UPDATE: Alycia's Godmother, mother, aunt and others, have a facebook page up now, Mothers Against Sex Crimes and a MySpace page, MASC - Mothers Against Sex Crimes. Please lend your support to the struggle to keep these predators off of our streets.
Clark County, especially the Hazel Dell neighborhood I reside in, was shocked to wake up Sunday morning, February 22 and hear of the brutal murder of 13 year-old Alycia Nipp, allegedly at the hands of convicted level III sex offender Darrin Eugene Sanford, who has since confessed to the brutal murder, the GPS tracking device on his ankle placing him the vicinity of the crime at the time of the crime.
I do not know either family personally, but live nearby and drive by the home where young Alycia lives and the field her murdered body was discovered in almost daily on my way to work. That makes this senseless murder of a young innocent person more personal to me.
What disturbs me the most about this is hearing that other “transient” sex offenders freely roam the neighborhood and sleep in some of the boarded up, abandoned and condemned homes in the neighborhood, presumably also wearing Court mandated GPS ankle tracking devices, as was Sanford.
Three years ago, a law was being considered across America and passed by many states. Jessica’s Law, named after Jessica Lunsford, another young girl murdered by a sex offender in Florida. At the time I said the proposed law was a step in the right direction, but did not go far enough.
Wearing an ankle bracelet, even a GPS tracking device, accomplishes little, other than placing a criminal at the scene, after the crime has been committed. In this case, a young girl lost her life because a known sex offender was allowed to roam her neighborhood, while someone somewhere else may be watching the whereabouts of the offender, delayed by satellite and having no idea what that person was doing at the moment.
A victim is dead before the authorities even know a crime has been committed and the best that can be done is to link a criminal to the crime by placing them in the vicinity at the time of the crime.
But, an innocent 13 year-old girl is still dead!
A trial must be and will be held, undoubtedly with some slip and fall attorney looking for a reason to free the accused. GPS records most likely will be challenged and a grieving family will be forced to face the possibility of their child’s murderer going free again.
If the evidence is strong that may not happen, but who knows in today’s world.
Already, news reporters are pointing out that Sanford was an “abused child.” So What? Many are abused. And I mean real abuse and do not head down the road of predator and sex crimes, abducting and killing our children.
I agree with Alycia’s aunt, Amber Hager who said.
“I want to see him sentenced to death, honestly. I think, he took a life and for that he deserves to give a life, his life.”
It’s too late to save Alycia, sadly, but we need to learn from this. Predators like Sanford do not belong on the streets, roaming about neighborhoods where children live. Our children are worth much more than these cretins who threw their lives away by acting on impulses instead of seeking help from medical people or clergy or anybody who can tell them how wrong they are.
As far as I’m concerned, level III sex offenders, those who will most likely strike again, should never be released back into society. Yes, it is expensive to house them, too expensive in fact. They do not deserve the care we would provide them for life.
Devil’s Island comes to my mind, a desolate place they could be placed and kept away from societies children. Give them seeds, farm implements and a one-way boat ride. Ship them water occasionally if the Island has none, but otherwise, they receive no contact with others who choose not to contact them.
More controversial is swiftly carrying out the death penalty on those who kill. There is no reason that one who is convicted beyond any shadow of doubt should remain in prison awaiting death for 20 to 25 years, while slip and fall attorneys try every legal maneuver they can dream up to free them or “spare their life.”
Bleeding hearts will say that killing predators will not deter others. That is an arguable claim with both sides giving supportive evidence.
But, one fact is certain. Executing them prevents any possibility of some slick attorney gaining their freedom one day and another 13 year-old being beaten and stabbed to death in an empty field!
Our children deserve better than to be preyed upon by these predators that bleeding hearts feel such sorrow for.
My heart breaks for Alycia’s family. I feel anguish for Sanford’s family. There is no guilt in any of this crime except for the one who preyed on an innocent 13 year-old and left her to die after beating and stabbing her in that field.
That person should forfeit his own life.
