On Monday, Charlie called to say that he had gotten in touch with Marc Croan, Carmen’s brother. We are going to talk to him tonight.
In the meantime, we spoke to the jailer last night. He was feeling better. He is the cousin of the woman we interviewed a couple weeks ago.
He met Carmen at church in the late seventies. He said that the night his cousin won Miss West Texas, Carmen had wanted to go, but she was too young.
I apologize in advance for not giving out names. I want to make sure people are completely comfortable with us using their real names before we identify them.
The jailer said that he didn’t start at Ector County Sheriff’s Office until 1982 – about a year after the murder. People were still talking about it, though.
He mentioned something that we’ve heard before. He was told that Carmen didn’t suffer because she had a smile – or a peaceful look – on her face.
That makes my skin crawl. It’s hard to process. Although we have no intention of giving any sort of graphic details about her murder – and we may never get to see the police report – it’s safe to say that Carmen’s body was violently attacked with a knife. We can hope that somehow God comforted her in her last minutes, but to say she didn’t suffer at all just doesn’t sit well with me.
I’m not blaming anyone… they are just telling us what they heard.
He also told us last night that there was a rumor that one of the defense attorneys and one of the prosecutors contaminated evidence in the case. I’m not sure if we could ever prove or disprove that.
Why in the world would two people – on opposite sides of the case – go together and contaminate evidence?
I guess the things that don’t sit well with me are piling up.
Say a prayer for me,
K. E.
As Crazy As It Sounds 