How In the World am I Supposed to Write a Post About THIS???

I wanted to avoid writing about this altogether, but because it is such a big part of what is going on with us right now there really is no way to avoid it. Also, I know a lot of people who don’t normally read this blog may be checking it out since I listed our blog address on our Christmas card.

Neil’s 45-year-old brother died Saturday morning. He lived in Canada, which is where Neil is originally from. How did he die? Okay, here goes…he was murdered. There, I said it. Now I am just going to copy and paste the article that appeared in the Canadian newspaper this morning so you can read the details. After this article was published, an arrest was made. As of now, that is all we know…

Police treating death as homicide
By: Jen Skerritt
13/12/2008 9:52 AM Comments (0)
Police are investigating the city’s latest homicide after a middle-aged man was found dead in his downtown apartment this morning.Winnipeg Police taped-off the 17th floor of the Manitoba Housing complex at 185 Smith St. shortly after 8 a.m. this morning so members of the identification unit could investigate. Sgt. Jacqueline Chaput confirmed the death is a homicide.Police have not confirmed the man’s identity, and are not releasing the victim’s name until relatives are notified.Residents who knew the victim alleged he was beaten to death.A friend of the victim, who did not want to be identified, said a man and woman came to the victim’s suite shortly after 1 a.m. to party. The victim’s girlfriend — who also lives in the apartment building — went home when they arrived since they were people she “didn’t like at all.”Another tenant said the man who went to party also lived in the building, and was mentally unstable with aggression problems.Residents said the victim’s girlfriend found his body this morning.“He got beaten to death,” one man said.Friends described the victim as a quiet man in his mid-40s who never yelled or got angry.He was over six feet tall, husky and “big”, and friends say it would’ve taken quite a struggle to overpower him.“He was a nice guy,” one friend said. “He never did anyone any harm.”Friends said the victim was part of a group of people in the housing complex who socialized and watched out for each other — he would lend a cigarette or sugar if you were low on cash. He moved into the building about 18 months ago, and spent some nights watching TV with his girlfriend.Friends said the victim went to visit his aging mother every Saturday.One friend last spoke to the victim around 4 p.m. yesterday and said everything was fine and that the victim was at home.The death rattled some building residents who are concerned about lax security and widespread alcohol and drug abuse. A group of tenants watched anxiously from the main floor foyer as police combed and patrolled the building, several cloaked in protective white clothing to investigate the 17th floor.Tenant Pierre Clusiau said people regularly wander into the complex from the street and are found sleeping in hallways and stairwells. Many of them, he said, are addicted to hard drugs and alcohol.“This is a bad building and I’ve been crying for better security for years,” Clusiau said. “Manitoba Housing refuses to get us that.”“This place is way too rough.”