Society must do better than to strap a GPS tracking device on predatory criminals. Our children deserve to be able to go outside without fear and be allowed to grow into adults without being randomly attacked.
Alycia Nipp Did Not Have To Die. Society failed to protect her and we must do better.
UPDATE: Visit Congress.org and on the left is a block where you can enter your zip code and be given email access to all of your Representatives, State and Local. Contact them and demand they take action to deal stronger with these vermin. If they are not willing to, we must vote them out next election! Our children deserve protection!
See also Isn’t One Murdered Child Enough?
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30 comments:
I'm up at midnight because I can't sleep. I"m sick to death for Alycia's mother. I lie in my bed, a mile or 3 from the murder site... not so far... I know the field... I know the neighborhood... I know the school system... I lie in my bed and my daughter in safe in hers... and I think, it could have been us! Why was it them?! What can I do to help???!!!! There is nothing. I am helpless. There is nothing I can say, or do, and absolutely no comparable loss that can even garner empathy... All I can do is lie there and feel a horribly deep sense of sympathy and regret and anger... I am so amazingly sorry Mrs. Nipp. I pray you can live through this. I know I truly would go mad. Thanks, Lew, for the outlet.
Krita, what you can do is contact all of our Senators and Representatives in Olympia, demanding they do something more than just let these vermin walk our streets.
Catching them afterwards is not good enough. No family should have to through what Alycia's are going through.
We have a right to protection from known repeat offenders and Olympia has to do something more than let them walk around with GPS tracking devices.
Go to Congress.org and on the left side is a block to enter your zip code. It will give you access to all of your Representatives, state and federal.
Have everyone you know demand something stronger be done. Any that don't, vote against in the next election.
We must protect our children!
Devil's Island has been on my mind a lot lately.
And not just for murderers and rapists, either.
ALYCIA, I am sorry you had to die such a terrible death! We miss you at school, nothing is the same without you. Pray for us down here, that we'll be able to get through the pain and sorrow of your death! We miss you and love you Lici!
TJ, your comment brought tears to my eyes.
Please, listen to your parents, they love you just as Alycia's parents did. A simple mistake can be costly, please don't let it happen again.
I have contacted every Democrat and Republican elected official from our area in the legislature demanding they get a tougher law on the books. I enourage all to contact them also, statewide.
You young people can also contact them and express your sorrow and tell them you deserve to feel safe.
This must not happen again!!!!!
Angie, I agree. We must somehow keep these scumbags away from our children.
Lici was a wonderful and vibrant young lady. I will miss her sweet smile. I have know her and her family all her life and she did not deserve this and neither did they. I just hope and pray for them to have the strength to get thru this terrible tragedy. Lici we love and miss you
Anonymmous, Alycia could have been anybodies daughter. This is a parent's worst nightmare and I can only imagine the pain and grief this animal has brought upon this family, not to mention his own.
There is no excuse for such crimes.
We have to pressure the legislature to pass a strong law dealing with these criminals and not allow them free access to our neighborhoods and children. GPS tracking has failed, as many said it would.
Please, everyone, contact all of our elected officials and DEMAND this be corrected.
This did not have to happen and we cannot allow it to happen again.
Alycia Nipp was my 2nd cousin. I have a daughter who is going on 8 years old, and her and Alycia used to play together all the time. I would bring Alycia over to my mom's house where I was staying at the time, to play with my daughter Kailee. Even then, Alycia was such a fun loving, and caring young girl. She always made everyone laugh. Although I haden't seen Alycia in a few years, I will always miss her, and remember that beautiful smile that lit up the world. R.I.P Leesie. I love you always.
From Brandi and Kailee.
My heart goes out to you. It is so sad that this happened in our community and shouldn't happen in any community.
I hope you and others join me in contacting our Legislators and demand these dangerous predators face stiffer sentences and if they know they will offend again, send them where they cannot harm another child.
Thank you for your touching comment. Alycia's death is a loss to our entire community.
