The Murderer

Heady stuff lately on this blog - I hadn't quite intended for things to get this morose, but I guess there's no other way around it - so I'll push on, but I'm going to postpone the final part of this blog series - the one on hang gun laws - to a later time.

The woman who murdered my brother was named Eloise Evans. I don't know much about her, in fact I never even heard her name until after she killed Zach, but I'll do my best to pass on what I do know.

She was a 50 year old African-American woman who was a student at the local community college. She already possessed a college degree but was pursuing a specialized certificate program in conjunction with BWXT Pantex - America's lone nuclear weapon assembly and disassembly facility. She had ongoing problems with her classmates and instructors - you can read more about that here.

She claimed to have some Jewish ancestry and therefore was taking Adult Education classes at the Temple. It was there that my dad met her. As a board member of the Temple, Dad goes out of his way to try and meet and greet new people. In talking to her he discovered that she was an avid and accomplished runner and invited her to participate in a run sponsored by a local running club. It was on the way back from the run that she first displayed any sign of instability: My Dad mentioned my deceased stepmother's running prowess (she was invited to participate in the 1984 Olympic Trials for the women's marathon) and Evans flipped out - yelling at my Dad to never mention my stepmother's name again. Evans had fabricated a romantic relationship between her and my father where none existed.

From there things worsened. She stalked my dad: calling him repeatedly, repetitively e-mailing him; showing up at his office, and once showing up at his house. It was then that my Dad threatened her with police involvement and a restraining order. At that point, for all intents and purposes she disappeared from Dad's life. She called him one last time a month or so before she killed Zach seeking help with the aforementioned school problems - Dad said he would see what he could do, but never heard from her again.

Two weeks before killing my brother, Eloise Evans walked into this gun store and purchased a Taurus brand revolver. The gun store owner/clerk later told the investigating officer that despite the fact that Evans was behaving strangely, he only sold her the gun because he feared she would sue him for discrimination if he refused.

The day AFTER the shootings, the police discovered she had lied on her gun application in two areas: 1) Her physical address and 2) on the box that asks if you have ever been diagnosed with having a mental illness she checked "No."

We found out that Evans had been previously diagnosed with bipolar disorder (aka manic-depressive illness) but was not taking any medication. Because of the fact that it is extremely uncommon that a person with bipolar disorder commits acts of violence against other people its entirely possible that Evans had some other type of mental illness such as schizophrenia but that is pure speculation and with her having committed suicide there is no way to accurately confirm or dismiss that notion.

Additionally, investigators discovered that Evans had a family in Missouri that she had abandoned 4-5 years earlier. If I remember correctly she had a husband and two adult children. To my knowledge no one in my family has spoken with them.

There's a great deal more to be said about Eloise Evans, but these three blog posts have been difficult to get through and I'd like to write on a few subjects that afford me a modicum of levity. That said, I'll throw these final thoughts out there: I have not forgiven Eloise Evans; I do NOT believe the death penalty is an effective deterrent for crime and I DO believe it is a highly flawed system that violates the "the cruel and unusual" clause of the Eighth Amendment; and the gun laws in this country are seriously lacking in enforcement and effectiveness.