Today I did something I am doing too much of lately, I shed tears for a dead child. Like dozens of his family and friends I prayed that 11-year old William McQuain would be found alive. He was such a handsome little guy; wearing a hat a size too big with a smile even bigger. Authorities began to look for him after finding the body of his Mother 51-year old Jane McQuain; she had been stabbed in the back by a murdering coward in her suburban Maryland condominium.
After discovering the body of William’s mother authorities began diligently looking for the boy who loved sports and video games. Last week his stepfather (who was estranged from his mother) Curtis Lopez was arrested in Charlotte, North Carolina.; he was in possession of his dead wife’s car that was reported missing at the time of her death. He had allowed a female companion to drive the car telling her it belonged to his mother. The companion was pulled over by police in North Carolina for a traffic infraction and during the course of their traffic stop; she gave them information that led to Lopez’s arrest at an Econo Lodge motel in Charlotte. Lopez would not cooperate with authorities when asked about William’s whereabouts. He was later charged with his wife’s murder and waived extradition.
Friends and family had candle light vigils in hopes of finding William and in memory of his mother. It was difficult to watch the tears other children shed for their missing friend, class and teammate. The sight of a child crying over violence to another child is difficult to watch; it takes the innocence of childhood away. During my childhood many decades none of my friends died violent deaths; death was something for the sick and old. As children we did not worry about such things; we heard no such stories on the news or from the lips of our parents or their friends; adults protected and did not kill children.
Flash forward to the 2011 and over the past weekend, police searched two local parks with K-9 teams and several mounted teams. They continued their search today and it ended on Tuesday, October 18, 2011 in a wooden area off Route 121 in suburban Clarksburg. Clarksburg is located approximately 30 miles northwest of the nation’s capital. Searches found the remains of a young boy wearing clothing that matched the clothing worn by William McQuain the last time he was seen alive. He had been dumped in the woods like a bag of garbage, lying there alone without his mom. The disappointment he must have experienced before his step-father killed him is unimaginable, the physical pain he must have suffered the same. I wonder if he was wearing his baseball hat when they found him, he seemed to love it so.
Authorities say that finding William was not the end of their investigation but the beginning of a discovery to learn how and when he died. I will pray for William again tonight, a prayer that he is now again with his mother and that he is again wearing his wonderful smile. I will also pray for those of us left to remember and mourn him that we will not have to shed more tears for another murdered child.
Note; Yesterday in the same Maryland county police officials arrested another step-father for the May 31, 2011 stabbing murder of his 12-year old step-daughter Jessica Nguyen. David Rich Hang, a 42-year old bus driver for a regional bus company was charged with murdering Jessica in the basement of the home she shared with her mother and other family members. Jessica’s mother and Hang were in the middle of a divorce when the young girl was slain. Jessica was a sixth grade honor student at the time of her death.