I still can't believe that this has happened. I thought where we lived here in Bradford, PA., it was safe, secure. Suddenly we feel like prisoners in our very own home; we are afraid to go anwywhere, in fear that they might strike again.
This is Lydia Fountaine. I have lived here in Bradford with my husband, Fred, for many years. We never had any problems until a few weeks back, when some thugs broke into our neighbor's house across the street and killed the family in cold blood.
Carole and Ed Anderson were a couple who had a beautiful family. In addition to their son, Braddford, who was to have been a senior in high school this year, they also had six more children that they adopted. Most of the other children were children with special needs; some were blind, some were deaf, and some were in wheelchairs or on crutches. They were adopted from places like Russia, Vietnam, and Korea.
They seemed to have their whole lives ahead of them. Ed and Carole made sure the children were well loved, cared for; they did everything humanly possible to make their lives just a little bit easier, a little bit better.
The family was well loved and respected throughout our community. Somehow everyone knew of them if they didn't know them in person. They were involved in church activities: father was a deacon; mother worked as a secretary, and the children loved learning about Jesus and the Bible.
Now, thanks to the evil doings of some thugs, a family is dead, and their hopes/dreams are gone, forever. And a neighborhood continues to figure out why this happened and to try to pick up the pieces, go on with their lives.
The family was killed in cold blood. They were killed, execution style. The mailman was the one who discovered their bodies lying in the livingroom when he'd peered into the window after he rang the doorbell and there had been no answer. He got scared, so he immediately called 9-1-1.
That was when I'd awakened later, sometime in the middle of the night, and saw all the flashing lights from the police cars, firetrucks, and ambulances.
Ever since this happened, all of us are terrified to go anywhere. Whenever we have somewhere to go, we make sure we buddy up with someone, so they don't go by themselves, in particular, the elderly citizens of our community (of which Fred and I are two of them). We go out in the day, try to enjoy ourselves; however, with the Anderson murders hanging like an evil cloud over our heads, we still feel afraid, scared that we might be "next" on the killers' "hit list".
As for going out at night, forget about it. We stay inside our homes, our doors and windows locked tighter than a drum, praying nobody breaks in and gets us.
The killers, at last report, are still on the loose. Police and other law officials continue to comb the streets, going from house to house, looking for them. They advise us against going out at night; if we need to go anywhere, we'd best not go alone.
Don't have to worry about that. We refuse to be sitting ducks; who knows, the killers could be hiding out in someone's garage or in their bushes.
Well, I have a doctor's appointment at nine today, so I must go and get ready. I will write some more in here as things continue to develop regarding this situation. I just pray that whoever is responsible for the Anderson family killings is caught soon, and I pray that they rot in jail for the rest of their miserable lives!
*To be continued.*
