The local McKinney, Texas newspaper coverage of the real estate agent murder.
The local paper for McKinney, Texas is the Courier-Gazette. On their website they’ve got eight articles about the murder of Sarah Walker.
Among the more bothersome articles is the one titled “Family has not heard from D.R. Horton“.
Jackie Mull, Sarah Anne Walker’s younger sister, said Tuesday that it’s been more than a week since her sister was stabbed to death in a model home in McKinney. She said no one from D.R. Horton, Sarah’s employer, has tried to contact or return any phone calls to her immediate family.
Mull said the only time they spoke with a representative of D.R. Horton was when Steve first called them on the Sunday or Monday after Sarah’s body was discovered on July 8 in the kitchen of the model home located in the 5700 block of Conch Train Road. She said they were making funeral arrangements at the time and wanted to know if they would be releasing her commissions since they had to pay the funeral expenses with a credit card. She said the company told her they would not be paying those commissions.
I’m sure that’s only one side of the story, but it’s the disturbing side. If one of your agents was just murdered, you’d better at least pretend like you care. I’d guess they’re worried about liability, but if they don’t want the family to sue them, they need to be a little bit more compassionate than not paying out her commissions owed.
What happened to the young woman was a tragedy of monumental proportions. There is evil in the world and she caught the worst of it. Concerning D R Horton’s responsibilities for this: they are none. It is time for people in this country to realize that blame cannot be laid on the wrong person or corporation. The killer is to be blamed. D R Horton had nothing to do with it. They should not have to pay the funeral expenses, nor do they owe anything of monetary value, other than the deceased to-date earnings to the family. My heart goes out to the family, but to lay responsibility in the wrong direction won’t help them.
I don’t think anyone’s saying that D.R. Horton is at fault, or that they’re responsible for her death. But they’d dang well better pay out the commissions she’d already earned before her murder. That’s the absolute least they should do.
Sarah Anne Walker Memorial
http://www.semperficatholic.com/page31.html
That the family would SUE D.R. Horton for not providing “proper” security is ridiculous! Who would have anticipated this type of tragedy? I can understand their grief, but to sue the employer for the acts of a killer who was out on parole is completely uncalled for. Does the family see this as their “lottery winnings”? A way to get rich off this unfortunate happening?
The company paid out all earnings to the beneficiary, and all benefits according to what is required. They also put up reward money and set up a fund for Sarah’s children. They may not have been in touch with all of the relatives, because they had no legal standing. The company was in touch with the only person named as Sarah’s Beneficiary and her Emergency Contact in her records. Sarah chose whom those persons were. To blame the company is twisted reporting, by the “feel sorry for me” members of the family.
While this was, and continues to be, a tragedy, let’s not make a night time soap opera out of it. Do you see the families of soldiers in Iraq complaining that no one personally contacted each and every family member in the days or weeks after a soldier’s death? It just can not be reasonably done!