Heartbreaking
Mom Killed for Her 3-Day-Old Baby Was Just Going About Her Day
If you've been following the story of Kayla Golden, the mom killed while trying to protect her 3-day-old baby son from a kidnapper in the parking lot of a Texas pediatrician's office, your heart has probably been doing what mine has through the whole ordeal. Bouncing up and down in my chest like a basketball. The news that baby Keegan Schuchardt has been found alive and well should give us a rest.
But now cops are saying Verna Deann McClain, the registered nurse they have arrested and charged with capital murder in the case, didn't target Kayla Golden. They think she just wanted to steal a baby. Any baby.
In other words? This was a random act of senseless violence against a woman who was just ... living her life.
Shudder.
It's hard to put into words why the police report leaves me so unsettled. The story would still be tragic if the 30-year-old McClain (who has a 16-year-old child at home ... you do the math) had picked out 28-year-old Golden and said, "Hey, I'm going to shoot her in cold blood as I try to steal her baby today." A baby would still be left without a mother, his dad, Keith Schuchardt, left to raise a child without a partner.
But I'm going to go out on a limb here. When a criminal targets one person in particular, it gives us the rest of us -- as selfish as I know this will sound -- some relief. This was between the two (or three in this case ... there was apparently a man in McClain's car) of them. We -- the public -- were never at risk. It's an incident that has clear borders.
When police come out and admit that a victim was chosen more at random, that distance that allows us to go about our own daily lives suddenly gets broken down. There is no clearly defined border. There is a jagged edge, oozing out into our safe zone. Kayla Golden's fate could have been ours, or our sister's, our cousin's, our niece's. Little baby Keegan could have been our son, our nephew, our cousin's kid ...
My heart breaks for little Keegan, his dad, and the rest of Kayla's family and friends today. They never expected a trip to the pediatrician's office would end in tragedy. It was just part of the normal routine of life. I hope that the little boy can give them some comfort in the coming days and weeks ahead. The hope of someone so innocent and pure is probably what we all need to get through moments like this.
What have you been thinking about since you heard about Kayla and little Keegan?
Image via Montgomery County Police
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Gretta
Kristin McShane
This story is horrible. whenever i hear about this kind of thing, I wonder what goes through the other woman's head that she would kill someone and steal her baby. There are many legal ways to get a baby, adoption, foster care, surrogacy. It's tragic when people stoop to this level and leave this poor boy without his mom.
HockeyMomNJ
scary
BusyMom7789
This is a scary thought for any pregnant woman. It's not just a stranger on the street you have to watch out for but maybe someone in the hospital staff you encountered while getting treatment.
Mamaceda
LoriAnn87
My heart goes out to her family and it's really sad that little boy will never know his mom. It really makes me upset and mad that instead of these women adopting a child who needs a loving family they rather stalk and kill a innocent women for there child. How sick. I hope this women rots in hell and jail.
Kay Beets Hickey
lalaboosh
MaiasMommy619