Leesie was a distant cousin of mine as well. I was pregnant with my own daughter at the same time a her mom. The two girls played together as toddlers. Although, my child hadn't seen her baby playmate in quite a while she did clearly remember her as a fun and happy girl. I am heart broken for her family and cannot imagine the pain of this. We feel her loss in our family greatly. love you kerri and cc
Even those of us who didn't actually know Alycia are heart broken for her family and Alycia. As a parent of daughters and grandparent now of grandsons just a little younger that Alycia, the pain is unimagineable to me.
I fear that if it were one of my own, I'd be even more aggressive that Amber, her aunt is.
I just hope we can spur our legislature into finally keeping these predators off of our streets.
To Alycia's family, I too know the pain of losing a child my daughter passed away last September due to lung problems, my heart and prayers go out to your family. I am honestly sorry for your loss.
The only suggestion I can give is to remember her for who she was, so long as we all remember her so is truly not gone it is when we forget that one is gone from us. We all must find a way to protect our children from these types of people, thought I do not live in your state I do
have family out there.
If there is anything we out this way can do to help along then I will look for it and do what I can to help make our world a little safer.
My heart goes out to this family, I just read about this story online and it makes me sick to think something like this happened to a sweet young girl. After reading all the comments I will contact my state represenatives so tough laws can be enforced. I pray for the family of Alycia and My heart goes out to you guys. No child should have to die so innocently
Thank you, Rachel and all the rest.
I hope our efforts will honor Alycia's memory in some way.
Everyone should also be aware that there are groups springing up all over the country, Citizens for Legislative Change, that would lessen some penalties for sex offenders.
They claim it is only for those who are innocently caught up in the charge. They use a smoke screen of discussing cases of young people, one just over age and one just under age, to support their views.
While I can support Individual Risk Assessment on sex offenders, those deemed most likely to reoffend must be kept away from our children, not just monitored.
The death penalty is not Christian. End of story. For a party that has hijacked religion for their own political purposes on endless numbers of occasions, the Republican party's unquestioning support of the death penalty is the ultimate in hypocrisy.
Alycia's murder was a horrific act by a horrible person. Killing him won't bring her back, and it won't resolve a thing except satisfy the unChristian motivations of revenge.
It might not be in accord with 'your' idea of Christianity, but recall the Mosaic Laws of Ancient Israel, handed down by God to the Israelites.
Several instances are given where someone would forfeit their life, by stoning back then. We have progressed beyond stoning, but forfeiture of one's life is still called for all legal.
Yes, executing him will not bring her back, that is true. But it sure will guarantee he never does it again to someone else's child, should some slick slip and fall attorney gain him his freedom one day.
This is not Republican versus Democrat and should not even be a partisan issue, but people like you wish to make it so.
So tell us all, just what do you propose to do with child predators and murderers? Jus twhat would you do with the other known convicted Level III sex Offenders currently walking through the same field where Alycia was murdered?
WHAT DO YOU PROPOSE TO PROTECT CHILDREN FIRST?
Not to defend "slip and fall" attorneys, but the killer confessed, and the GPS was used to confirm it. So he won't ever be a free man again, death penalty or not.
My "idea" of Christianity. Sigh. Which is it? "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" or "turn the other cheek?" They're both in the Bible. The modern Christian religion cleaves most faithfully to Jesus' teachings in the New Testament, espousing the latter. The Old Testament, in which the former appears, is more closely in line with the Qu'ran and the Torah. Killing a murderer puts us on their level. Plain and simple. "Thou shalt not kill" is pretty hard to misread.
I don't propose anything. That's not my place, and it's not like anyone's going to act on my propositions. Murdering murderers certainly won't help anything, though.
And a 13 year-old innocent girl is dead that should be going to school, playing with friends and growing into a woman.
You cannot guaruntee that someone later on declares the predator "cured" or some judge decides prisons are overcrowded and releases him on parole.
At this point, we don't even know he will be convicted, but assume he will. If he is, as many expect, why should he live out his life, maybe another 40 or 50 years, provided he never is released, at taxpayers expense, fed, clothed, free medical, dental, and filing endless appeals on our tax dollars?
