This article was written and submitted by our member Ladyeridan – thanks, and welcome to the front page!
http://www.myspace.com/starry_eyes_hates_you
Jacksonville, FL – On November 5th, two men were hiking in Jennings State Forest, a patch of land near the Clay/Duval county border. They were originally scouting out hunting spots, but they found more than they bargained for. About two miles in from Normandy Road, near the Cecil air field, they spotted circling buzzards. As they got closer, they saw what the buzzards had found. The nude body of a woman was lying in a ditch in just a few inches of water, near a bike path. They called the police, and the area was quickly turned into a crime scene.
A week later, on November 12th, the body was identified as 17-year-old Meghan Runkle, who had been living with some friends in Jacksonville. She would have been 18 just two days later. Police for Duval County are investigating this as a homicide at this time, saying the death is ‘suspicious’, but not elaborating.
In an odd parallel, Meghan’s younger brother Jonathan Hackett died in care at Children’s Hospital on November 2nd.   He would have been 15 just a few days later, on the 6th. Meghan never knew her brother died, nor did he know she was gone. She had only recently reestablished contact with her family in Pennsylvania, keeping in touch with her stepmother (Jonathan’s mother, Rebecca Jaegacks) through Myspace. Her last login was on October 2nd, though… and it’s possible that she had been dead since then. When her remains were found she was in such an advanced state of decomposition, it was impossible to pinpoint her time, or even date of death.
It is supremely difficult for me, as a mother, to imagine what could have happened to Meghan Runkle. I can’t help but look at it from a mother’s perspective. What if it had been my daughter in that drainage ditch? How would I be able to pick up and go on, having lost a son and a daughter so close together?
Here’s where I lose it, though. Where were the adults in her life? You have a 17 year old girl, in Florida, whose Myspace shows her having gone to school in California, whose family seems to all be in New York and Pennsylvania. There are no anchors, nothing that seems permanent. She drifted too far, and ended up in a drainage ditch, and they still don’t know how, why, or even WHEN.
That same Myspace shows pictures of a very pretty girl, in that spot midway between beautiful child and striking adult, trying to find an identity. The few blogs are dramatic in the way only a 17 year old who wants to be loved can be dramatic. Romeo and Juliet style poetry, ‘stand by your friends’ stuff… all the things a 15-16-17 year old writes.
I hope Meghan has some measure of peace now that she was unable to find in life.
Tags: Florida, Jacksonville, Jonathan Hackett, Meghan Runkle, Murder, Myspace, Rebecca Jaegacks, Suspicious Death, Unsolved Crime
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