I just found out a woman I used to know was murdered back in the 1980s.

I briefly had a crush on her that went nowhere. She was pretty, fun, and very nice, but not all that bright as I recall. Probably it wasn't all that much than young man's hormones that defined my interest. I liked her though, and after I got over my infatuation, we were friends.

She was in a circle of friends who worked at a hospital where I had one of my first jobs as a pharmacy tech. After I'd written her off, we got together for one of those Florida spring break things that went on in the 1970's, where I stayed in her and her friend's room for a night (simply platonic).

I flirted with her friend, and that went nowhere too but we had some nice conversations under the evening sky, drinking on a veranda overlooking the sea in Fort Lauderdale. I still remember the night, not the details, but I have an eidetic memory of the night, the sky, the veranda, and the sea.

Then I met her sister, and I had a minor infatuation with her sister, for whom I wrote a song (at her request) that I ended up playing in clubs here and there, a silly ditty about one of the sister's infatuations that went nowhere.

I found myself remembering the lyrics to the song for her sister out of nowhere, and now, in the age of the internet, I searched her name, which apparently never changed.

I found out the sister, the object of my song, is still alive, and then I found out, in the search, that the older sister - with whom this started - had been murdered in 1988 while transporting diamonds for her employer. The news story said that she was a "sweet young woman," (which is how I remember her) then 33, who was out of her league, but apparently that sort of thing, transporting diamonds was done in that era in the 1980s "on a handshake." She was beaten to death, and her body was pulled out of a river a few weeks after she disappeared.

One of the diamonds stolen was recovered; the other five went missing. It seems that someone was arrested, for having the diamond, but there was no information about charges connected with the murder.

Only one other murder touched me in my life, indirectly since I didn't actually know the victim - he was my grandfather - and as I heard it, no one was surprised he was murdered, and no one cared much that he was, except my Grandmother and apparently the British Army because he was decorated for something or another in the World War I trenches.

Anyway, it's weird and sad. As I said, she was a nice person when I knew her, but I'd long been out of touch with her when it went down, having moved to California, married, and all of that.

A sad thing...

The connection is weak, and a long time ago, but I hate to think of her dying that way. She couldn't have deserved an outcome like that.