How comforting to our community to know that a GPS tracking unit confirmed his presence, AFTER a 13 year-old was murdered.
I am constantly amazed at people who show more concern and compassion for murderers and predators than they do the victims.
I'm guessing the "people who show more concern and compassion for murderers and predators than they do the victims" was directed at me. Great. Way to utilize another hoary old right-wing tool and COMPLETELY FABRICATE something. Clearly because I disagree with you I love murderers and hate that poor little girl. Wow.
In answer to your question, I'd propose another. Why should we commit government-sponsored murder?
"Thou shalt not kill" is pretty hard to misread.
The actual translation was "Thou Shalt not MURDER."
By the call of "turn the other cheek," I suppose he should be forgiven and allowed to continue walking the streets? If we are to "turn the other cheek," why do we have Military, Police, Courts, Prisons and laws?
Like I said, "Executing" murderers ensures that they will never harm another innocent person.
Now, take out your Bible and read long with Theology Online, The Death Penalty
I'm not defending anyone here (Lawyer. Judge, the sicko murder...
But I would like to address this statement.
How comforting to our community to know that a GPS tracking unit confirmed his presence, AFTER a 13 year-old was murdered.
Of course it was after. Non of this technology is preventive. Video cameras, GPS, computer IP address. Its all to build the case after you screw up.
Nothing is going prevent a monster from doing the crim. All we can do is get the most evidence and put them away forever.
I do like the idea of keeping them alive and every-night before light out, a family member gets to whack him in the mouth. But thats me.
'Like I said, "Executing" murderers ensures that they will never harm another innocent person.'
So does locking them up and throwing away the key. And then we don't have blood on our collective hands. I don't know if it's just some macho thing for you or what, but it's pretty disturbing how lightly some of your ilk take the prospect of murdering another human being.
Execution lets criminals off. By lowering ourselves to their level and committing their crime against them, we're granting them release from the circumstances of their act. It's proven not to be a deterrent, and keeping these people alive to have their circumstances remind them of their crimes for the rest of their lives certainly isn't the "cakewalk" scenario you make it out to be. "Oh great! Free room and board! No more taxes! Free healthcare! Why doesn't everyone go to jail?" Um, how about peeing in the same room you sleep in? Fights with other inmates? Isolation? Terrible food? No rights?
Oh, and Pastor Enyart's rant is based on the worst methods of scholarship imaginable. He makes no use of manuscripts and alternative readings of the texts. He also fails to take into account the cultural implications of retranslations and biases of scribes. Nothing useful can be gleaned from that diatribe, because of the misguided and misinformed "interpretation" applied in its compilation.
Nothing is going prevent a monster from doing the crim. All we can do is get the most evidence and put them away forever.
Now you sound like that Corrections Office who said, "These things happen."
Why should taxpayers support him, including the family of the girl he murdered, for the rest of his life?
Isn't that cruel to expect the parents of the one he murdered to pay for his free care from now on?
Execution lets criminals off. By lowering ourselves to their level and committing their crime against them, we're granting them release from the circumstances of their act.
Release? And you said you were of the Christian belief? Wouldn't he be burning in hell for his crimes?
Since execution was mandated by God, it is hardly murder for the state to take the life of one who forfeited his right to live by killing another needlessly.
Then again, since the mood of the country is to go to assisted suicide, executions may just be another form of that acceptable method to kill.
You can't have it both ways.
It's proven not to be a deterrent
No such thing has been "proven." While there are arguments on both sides, more murders are being committed since the Supreme Court struck it down in the early 70's and reinstated it with endless appeals that result in many staying alive for 20 to 25 years.
Speculation at best.
keeping these people alive to have their circumstances remind them of their crimes for the rest of their lives certainly isn't the "cakewalk" scenario you make it out to be
How does it escape you that if they had a conscience that "would keep them awake at night," they wouldn't have committed the murder in the first place?
Like I said, you people show more compassion to the murderer than you do the victims.
