Post by Phebe Obong (@PhebeObong)

The story of Crystal Gail Pike resurfaced online last week after reports of her failed execution by lethal injection went viral.

After going through trends about the case and learning that she had spent more than 30 years on death row, I found myself thinking about a completely different part of the story.

The part that says she had told someone a day before the murder that she would kill her victim. And I kept thinking about that young person she reportedly told.

I don’t know who that person was. It wasn’t mentioned in the different accounts I listened to. I don’t know whether it was a boy or a girl, and I don’t know what eventually became of them.

But I keep wondering what went through that young person’s mind when they eventually realised that what they had been told the previous day had actually happened.

Imagine being a teenager and hearing someone say, “I’m going to kill this person,” and then, hours later, you discovered that the person has actually being murdered and the obvious suspect is the same person who had told you.

What would you be thinking about?
Would you blame yourself for not saying something?

What if I had told an elder?
what if I had warned the victim?
What if I had taken those words seriously?
Could I have prevented it?

In my head as an adult, the what ifs are endless.

And as someone who has spent time working with teenagers, mentoring young people in my little way, and having conversations around the things they go through, I cannot help but think about the psychological weight that such an experience could leave behind.

Of course, I am not saying that this young person was responsible for the murder. The responsibility belongs to the person who committed the crime.

But I wonder what it must be like to live with the knowledge that you once had information about something terrible before it happened.

And I wonder what eventually happened to that young person, and how they were able to talk themselves out of the trauma and continue living guiltless.

And I hope the met Jesus somehow on life’s way.

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