Christmas tree

It’s a very sad story you know, they seemed like the perfect family. The father and mother had been married for over 40 years. They had tried for years to have kids, for 20 years they tried; it was heartbreaking for them for a while. Eventually they had two kids, a boy and a girl, beautiful pair, very smart the girl, she’s a philosophy major, lives two states over now; and the son, well he was a scholarship athlete, an amazing catcher, city champ about 4 years ago and MVP to boot.

It all started small, these things always do, and I think it was a discussion about the father’s job situation. It was probably something about ambition or lack of it, maybe the wife was tired of just, you know, having to stretch pennies like we all do sometimes. It’s just the same old story, hell son, that’s middle class living right there. But it was still a very quiet thing, we lived next door to them for around 15 years, never heard anything like a serious fight from their home.  

I think I heard the mother and son had stayed up finishing the decorations, they had the tradition of getting all together when the kids got home from school and decorate the whole house. We used to drop by for a small neighborhood gathering the hosted for almost 10 years, usually around the 10^th or 11^th. They had an amazing Christmas tree; it was about 7 feet tall with very long branches and thick foliage. The wife, did I tell you her name? Well it was Pamela; she told me the used around a 1000 individual tiny blinking light bulbs. The branches were nestling very large orange crystal balls, almost the size of tennis balls, with long shreds of a see-through cloth draping down and around. Oh, it was also orange, and yes, Pamela usually had a theme for each room of the house. I’m not so sure what they were, but I do remember she used orange decorations in the room where the tree was, the living room if I’m not mistaken; the kitchen was always green, with the same big crystal balls only, you know, in green; and the dining room was red. It always bugged me, the implications of putting red in such a room.

But I’m going off tale, I really loved that house, almost bought but old Lantz beat me to it, the wooden finishes were exceptional. Yeah, just had to settle for this old thing. But yeah, I was also scared by the shots that rang at about 2 a.m. My wife screamed and I almost bashed my head against the back board of our four post bed. She grabbed her cell phone and called the police, of course we weren’t the first to call though. They arrived about 20 minutes later, pretty fast if you ask me. 

I ran down the stairs and practically leapt through my door and down the porch, only to see them taking the young son in handcuffs, past the snowman and the electric Santa Claus with 3 reindeer. And on their beautiful mahogany porch, hysterical young girl was screaming and crying. It was a sad sight, she was sitting there, and one of the officers was trying to console her, right there by the 4 piece band of Santa, Rudolph, Snowman, and an Elf. 

Yeah, this is just your typical neighborhood you know? If you ever want to hear a very strange story, ask me about the Johnson family over on Oak drive, now that was a real mess. That’s what you could call the bad part of the neighborhood, it was a real shame what Ted Johnson did, people still talk about it, you know?

Metro Daily News

December 2^nd

Last Thursday, the 30th at 2:05 a.m. John Joseph Lantz, 62 years old, an accountant for a local bank, shot and killed his wife of 41 years, Pamela. Early reports indicate the couple had a heated argument earlier in the evening, but had apparently settled it. In his statement to the police, the daughter, Elizabeth, claims her father remained calm even as her mother accosted him about financial and work matters. She added he left the room and went to bed at around 11 p.m. while she and her brother helped their mother. Her statement also adds she was awakened by the shots and her brothers’ screams to lock herself in the bathroom. When she came out, after the police arrived, she saw the same grizzly scene that welcomed the officers. In the master bedroom, the officers found the body of Pamela Lantz, shot two times to the chest from medium range, and laying in a pool of her own blood by the bathroom door. 

The police also released the following statement from the son, John Erick: 

John Erick Lantz was woken up by the ringing of 2 shots. He rose quickly and ran out of his room to see his father standing in the doorway of his own room, with a gun in his hand. Ducking into his room, he avoided a shoot and locked the door behind him. Screaming to his sister to lock herself up, he grabbed a baseball and a bat from his closet, and retreated to the bathroom. Screaming at the enraged assailant, he managed to lead him to where he was. The man broke the first door and shoot twice through the bathroom door trying to take out the young man. The son had dropped down and had his back against the wall, avoiding the shoots. As he kicked his way into the bathroom, the son dropped the ball into his feet making him fall. Then he proceeded to savagely beat him. He continued to beat him, until stopped by the officers who arrived to the scene.