If you can't accept the original meanings of the words translated, you are hopeless. Then again, it helps to cling to your own misguided Liberal Theology that accepts everything ungodly in too many of today's churches.
Yes, I've seen your type before, many times. "Oh, God didn't really mean that when it said it."
Does it escape you that Jesus did not have the New Testament to speak from? Did he not speak from the only known scripture at the time, the Old Testament?
How fast modern Liberal Christianity came to just disregard God's own words.
Long term, we need a constitutional amendment, or two: one federalizing sex crimes against children, and the other making it explicit that the death penalty is neither cruel nor unusual for someone convicted of any sex crime against a child. I write this as the child of a sex offender, actually, and would not have worked to prevent his execution.
We need this to end the hodge-podge of state laws without a simple Federal power grab (hence the amendment). I have seen the treatment my father receives, and I think it might actually increase the likelihood of reoffending, especially when combined with the socially destablizing effects that come with sex offender registration. So why turn these people back to the streets and set up a system that makes our children less safe?
Such a move will in the short run actually drive reporting levels down, and increase the likelihood a child will not testify against his/her abuser as there will be additional pressure. "If you talk to them, they might kill grandpa/daddy/uncle bob/ms. gray." In time however as this becomes less controversial, the reporting rate will rebound and these people will essentially have one chance to hurt someone (before they are ever convicted) and no chance afterward. It will take these amendments though, and I doubt many of the current democratic senators would support one like that, never mind sponsor it. I've researched this for years now...the recidivism for most sex offenders is much lower than most people think, but if "we" are going to make life after release unstable in ways which increase the likelihood of harm to our children, then we should not allow them that chance.
I'm assuming you are a different anonymous than who has been commenting.
Yes, we need uniformed laws and penalties.
Just last week, one of our local Republcian Senators tried for an amendment once againi to stiffen penalties on these predators and was denied by the imposing of Parlamentary Procedures.
It is going to take the loud voices of all of us across the land to drown hte bleeding hearts that keep giving these animals "second chances."
Washington State Democrats Block Stronger Sex Offender Laws
There are also groups popping up across the country, "Citizens for Legislative Change" that cloud the issue by putting forth the cases where teens engaged in sexual relations, one just over the age of consent and one just under, are unfair and unjust to the labeled "sex offender."
They neglect those multitude of circumstances where repeat offenders continue to offend, all too often going unreported.
Because I am a libertarian, I value the 10th amendment. That is why I would like to see an amendment to the US constitution federalizing such crimes, rather than a simple expansion by fiat of federal (becoming national) authority.
Make the laws plain: if the pepetrator is an adult, legally, and the victim is 12 or under, it's the death penalty if there was any type of intercourse. If the victim was simply a minor (13 to age of consent) and the perpetrator was 25 or older...death penalty.
For all convicted sex offenders, and perhaps anyone incarcerated who will be 60 or more upon release...the option of a Jack Kevorkian-style suicide booth. These people will have no life when released. I read of a 72 year old sex offender released who exposed himself within hours of his release. Was he incorrigible? I doubt it, so much as he wanted to go back to where he got his three-square each day and bed, and didn't have the nerve/strength to murder someone on in the inside to increase his sentence.
Seeing this up-close, I think a lot of what is done to "treat" sex offenders and protect society increases societal risks by increasing alienation and destabilization...so better just to execute them or give them the way out. Write your senators now!
I feel so bad for what the helpless girl had to go through before her death
Right now she is in a better place where there is no more pain
God help her family
The parents should never allow a 13 year old girl to walk alone or with a friend unsupervised
The parents should always be careful when it comes to their children safety
It takes only one single mistake that can make you regret it for the rest of your life
Parents can only do so much. No matter how good a parent or even the child, they pull bone-head steps that parents usually find out about and get the chance to correct.
In poor Alycia's case, her moment of bad judgement cost her her life because a known Level III sex offender was permitted to freely roam the neighborhood as a "transient" with residents having no knowledge he was there.
But, recall when you were 13. We all made bad decisions that fortunately, our parents had the chance to correct us for.
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