April 7, 2005

EDITORIAL

A long time to heal

William Schenck, the Greene County prosecuting attorney, may have put it best when he said that you just want to shake your head in disbelief over the events surrounding the tragic slaying of Tim Lopez. “One child is dead and the other is behind bars,” he said following the court hearing last Wednesday in which Michael Rittenhouse pleaded guilty to killing his classmate three years ago.

When Tim’s body was discovered in February of last year, it seemed that while the mystery of his disappearance had been solved, another shocking mystery emerged: what happened in January 2002 and why Tim was killed. Mr. Schenck shed some light on the case when he told reporters last week that a drug transaction of some kind may have played a part in the slaying, though he noted that it was “too easy” to call crime a “drug deal gone bad.”

Even today, it still seems impossible to fathom what happened. Two boys — actually young men approaching their high school graduation — who were once friends, their relationship reportedly soured and one appears to grow of the other. Until one day when one of the young men snaps and does the unthinkable, killing his old friend in what the prosecutor called “a crime of rage.” The young man makes things even worse by covering his crime up, burying his friend’s body and remaining silent — as his friend’s family and friends wonder and worry and, with law enforcement authorities and community members, search for their missing loved one. For two years the surviving young man hides his dark secret until one day the police receive a tip that eventually leads to the discovery of the missing friend’s body. Three years after he kills his friend, the young man finally admits his crime.

Those who sat in Judge J. Timothy Campbell’s courtroom last week got a glimpse of the toll this tragedy has taken on the family and friends of Tim Lopez and Michael Rittenhouse. One by one six relatives and friends of Tim, including his parents, Barbara McQuiston and John Lopez, rose to address the court and Michael Rittenhouse. Their words were pierced with anger and tears as they recalled Tim’s life and condemned Michael for his crimes. Michael’s mother, Gilah Pomeranz, her body and voice shaking with grief, told the court that her son is “profoundly remorseful for the mistakes that were made.”

So emotional was the hearing that afterward Suzanne Schmidt, the county’s first assistant prosecutor, said that in 25 years with the prosecutor’s office, “I’ve never sat through something like that.”

The hearing showed just how heartbreaking this tragedy is. It has devastated two families, their lives never to be the same. It could also have profound affects on this community, especially our young people. This incident has scarred Yellow Springs, and it will take a long time for those scars to heal.

—Robert Mihalek