Tonight’s local news featured a more in depth story about the accused killer of Kelsey Smith, a beautiful 18 year old recent high school graduate who was abducted in daylight hours from Target and killed shortly thereafter. I blogged about it here. The accused killer is Edwin Hall, a young man in his mid-20s, and a product of the foster care system. Tonight’s news byte offered up some old information and some new information.


We had already known that Hall was adopted at the age of seven by a family in Emporia, Kansas. I have never seen them interviewed on camera, although tonight’s video clip showed their home. They had been interviewed by a local reporter, and she said, “"They didn’t know exactly where he came from as far as what happened to him, so they overlooked that and thought that love would heal." Hmmm, does that mean love is not enough?


The reporter also stated she believes Edwin’s adoptive family still cares about him. Of course they do. They loved him even if he was incapable of loving them back. Isn’t that part of the whole rotten aspect of this? We give and invest and pour our heart and soul into wounded kids, and how can we not grieve when they do something like this? How could we not care?


Hall was disruptive and in trouble with school and law officials throughout his adolescence. As was known before, his adoptive placement disrupted when he was in his mid-teens and he served three years in juvenile correction. That was after bashing a classmate with a bat (his adoptive mom says that was an accident) and stealing his dad’s van and stealing money from school.


He was known in school for having a quick temper and being very ready to swing and strike. One of his recent personal interactions, before being arrested, was to wage a nasty war against a local locksmith and threaten to sue the business. The owner said he used foul language and he was always nasty and belligerent … in fact, she used the term “violent” to describe his demeanor.


He was also described as a loner. Much of the description of Edwin was similar to what was said about Cho, the Virginia Tech killer.


This quote from the article pretty much sums it up:


Despite a growing disruptive path, his adoptive family tried to give him a bright future.

I have no doubt they did ...

Photo Credit 1
Photo Credit 2