The arrest of Austin Reed Sigg yesterday brings a surging tsunami-like wave of memories, regarding the particulars of Jessica Ridgeway’s frightening abduction and murder, in a rather ordinary, ho hum, middle class suburb, just outside of Denver. Aerial news footage of the ruddy-colored house where Austin Sigg carried out his sickest of crimes rivet each and everyone of us, as we connect the grisly dots of an aspiring young mortician’s (but actually a budding serial killer developing his craft) application of skills right at his own home-sweet-home.
In processing this data, confusion gets the upper hand on me, as I need to untangle a mass of images and checklists of false facts, that probably were leading us up the wrong tree. Well, I’m not trying to be funny; remember the station wagon with Colorado tags up in Maine, where witnesses thought they had seen Jessica in the passenger’s seat. Later, the vehicle was abandoned behind a WalMart, as I recall; a very credible lead when you think about it! Even two witnesses had made the identification.
Was Austin laughing at this news from his house, as he realized his guilt was deflected to a state thousands of miles away? Well, these unusual simulations (of what may have been going through the twisted mind of this young man) are some of the thought processes that slide through my mind, as I attempt to reconstruct what happened in this pleasant seeming community of Westminister. *(As unobtrusive and ordinary as any neighborhood I can recall seeing anytime.) In thinking over this, we set ourselves up for a shock of our life, but there’s no way getting around it!
The criminal psychologists and an array of amateur crime sleuths are coming out of the woodwork to size up 17-year-old Austin Reed Sigg, and much of what they’re saying is sticking to me this morning. Was he the latest, undeveloped Jeffrey Dahmer, who was all about chopping up bodies and getting rid of them in multiple ways (he had so many parts to get rid of)? Partially. Or was he the latest John Wayne Gacy, who buried dozens of young men in his own basement? That comparison holds a bit water also.
We’ll have to see, but perhaps Austin was prone to studying these cases or many others, as he aspired to become a mortician at Arapahoe Community College (which has such a mortuary science program). Obviously, there are other avenues of exploration we’ll need to go down; was he into violent video games, possibly? We’re hearing this is true also. How about pornography? An affirmative to this too (although I could use a few more sources to confirm it).
Was he a Goth? Yes, on this also. We need to be careful on this stereotype, however, since there are plenty of Goths who lead healthy lives, but just prefer these trends in fashion, art, and music. I love the early music of Black Sabbath, since the lyrics and song construction is very cleverly rendered, so this is no vice to like Goth unto itself. So, Austin often wore all black and had a black cross as a necklace on. This is no big deal, unless there were other signs, that when put together with these outward brandishments, add up to something a trifle more sinister.
Still too early to size up this Austin Sigg with a great deal of exactitude! Well, I will disclose to you a small moment of mental insightfulness I had, when seeing Sigg’s mug shot for the first time yesterday. What I’ve been asking all along, is, or was Jessica’s killer one and the same as the man we’ve been calling the Candy Man? I looked at the police sketch, then gazed at the police photo of Austin. The similarities are there! Been Midnight Rambling these neighborhoods for quite a long time (I thought to myself).
Source: Denver Post
