I was surprised and even a little shocked when I saw news footage of Julie Elizabeth Harper making an appearance in court Friday, charged (as she was) for murdering her husband, Jason Harper. I mean, I had seen an earlier photo, broadcast prodigiously on every news service under the sun, of a most radiantly beautiful Julie Harper, smiling brightly with perfect Crest toothpaste teeth.
I realize now (as I make my point awkwardly), that this photo of Julie Harper must date from quite a few years back.
Okay, so Julie is 39 now, and this pic may date from when she was still in her early 20s. True, I’m speculating, but one thing is for certain, she is happy, full of life, even beaming with optimism in the older photo, while the new one reveals a woman beat down by life, overweight, disheveled, and you know, downright morose, facing these murder charges as she is.
Why waste so much time (you might ask) on this obvious discrepancy between photos, when there’s an important news story to report, teeming with telling details about how she did it and some reliable information which points to a motive, the omniscient psychological motive behind what she did?
Well, the answer is I can get considerably silly at times, but really it dawned on me, everything that happened to Julie between the disparate times of the two photographic opportunities tells just how she got where she did, and maybe why she pulled the trigger.
I shouldn’t have been so surprised by this image gap or discrepancy, since we all know that news services will publish whatever photo they can find of either the victim of a crime, or the perpetrator of a crime.
Furthermore, I understand, a photo of her husband, Jason Harper (who was 39 also when he died), which has been making the rounds on the internet, was from a very long time ago. In many cases, there may not be that many extant photos still available (either to the media or the police).
I’ll let it go for now, since there are other aspects to this case (which is really younger than one week) that are most (or more) fascinating to me. One item that is an obvious object of curiosity, is just when did Julie actually shoot Jason?
The Carlsbad police found the body of Jason Harper at around 11:00 pm, Tuesday evening (August 7th), and observed he’d already been dead for sometime (but probably less than two days).
Jason may have been killed on Monday (August 6th) or even on Sunday (August 5th)? Naturally, the coroner may be able to provide a more precise time of death, which will be helpful to the investigation. However, this lengthy time gap provided Julie with a widely opened window of opportunity to make her getaway. Yet, her getaway was comprised of nothing other than taking her 3 children over to her parent’s house, which is in Scripps Ranch (11270 Lake Rim Rd). I suppose, she knew she’d be apprehended in short order.
Julie was arrested just 16 hours after her husband’s body was discovered at their lovely home, which is apparently in a gated community on Badger Lane, east of the local golf course. In case you don’t know (I didn’t, so I looked at the Wikipedia entry for Carlsbad, California). Carlsbad is a 7 mile Pacific coastline resort-ish stretch of land, just north of San Diego and 87 miles south of greater Los Angeles.
If you’re in need of making a query into Julie’s motive for shooting her husband Jason, I would suggest you look at court records reflecting her divorce proceedings, freshly filed on August 2nd, (coincidentally) less than a week before the murder. The records are replete with accusations of abuse most foul at the hands of her husband.
Another area of investigation (worthy of embarkation), is to uncover the veracity of these claims, regarding the ethical character (whether questionable or virtuous) of Jason Harper. It would be negligent if I didn’t say, Jason was a well-respected geometry teacher (and coach) at Carlsbad High. Colleagues of his are quick to point out, the Jason they knew, was incapable of behaving in the malignant fashion portrayed by Julie (in divorce papers).
So who’s right, Julie or these fellow teachers of Jason Harper (who call him a Gentle Giant)? While we still don’t know exactly why this horrible ordeal happened in just the way it finally did, we do sense Julie had been dragged silly through the scrap yard, (when observing) her bedraggled, corpulent appearance, as seen in court Friday. But was she unhinged by her husband, or did she do it to herself?
WIFE SET TO BE ARRAIGNED IN TEACHER’S SLAYING | UTSanDiego.com
