Donna Ann Thayer 2/14/1967 ~ 7/16/2009
July 16th was like any other morning, where you drag yourself out of bed, clinging to your slumber as long as possible, before you have to run around like a chicken with your head cut off to make it to work on time. Work was your typical day, lots of work to do and it's endless hours until you can go home. All in all, it was just my usual day.... or so I thought.
I got home around 3:00pm, and Thomas had arrived shortly after I did. He sat down to beat some game he had been battling to win. I needed to go take some books back to the library and possibly hit Borders for their huge book sale. He kissed me goodbye and I took off to the library. After I left the library, I called Thomas to see if I really should go check Borders out, since I had barely just checked some more books out. He was like " Well, do whatever you want, I'm still playing this damn game." AKA...YES. ;)
So I went to Borders, spent maybe 20 minutes in there. I have my little handheld basket with a few books in it and I head to the checkout line. My phone starts to ring, I held my basket in the other hand at this point and dug my phone out of my pocket. I saw that it was Thomas, probably telling me how pissed he was at his game.
Well, here was the conversation:
Me: Hey!
Thomas: UH, hey....um....where are you?
Me: At Borders still, I'm leaving shortly...why?
Thomas: You can't come home.
Me: What the hell are you talking about?
Thomas: Listen...UH...some cops just came by our door to ask some questions, so uh yeah it's really crazy right now....they were asking me if I heard gunshots or fighting next door....so...
Me: WHAAAAAAAAAAATT????!!! Why would they ask you that?!!! What's going on??!!!!
Thomas: I have no idea, Somer!! I'm totally freaking out over here. I think it's our neighbor across the hall...something has happened to her...they found her shot dead in her bedroom.
Me: OH MY GOD, Thomas!!! (I burst into tears and drop my basket) Please don't say things like that, HOW??!!!
Thomas: I don't know, but the officer told me that I should probably get out of here. I told him that I would call you and I would take off. Somer, there are cops everywhere....I can even see her sons outside on the sidewalk crying!!!
Me: What are we going to do?!!! Are you sure it's her?!!!! I'm scared!!!
Thomas: I think so, I'm sorry...I'm going to take off right now...let's go meet somewhere....
Me: Was it murder??? Someone came in and murdered her?? Did you hear anything??? Is he still there?? OH MY GOD, THOMAS...I am freaking out!!!
Thomas: Listen, you need to just calm down, there's nothing we can do except just let the police investigate, they don't know what's going on...just piecing things together...OK?
Me: Alright, I need to go...I'll call you in a minute...people are looking at me..Bye.
We decided to meet at a local Target a couple miles away. I didn't end up buying anything because I was shaking too much and I was in a daze. We sat together on a bench and let the breeze dry my tears. I was still hot and sweaty from being in my hot car and crying, so it felt nice to just chill out. We ended up hanging out at Thomas's parents house for a few hours and then we came back home. We walked by her patio and all her lights were on. I didn't see anything else, just no Donna.
She usually sat on her patio, smoking a cigarette, playing with her dog and would say her Hellos and Goodbyes. She occasionally had her boyfriend over that she would laugh and joke around with. He was fairly new, but she seemed to like him a lot. She used to let me play with her dog, Maddie, who was a little pomeranian. She loved to talk to Thomas and I, and she would always stop us on our way out or way in to our apartment. I didn't know her very well, but what I did know about her I liked. =)
We later found out that it wasn't murder, it was suicide.
A couple of days ago, I was in the kitchen cooking dinner, when it hit me that I had left my ipod out in my car. I scrambled around to hurry out to my car to get it. I opened the door to find Donna's boyfriend standing at her door with a note that he had left stuck on her door. My eyes bugged out of my head, because right then, I realized that he didn't know. I said, " Oh, hi..how are you?" He's like, " I'm good...how are you?" I said, " I'm doing well, thanks..." I turned around slightly to lock my door. I said that I had to hurry and run a couple of errands. The only thing was that I had neglected to throw any shoes on, obviously because I was only planning on running out to my car. I didn't want him to know that though, or else he probably would've wanted to stick around an chat. It wasn't my place to tell him what had happened, but later on I was questioning on whether I should have or not. I just felt so bad that he thought he was being ignored, but that wasn't the case at all. I ended up calling the police to tell them he had been by and for someone to notify him. I felt even worse when I read the note going back to my apartment. It said, " Bonjour Donna, I very much care for you. Love, D." I haven't seen him since.
It's weird because I can't help but look at her car when I pull up to my parking stall or look up at her patio expecting her to still be there. I have no idea what would prompt her to do that, but I don't think any life is worth not living.
