This article may be the most difficult one I’ve had to write so far. On Monday, November 27th, Kristy Woods, mother of 3 year old Mariah, reported to the police that her daughter had gone missing form her bed sometime after 11:30 the night before. An Amber alert was issued shortly after she was reported missing, and it wasn’t long before the FBI was involved and the headline was all over national news. The police department, FBI investigators, several local volunteers, and even marines from Camp Lejeune have been working tirelessly to find her.
As of December 1st, Kristy Woods’ boyfriend, Earl Kimrey was arrested on the charges of concealing a death and obstruction of death, and is being held under a $1 million bond. Officials also reported that they had enough evidence to suspect that Mariah was dead, but they hadn’t been able to find the body yet. The next day, however, the remains of Mariah Woods were found in a creek in Pender County.
I had so many different emotions while this story unfolded. Mainly, I was angry. Anger towards this man for stealing this little girl’s feeling of comfort and safety, and obviously her life, and anger towards him for completely destroying her mother’s life. What really caught my attention about this story though, was the fact that this little girl literally lived about 10 miles from my house, and her body was found not much farther from that. I’ve actually passed that specific trailer park that she lived in while driving to the beach millions of times. For some reason, this tragedy occurring so close to my home made it that much more tragic. You hear about this type of stuff happening all over the world every single day, but when it basically happens in your own back yard it’s so much harder to believe. Home is supposed to be a safe place where nothing bad can happen and no one can get you. It’s where your parents and dogs live, and the place that always gives you a warm fuzzy feeling and never ever changes every time you go back no matter how long you’ve been gone. My heart aches for this little girl knowing that she will never get to experience that feeling. It saddens me to know that there are people in this world like her mother’s boyfriend that can somehow manage to find it in themselves to harm an innocent being like a three year old girl, and I truly believe there is a special place in hell for those people. Now we can only hope that justice will be fairly served and her mother can begin to find peace again.