Chris and Channon - An American Tragedy

Have you heard of Chris Newsom and Channon Christian from Knoxville, TN??? If you have then you must have accidentally found the story when you were surfing the internet because as horrific as it is not one major news channel or commentator has reported it. The evil event took place back on January 7, 2007. However, this story is being followed by thousands around the world because of the details of this crime and the fact that the trials are still going on in Knoxville.

You may be wondering why so many people would follow a story for this long a period of time. You may be thinking murders happen every day. You are correct, murders happen every day. This particular crime was especially gruesome and it was carried out by five blacks against to young white kids for no reason at all. I am not racist I am just telling it as it is - it was 5 criminals who tortured, beat, raped, burglarized, sodomized, laughed at, urinated on, and put these kids in such fear in their last hours on earth. I would be just as angry and disgusted if the criminals had been white. The point is it was a vicious crime that needs to be accounted for because the families of these two kids lives have forever changed. They will most likely never be able to get over what happened. Their hearts have been broken and there is no healing this kind of pain.

Just imagine your beautiful son or daughter leaving your home in a great mood, happy and in love and going out for the evening to be with their girlfriend or boyfriend and then never coming home again. Well that is exactly what happened to these two young kids. Now imagine, your beautiful son or daughter, without an evil bone in their body, getting carjacked and taken to another location and enduring torture for hours at the hands of these 5 monsters. It would almost be too hard to handle.

My point for this blog is out of mixed emotions within myself about this crime. When I first heard this story I wanted to read all I could and try to figure out why something this horrible happened to two innocent kids who were only out for a night of fun and a stolen moment to be together. I have not had one single day go by that I haven't gotten angry and prayed this really didn't happen and I did not even know Chris or Channon. I cry for them every day because of the pain and suffering they endured. It absolutely breaks my heart. If you want to read more please visit my website for Chris and Channon at www.chrisandchannon.com.

The mixed emotions I am feeling now after two years of following this story is some days I wish I never had accidentally found it. It has changed my life. The sadness and the anger will not leave me. Many people I tried to tell this story to when I first heard of it did not want to know the details and I could not understand why. I felt everyone needed to know so they are more aware and maybe if they know of this kind of evil they can try to prevent it. Most people have a big heart as I do, and if that is the case it will be hard to stomach the details. It is a story that if you know the details you will never be able to get them out of your mind. So, in essence, I am wondering if I would have been better off not to have opened up Pandora's box. I guess it is especially frustrating because we can't change what happened. We can't help out in anyway to bring them back and we sure couldn't save them because we were busy carrying on our lives and never would have thought anything like this could really take place. So we walk around day-to-day with a heavier heart, a little broken, really angry and we go to bed feeling very sad at this horrible loss of life. We ask ourselves over and over why not one of the perpetrators chose to be the hero and dial 911 to save these kids. It plays over and over in our minds the fear they went through, the crying and begging for mercy and the loss of dignity they were subjected to. This was a cruel and especially brutal crime against two innocent people.

What's done is done and I can't go back to the day I sat down and was surfing the internet and found this story. I have to live with it haunting me forever. I guess I should consider myself better off though than those that knew Chris and Channon, those that raised Chris and Channon and all those that loved Chris and Channon. For had I actually known them I think I would be much worse off than I am now.