My brother in law was shot and killed on Christmas Eve...

purbeast0

No Lifer
Sep 13, 2001
53,475
6,316
126
My brother in law lives in VA and was down in NC with his roommate to visit his roommates family, and he ended up being shot and killed early Christmas eve, by his own roomate.

He turned 32 in early December and leaves behind a 12 year old son, a 7 year old son, and a 1.5 year old daughter.

The investigation is still on going.


I have really been debating even posting anything about this, as I am not a fan of asking for handouts, but I have decided to do so for a few reasons.

1. It is definitely some way to help me personally cope with this. I am not good with death and the only real close person I have lost before was my dad but that was in 2009. My wife and her family have never lost anyone so close to them so this comes to a shock to all of us. This also came after my family had to cancel our Christmas plans to hangout with both my family and her family, after my wife and son came down with covid on the 18th, and then I actually came down with it on the 23rd. So I had to deal with hanging out with his family on Xmas eve while being covid positive, but we put that aside and I just masked up, keeping my distance as much as I could.

2. My wife's family is not the most well off family and the expenses for a sudden burial right after spending money on everyone for Christmas gifts is a lot more than most people just have sitting around. The total cost of everything is going to be over $25k that suddenly has to come up with and it's tough for them. My mother in law doesn't even work and is on disability as well, so the burden of this is being put on the 4 remaining siblings, my wife included, and of course we (myself included) is helping out as much as we can.

And I am trying to help them out as much as I possibly can so I thought posting the gofundme here is at least me trying to get some more help for them. I can truly say I have gone through all of my options.

That said, and I got approval from moderators about this, I am going to post a gofundme link that my little brother in law started before we even knew about the costs of this. We thought it would maybe be around $10k but then we quickly learned that $10k may not even cover the cemetery cost - they went to the cemetery earlier today and discussed that, but I haven't heard back from my wife yet. But the funeral services costs alone are about $15k. And the funeral home told them the cemetery portion should be around $10k.

I don't expect anyone or everyone to donate anything to this, but if you can, any little bit will help and I can assure you that myself and my wife's family will be forever grateful. They have been so touched by how much they have already raised in the gofundme and it's going to help out tremendously as to what we already have in there.

Here is the link below, and again, thank you very much if you are able to help out any bit.

 

deadlyapp

Diamond Member
Apr 25, 2004
6,650
731
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I'm very sorry for your loss, and not to be callous, but if cost is a significant issue, is there a reason they aren't looking at a cremation and a more informal memorial service?
 

Torn Mind

Lifer
Nov 25, 2012
12,004
2,748
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I would look into see what civil actions you can take against the shooter, or if it prudent to even bother(he may be indigent). iI it took place on the premises of a third party, the third party may be held liable).

I learned eventually that the faces people present can be a facade to hide the unsavory. I speculate this roommate-murderer must have carried himself quite "normal" in his conduct to gain people's trust.
 
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Mai72

Lifer
Sep 12, 2012
11,562
1,741
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This. Put me in the trash bin. I'll mix the wife's ashes in concrete rocks and toss them in flowing water everywhere I go. My son, casket, ground.

Reminds me of a fuinny incident that took place years ago betweeen my dad and my uncle's wife. My aunts (they were twins) had 2 small dogs. One was named Pumpkin, and I can't remember the name of the other dog. Anyway, they had both dogs cremeated and put into an urn that sat on the kitchen table. My dad had no idea. He opened the top on the urn and my one aunt shouted "That is PUMPKIN!! Close the lid." Weird people. :D
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,585
30,836
146
Very sorry to hear this, purbeast0. It's a horrible thing to go through, especially this time of year. This is when I lost my brother (2009) and father (2016), and while it gets easier, it's never "normal" and it always comes back around to all of the expected family responsibilities at the end of each year. It's tough.

Wishing the best for you and your family.
 

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,337
10,855
136
As mentioned in the other thread this completely sucks. :(

Best thing you can do is exactly what you're doing.... hang in there and stay strong for your family.


EDIT: Good job with the "sticky" mods. :hearteyes:
 
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MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
25,873
24,213
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I'll just say... religious beliefs from his mom.
Yeah my father wanted to get cremated but he died overseas among the Greek Orthodox, and it wasn't even an option. It's becoming an option in mainland Greece because they are literally running out of room but in smaller locals there is literally is zero option for cremation.
 
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Perknose

Forum Director & Omnipotent Overlord
Forum Director
Oct 9, 1999
46,737
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All's well that (given the tragic circumstances) ends well (enough.)
 

Perknose

Forum Director & Omnipotent Overlord
Forum Director
Oct 9, 1999
46,737
10,271
146
Sorry, purbeast0 posted this in the MD thread wherein he'd requested permission to start this thread:

@Perknose thanks for stickying the thread.

You can go ahead and unsticky it if you would like. We have concluded all of the services and stuff and the gofundme did help us quite a bit but at this point it's fine to just let it sink into the normal thread pool.
 
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highland145

Lifer
Oct 12, 2009
43,973
6,336
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We'll, the ignorant and uninformed responded before you....nvm.

Apologies, purbeast0.


What happened to my PMs?