A late Friday night is usually a good indication that it was a good Friday night, and that was the case this past weekend. Early that following morning, I awoke to the sound of my phone and my friend Jill’s voice.

“Hey, I just heard there was a shooting in Sherburne and someone was murdered.” 

I couldn’t believe it at first and thought maybe that there might be some other way to explain the incident.

“I know some members of the family and they called me this morning and told me.”

In my last year and a half at The Evening Sun, I’ve covered three homicides, one shooting death, two attempted murders and two appealed murder cases, not counting this one. My predecessors Jude Seymour and Jeff Morse covered the same beat for about four years without a single murder.

I got myself ready in about 20 minutes. I left for Sherburne knowing only that there was a homicide. I’d figure out everything else on the fly. I stopped at the office and made several calls and spoke with a few answering machines. I eventually got hold of someone who told me the scene was along Classic Street in Sherburne. It had been about 40 minutes since I awoke.