At age 18, in a May 1975 high school newspaper editorial, she wrote:
Murder is a horrible crime to commit,
and of course the offender must be punished,
but does that mean he should rot in prison until he dies?
I don’t think so . . . nor do I think any person has the right to say someone should never be let out of prison, or give them the death penalty.
Put yourself in their shoes — the convicts are still humans, too.
I hope people will be willing to help them and lend support in convicts’ efforts to rehabilitate themselves.
Six months later, she was raped, strangled, and stuffed into a culvert under a gravel road, where she lay hidden until spring rains washed her nude body into a muddy ditch.
She is Iowa Cold Case #7600382, and her killer(s) remain at large.
![12472659_10209083381071595_8130096664947731836_n[1].jpg](https://images.ecency.com/p/pBMyo3B2SaoC4ZRzyPFS6GjuPkpgZWRpnz35x1qPA2QK5XUZNmK2d5mv8yuzoZoZttNrTk9mMnxELjqNuz1f6TdcTzCJdXadt1pw9V1D2RHsTVcWArQkgg8mLP2BjmKJisRzhL93xQNtvRzfEBavE9B46mkD9fKhqKZNuN8BUdqRtevz?format=match&mode=fit)
What is it about these girls that makes them mean so much to us?
Who are they, why are their stories so compelling, and why are they so much the same?
image by Alexandr Ivanov 
http://allthelostgirls.com/
Julie was a free thinker, a rebel, an iconoclast, ahead of her times, and much maligned for it.
Would she still hold the same idealistic, humanitarian views, if she could come back, see her killer(s) growing old and enjoying their grandchildren, while she is frozen forever in time at almost 19?
The truth is best told in the guise of fiction, and I'm often told this story needs to be brought into the light.
In 1500 words or less, what would anyone say? Not even a 600-page novel would do it for me.
And so I write around this "skeleton in the closet," the corpse in the culvert, the girl disposed of like trash, in a community where nobody will "out" the killer(s).
If anyone writers read this and think "I could do a story on this," let me know, and I'll launch another contest.
Susan Taylor Chehak nails it:
There seem to be so many of them, both real and imagined,
and yet the story never grows old, as we somehow remain fascinated
by the Lost Girl whenever she appears in our midst.
Her story continues to touch us deeply.
Often our interest is sordid, exhilarated by fear and shock and anger
and the gratifying possibilities of righteous acts of revenge.
We like to think that we will to go to any lengths to keep our little girls safe,
capture and punish the monsters who prey upon them,
find those who have been lost to us,
and bring them back to innocence,
back to safety, back home where they belong.
You can read more about Julie at my blog: https://carolkean.wordpress.com/2013/02/15/iowa-cold-case-my-sister-julie/
Thank you. (And thank you for dispensing with condolences.) :-)
Julie at 17 with her artwork, sewing, and music posters
Julie (in the classic cat-eye glasses) is the oldest of five sisters, all born barely more than a year apart
I'm front row, left
