OPPapers.com

Daylight

Daylight
What message do we send when we stop our children from celebrating holiday festivities for years after the death of a young girl? While most children are escorted through familiar neighborhoods dressed in their expressive costumes collecting bags of candy and treats from homes with porch lights lit and decked out in Halloween themes and playing spooky music; for the past 16 years, the children of Oil City Pennsylvania haven’t experienced such a grand affair unless they drive to neighboring cities or towns. Instead, the small town held their trick or treating in daylight hours that began at 3pm and ended before dark.
As a native resident of Oil City I can vividly remember the crisp northern air after the sun went down. Our pillow cases in hand, faces painted up like porcelain dolls or whatever our choice happened to be that year.
Our town was small, separated by the Allegany River; you simply had the north side and the south side. On October 27, 1992 Shauna Howe, age 11, was snatched by an unknown man around 8 pm while walking home from her Girl Scout Halloween Party. The Kidnapping occurred only blocks from her home. It was 3 days later, around 8:30 in the morning when Shauna's body was discovered in a dried up creek bed under an old railroad trestle. “Evidence says that she was alive when thrown from the trestle, and it is believed that she died of injuries caused by the fall.” (Rich Graham, 2007)
Aside from Shauna's Crumpled body, investigators found her gymnastics suit prior to finding Shauna's body. She was wearing this the night of the abduction. There was evidence of seminal fluids on young Shauna’s body suit and although vaginal and oral specimens were taken there was no usable DNA found the time of the murder. A blow pop wrapper was recovered nearby; investigators were told by a fellow Girl Scout member, that Shauna had two inside her purse. Her purse was recovered near her lifeless body but the blow pops were not there. One was said...