Justice for Kae

Whoever created this movie title, “The Good Die Young,” in 1954 would have to be thinking of someone like Kae, our dearest Kae.

Everything about Kae was good. I can say that with authority; she was my student in two college subjects (Advertising and Business English).
She was a good communicator (in speech and in writing), a good listener, a good leader as well as a good team player, and a good friend to many of her classmates. In sum, she was a dream student of every professor; the outstanding one who would do everything impeccably and exceptionally well—always beyond minimum requirements. 

She was good in everything she had set her mind on; I knew early on that she would make it anywhere.

I was wrong.

Although she breezed through a Master's degree and into the corporate world, easily landing a challenging job in a multi-national advertising agency, ravenous beasts got to her, these large vultures that prey on fragile, harmless souls. She was powerless to make it.   

She was only 25.

Her sudden, senseless death in the hands of heartless dark brutes grieved not only the people who knew her, but also people who only heard of the dastardly manner in which she was killed.

First she had gone missing on a Friday night when she was supposed to have been safely tucked in bed after a long day at work and a few hours of unwinding with co-workers.

The following day she was found lifeless under a bridge, in a way nobody would ever wish even upon her worst enemy. Her mouth was gagged with a handkerchief, neck strangled with telephone wire charger, and her hands tied with a car seat belt. Her body had stab wounds. 

Calls for justice have poured in via social media: on FB, a page "Justice for KAE" now has over 58,000 “likes” and on Twitter, the hashtag #justiceforkae has hundreds of tweets. 

Justice on earth may be elusive—the criminals are on the run and they excel at this evil game. But we pray for it nonetheless. I believe that justice will come in this manner, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23 (NIV)

I didn't think I could muster enough courage to attend her wake, but one had to steel her heart if only to condole with Kae's bereaved family. So I went with fellow teachers who once enjoyed the grace of having Kae as a student.

And so we bade Kae good-bye—a premature one, as she was supposed to outlive us. But God's ways are not our ways.

Even in our grief and wrath, I believe in justice, in divine justice. The Lord promised, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them." Deuteronomy 32:35 (NIV)

There will be justice for our dearest Kae; there will be justice for all who believe. 

Photo credit: Justice for Kae FB page