Former Marine Charged In Connection With Clerk's Abduction, Death

[Catherine Vincent]

http://www.click2houston.com/news/4115698/detail.html

TYLER, Texas -- A college student whose abduction was captured on a surveillance videotape as she was leaving her clerk's job at a Wal-Mart was found shot to death Friday, and a suspect was arrested, authorities said. Johnny Lee Williams, 24, is the suspect in the abduction and death of a 19-year-old Wal-Mart clerk from Tyler, Texas.

The body of Megan Leann Holden, 19, was discovered in a ditch alongside a highway in western Texas. Police said she was killed at the hands of a man who went on a multistate crime spree before he turned up Friday at an Arizona hospital with a gunshot wound.

"Something happened to my son," the suspect's mother, Pat Williams, told Dallas television station KDFW, saying he had trouble adjusting to civilian life after serving in Iraq. "Some of the things that he endured I may never know. But it changed who he is and for that I'm sorry."

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It's always so sad...for all parties involved. The parents of that poor girl and the parents of the guy that killed her. But I hope we don't see anymore of this once our boys come home from Iraq.

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. Oh, yes, we'll see more of it.

After Vietnam, it was practically a given whenever there was a violent incident the perpetrators was identified as a veteran. And of course, there's Tim McVeigh.

No man can go through what we put them through and not be affected. And some are affected worse than others. They are so traumatized that the stop seeing the value of life itself.

I don't know what this guy's combat experience was, but just about everyone over there has had to deal with seeing the effects of bombings and shootings, and some can't process it.

That doesn't excuse what he did, by any means (if indeed it was him -- accused does not equal guilty). It does suggest we'll see more of it.

[glarius]

4. This is such a sad thing

I can not imagine anyone who is the least bit sensitive not being badly effected by the terrible slaughter happening in Iraq....And Bush and his buddies just sail blythly along, mouthing platitudes and presenting themselves in church as such god-loving people....It's nauseating!

[NYC]

2. I wonder how much this will be publicized.

It is the first of many such incidents.

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. Actually, far from the first.

There was a state of crisis here, in NC, a couple years ago when the first rotation of troops was returning from Iraq. In a matter of just five or six weeks, three returning soldiers killed their wives, and two of them then killed themselves. Everyone seemed shocked and surprised, as if no one remembered the same things happening after Gulf War, and Vietnam.

They have established some fairly good counseling support for the troops, now, and it seems to be working, but we don't hear about what happens once they are discharged. They sure don't get any help from the VA.

[NYC]

6. I remember that incident.

Or should I say incidents? I remember Lariam being discussed as a possible cause.

[ribrepin]

3. Reminds me more and more of Vietnam

Some will come home and pick up where they left off. But others never will get it together. And others will act out violently.

This guy may have acted violently even if he didn't serve, but we will never know.

It's a very small number of young people being asked to serve in Iraqnam. It's even worse than Vietnam--one tour and you were usually done in Vietnam. At least with the draft, even the rich were inconvenienced. These soldiers will eventually see themselves as society's throwaways with nothing to lose.

This is sad for everyone involved.

[ynksnewyork2]

7. Awful

he's had 2 drug charges too. At least it happened in Texas.

[0007]

8. Iraq war is creating many problems here at home

Bring the troops home today.

[Catherine Vincent]

9. Kick!