 2010, 10:46PM
Women who frequent the streets downtown are being reminded to be extra vigilant after two have been killed in similar circumstances and dumped on stairwells behind buildings in the past two weeks.
Houston police say they don't know if the cases are related, but investigators are comparing notes and evidence to determine whether a link exists.
On Sept. 30, Reita Lafaye Long, 52, a homeless woman who used the services of a downtown outreach program for people living on the streets, was found dead on a stairway behind the Chancery of the Archdiocese of Houston-Galveston at 1700 San Jacinto.
She had been strangled with a ligature, meaning her airway was cut off with some sort of binding object and not someone's hands, according to the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.
On Sunday, the body of another woman whose name has not been released was found on a stairway behind the old YMCA building at 1600 Louisiana shortly after 5 p.m. She also suffered some sort of neck trauma and appears to be a homicide victim, but her official cause of death has not been made public since her autopsy was continuing Monday...
(much more at this link:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7242406.html)