I attended my high school class reunion in 2004 in Gatesville, Texas. The reunion was great because of all the people there. As most of you know, it is a special pleasure to see all those old friends that you went to school with so many years ago, and to catch up on the old times. It is always (almost always) fun and interesting to find out how far everyone has gone since graduation, and what has gone on since the last reunion. Along with all the reminiscing, it is just a pleasure to get to know people that you may not have known as well in high school.
In 2004, I had the privilege to speak with Kathy Munday Stobaugh during that reunion. I had never really gotten to know her in high school, and that is my personal loss, I will readily admit. I was helping out in the kitchen preparing for the beginning of the reunion. Kathy walked in, began helping organize things, and also just began smiling and talking with everyone. She literally brightened the party that night. For those of us who had not known her well during the school years, it was truly a blessing to talk with her and hear her laugh as she told some of her stories. By the time the reunion was over, those of us who had spoken at length with Kathy came away feeling so happy to have spent the time with her, and share with her in her own new-found happiness.
You see, Kathy Munday Stobaugh told me and a few others that she was getting divorced soon, that she would have the papers signed before the end of the year (2004) and that she was eager to begin her new life. Kathy talked about her final realization that she did not have to live in an abuse-filled marriage for the rest of her life. She let everyone know that she was eager to continue her new career as a teacher in Sanger, Texas. She and another former class-mate planned a major shopping trip for the upcoming Christmas season. At last, the reunion ended and we all went our separate ways. I watched Kathy Munday Stobaugh drive away that night, never imagining that none of us would ever see her alive again. The last possible thought I could have imagined was that in just a few short weeks she would disappear. That was much more of a shock than the fact that the only viable suspect was her husband, Charles Stobaugh.
Unfortunately, Kathy Stobaugh's body has never been found. Charles Stobaugh stopped cooperating with the police only a few days into the investigation of Kathy's disappearance. Over the next few months Charles Stobaugh generated a web of conflicting accounts and outright lies concerning Kathy's last moments with him. Kathy Munday Stobaugh was never seen again. Even more telling, she never again attempted to speak to her children. She never appeared at her job again or even called the school to let them know she was not coming back. Her bank account never saw any further activity, and her divorce attorney waited for Kathy at that last appointment that Kathy would never keep.
Days turned to weeks, to months, and finally to years. Kathy's mother never saw her daughter again, nor even learned where her body was hidden. Mrs. Munday passed away and I am sure that she and Kathy are now reunited in a much fairer land than this. But in this vale of tears in which we live, Kathy's surviving family saw the years pass with no word from Kathy, with no news from the police, and no sense of closure, if there is such a thing.
Finally, after six years, Charles Stobaugh was put on trial and eventually found guilty of murder. Tomorrow we will learn what his sentence will be. No doubt he will appeal the sentence for one reason or another. Regardless, he has been held accountable for what he did to Kathy, and hopefully he will spend a good long time behind bars for his crime. Unfortunately, with no body ever found, and no indication of a crime scene ever located, there will always be whispers from some corner that Kathy Munday Stobaugh is still alive and well, maybe in some other state or even out of this country. Already there are rumblings on the Internet that Project Innocence or some other "justice watch dog" has already shown an interest in the verdict of this trial. But we should all understand that the jury found no "reasonable doubt" that Kathy Stobaugh had been murdered and that Charles Stobaugh was the murderer.
My hope is that the Munday family will find comfort now, and will eventually be reunited with the children that Charles Stobaugh alienated from the them. Above this, I hope that Charles Stobaugh will do the right thing and take that final step, letting the Mundays know where he laid Kathy's body after he snuffed out her beautiful life.
No comments:
Post a Comment