But tragically for real. The general manager of the Eldora Ski Resort was murdered yesterday by a troubled employee. The murderer had been ranting about religion and asking his fellow employees, including the victim, if they were Christian in the days before the murder. Yesterday he showed up to an early morning staff meeting with a gun, shot into the ceiling and threatened to kill anyone who wasn't the same religion as he was. The victim burst into the meeting wanting to know what all the noise and shouting was about and was promptly killed. The pscycho freak fled the scene by car and was later killed by a cop at the side of the road in a gun battle.
One of Jonny's bike friends works at Eldora and luckily had the day off. The day before he had been talking to the victim who had been telling him how great things had been going and how happy he was. He left behind a wife and some kids.
Eldora and the neighboring scenic mountain town of Nederland are not the sort of places that you picture when you think of crazy psycho murder scenes. I can't imagine what a horrible shock it must have been for his family and friends and the Eldora staff and Nederland residents. Jonny and I were talking about going up to Eldora a couple of days before but decided not to because the weather was inhospitable. We go cross country skiing up there all the time, it's just a 40-45 minute drive and I did a triathlon up there 2 summers ago. The whole freakish thing is so hard to believe. It'll be weird going up there, of course there's no danger but still weird to think about what happened.
To add insult to injury, the local news programs had the firing of the Broncos coach as headline news (I'm sorry but why is this even news?) and ranted on about it for a good 8 minutes or so before reporting on the Eldora shootings. Good to see the networks have their priorities straight. Can we go back to the 70's when the news was actually news and sports and weather little after thoughts at the end of the program?
Obviously you can't go through life worrying about the psycho freaks of the world but these little wake up calls do make you appreciate the notion of living in the present and enjoying every moment that you can.
It's so sad. Isn't it? A friend of our neighbor was late to the meeting. He walked in right after the victim was shot.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes, why on earth is the football coach the # 1 story?