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I watched a heart-wrenching 20/20 story last night about the abduction, rape and murder of the three-year-old Riley Fox in Wilmington Illinois. The case was straightforward. The father was initially accused of the murder for a variety of reasons - one was that the police had manipulated a confession out of him, and had made him do a lie detector test under duress, which he failed, so they didn't want to admit their mistakes. The father served eight months in jail, but was later released since DNA evidence pointed to another man.
But, I wasn't interested in the murder story as much as in the family dynamics. What first caught my attention was how Riley's young parents met. Melissa Fox says she met her future husband Kevin when she was a high school freshman and he a junior at a volleyball game. Kevin then interjected and said she asked him to the prom. He accepted, they dated, and later married. Riley was their second child at the time of her murder, with an older brother Tyler.
Strike #1. I kept that subtle reversal of roles of who asked whom for a date in mind as I decided to follow the story.
The night the little girl was killed, Melissa was away for the weekend on a breast cancer awareness walk in nearby Chicago.
Strike #2. A mothers who leaves her real life, dependent children behind for a woman-power weekend.
Kevin, on his part (his guys night out) attended a rock concert that night, and left his children with their grandmother for the evening.
Strike #3. Competition between the parents about nights out away from family and children, initiated by the wife. I think men are much less happy about staying home while their wives have nights out than is normally admitted.
Kevin was probably a little tipsy and tired when he picked his children up and took them home late that night (or early at 1 in the morning). He put them to sleep in the living room in the front of the house, with Riley and one sofa and Tyler on another. He went to sleep in his and his wife's bedroom. This made me cringe. The two young children were literally in the line of fire in the living room, which is the front room of the house. Their parents' bedroom is behind the living room.
Strike #4. Mothers are often the ones who make sure their children are safe and secure, with tucks and good nights. A father, especially one like Kevin who is tired and impatient, would only think of "let's get them to sleep." I don't think mothers, who are more prone to worrying about the smallest dangers, would ever let their children sleep in the front of the house, close to the entrance.
A robber was doing his rounds across the street when he decided to try out the Fox's house too. He found the Fox's house wih a broken gate, and an unlocked front door. The Fox's knew about this problem, but it was Melissa who would secure the locks and windows before the family went to sleep (as she recounts here). These are the small details that mothers attend to before turning in to bed.
Strike #5. No mother in the house to secure the small details.
And the rest is a murder story.
But, it doesn't end here.
What I write below are purely my speculations, and the accusations and conclusions I make are my own.
Melissa comes back from her ridiculous female empowerment weekend to find a destroyed family. I wonder how she reacts? I wonder who she blames? I would say that she failed. She failed to use her superior female instincts and behavior to provide a safe environment for her family. She unduly caused marital competition by leaving her husband and going on a trip unrelated or not beneficial to him or her family, causing him to plan a night out also, which left him too tired and mildly drunk to take care of his children. She left her husband to fend for things that she would have normally taken care of, in a much more superior and efficient manner.
My instincts is that she blamed her husband. I say this because they are now separated. "How could you let the children sleep in the front room?" would be her incredulous question. Kevin was only being as efficient as he knows best; a bed is a bed, he was tired, and it was late.
But, it all started with that spunky girl in high school, who thought she could turn things around, and follow all those girl power cliches. Well, yes, she asked her husband out, but she also, by my speculation, caused the marital breakdown. And all for a weekend out with her girlfriends, based on a false and dangerous premise of "girl power." Was it worth it all?
