Mother Gets To Burn Down The House Where Her Daughter Was Raped And Murdered

Diena Thompson has finally been able to find a small measure of closure after the brutal death of her 7-year-old daughter.

Two days after disappearing, the body of Diena’s daughter, Somer Thompson, was discovered in a Georgia landfill. The 7-year-old girl had been abducted, raped and murdered by a monster named Jared Harrell.

The 24-year-old man, who lived with his mother in an Orange Park home, came across the young girl while she was walking home from school and lured her into his room. Harrell, who had previously been convicted of viewing child pornography, is currently serving life imprisonment.

Five years later, Diena still struggles with memories of the horrific crime. Harrel’s house, the place where Somer was killed, went into vacancy.

After going into foreclosure, the Harrel family’s bank decided to transfer the building’s ownership to the Somer Thompson Foundation, an organization that offers “support to families who are victimized by sexual predators.”

Rather than sell the house for a profit, Diena, who founded the Somer Thompson Foundation, decided to destroy the last physical remnant of Jared Harrel’s repulsive crime. “It [the house] represents just evil.

The devil was in there,” declared the grieving mother. Under the condition that it is used for training purposes, Diena decided to donate the Harrel home to the Orange Park Fire Department.

The community rallied behind Diena’s symbolic gesture, with hundreds of people turning up to watch the notorious home burn to the ground. After firefighters clad her in protective clothing, Diena lit a flare and threw it into the house.

Watching the house burn was a therapeutic experience for Diena, with the heartbroken woman saying: "I get to burn their house down…I'm the big bad wolf this time knocking down your door, not the other way around. It's really nice to know that I'm not ever going to have to drive in this neighbourhood again and see this piece of trash."

Next door, Bethany Less and her son, Everett, watched the emotional proceedings with anguished eyes. In an emotional exchange, the 3-year-old boy asked, “What’s happening in that house?” “A bad man did a bad thing in that house and now they’re burning it down. It’s time for it to go,” replied Ms. Lee.

Diena will always feel the pain of losing her daughter but, now, she thinks she might be able to start mending her broken heart, telling reporters: “There will never be closure. It will never be over. But I definitely feel like it will be part of the healing process, not just for myself but for the entire community just not to have to look at that hellhole.”

Abbi, Diena’s 15-year-old daughter, feels comforted by the destruction of the house but she knows that she will never see her sister again, saying: “It’s a place where such a horrible thing happened to me and my family. It’s just a really ugly place. Why would you still want it standing?”

Source: Jacksonville, Mad World News
Photo: YouTube, news4jax, Facebook, NY Daily News