A look at how did Shain Gandee die will always remind me of one incident that occurred in our small town. I’ll never forget the day that I was seven years old and my dad took us to the local funeral home. The mortuary had been damaged by a fire so many years back, and we were allowed to go inside to see how Shain Gandee died. It turns out that he had been playing in a water park just down the street from where we were standing.
He was strapped into a seat in the water – and was apparently swimming when he drowned. The water had high chlorine levels so my mom quickly ducked out of the way as I shouted for her to get out of the way. She shouted back, “No!” and then started to hyperventilate. Everyone else in the immediate vicinity was screaming as they tried to help her but nobody had the heart to console her as she wept in the water.
There was a note in the paper: that said that the family was seeking funds in order to start a new life somewhere else due to Shain’s death. It just made it worse. How sad that someone who should have been a happy little boy had to die before his time.
What kind of sick twisted mind could have thought that? Two days later, I went to the station to look for the police report on the death of Shain. A female officer told me that I would have to speak with the investigating officer. I asked why and she said that I was a guest and that they didn’t keep records on visitors. I asked if I could speak to the investigating officer and she told me that he usually asked me if I had permission.
I told him that I was going to ask the question – since I had rights and he replied that he would give me permission. I looked at the police report again and noticed something that had indeed been written in the report. There was no mention of any weapon found in the car and there were no police officers nearby. So I asked how did Shain gandee died?
The detective replied – “I don’t know”. I asked why not and he said that it might have been disposed of or dumped. Then I asked how did again take his own life? The detective said that he didn’t know.