Pets Can Never Be Replaced

I believe online services that provide the platform for people to connect with someone who shares common interests, whom they would never have met otherwise, is fantastic.

The dangerous young man in this true crime dated a young woman in high school whom he still cared for. On her part, they were still friends. He wanted more. The plot of this crime seems to be as old as time—a man is jealous of another man because he wants the woman for himself.

When the ex-girlfriend told her ex-boyfriend, now a friend, that she’d been communicating online with a guy whom she found attractive and wanted to meet in person, the ex-boyfriend offered to drive her the 700 miles across several state lines to meet the new guy.

Before the trip, the ex-boyfriend went to the new love-interest’s home—700 miles, one-way—and attempted to kill him and his family.

On that night, the online man’s mother heard noises downstairs. The dogs were barking. She checked it out and saw a figure, assuming it was her son who lived there. After she returned to her room, the noise from downstairs continued. She went to the top of the stairs a second time and saw flames engulfing the first floor. She screamed for everyone to get out. Her parents, who lived in the basement, escaped through the storm doors. Sadly, the dogs who first alerted the homeowner about the intruder didn’t survive the fire. The residents survived.

From one grainy video taken by a neighbor’s security camera, the authorities began an investigation. The video showed a person getting something out of their trunk and going to the home. Less than thirty seconds after the person in the car drove away, the video showed smoke and then a fiery explosion at the home.

The police tracked the car using traffic cameras and license plate readers. They found the vehicle’s owner lived in a different state. When the local police spoke with the young man’s father about his vehicle being involved in a crime several state’s away, he checked the cell phone tacker he had on his son’s phone and saw he’d been in the state where the crime occurred, at the time the crime occurred.

Upon issuing a search warrant at the family home where the ex-boyfriend lived, they found a lock-picking kit and medication for treating burns.

They arrested the ex-boyfriend. He waited for extradition to the other state. While sitting in jail awaiting trial, he accepted a plea agreement. The state allowed him to plead no-contest to the attempted murder charges in exchange he’d plead guilty to arson and risking catastrophe.

A judge sentenced the 22-year-old man to a minimum of twenty years, a maximum of forty years in prison with no credit for time already served. The judge also ordered him to pay over $500,000 in restitution to the family.

At the sentencing, the judge said,

“Physical wounds heal. Property can be replaced. But pets can never be replaced, and trauma can never be erased.”

Source: County District Attorney, Law & Crime, phillyburbs.com

All data and information provided is for information and research purposes only and not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, or individual. Criminal cases may have been appealed or verdicts overturned since I researched the case. All information is provided on an as-is basis.