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David Harcourt
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| Joined: | 31 Dec 1969 |
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| Posts: | 1127 |
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Posted: 4 Oct 2006 09:25 pm |
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There's a wonderfully funny story on CNN this morning, which I guess we will be reading about in New Zealand in a week or so.
Or maybe we'll have to wait for the movie.
Anyway, here's the story, courtesy of The Unscrambled Web:
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP) -- The parents of a bride-to-be told their daughter they were taking her on a shopping trip, but then drove to Colorado and kept her there until she missed the nuptials, officials said. Lemuel and Julia Redd have been charged with second-degree felony kidnapping. Utah County Attorney Kay Bryson said Tuesday he met with the couple's daughter, Julianna, and her now-husband Perry Myers before charging the parents.
"I've never had a case quite like this," Bryson said. "It is strange that parents would go to that extent to keep an adult daughter from marrying the man that she had chosen to marry."
The Redds told their 21-year-old daughter they were taking her on a shopping trip August 4 and then drove 240 miles from Provo to Grand Junction, Colorado, according to Provo police Capt. Rick Healey. Myers, 23, called police when his bride didn't attend a pre-wedding dinner with his parents that night. The Redds spent the night in Colorado and drove back to Provo, about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City, the next day, Healey said. They arrived after the young couple was supposed to have been married in a ceremony that day at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Temple in Salt Lake City.
The couple, both students at Brigham Young University, were married in the temple on August 8, Myers said. They are expecting their first child in May. The Redds didn't want their daughter to get married, but the bride has been reluctant to say what happened on the drive. Myers said he and his wife were not discussing details of the car ride but said her parents' objections were not about him.
"It really has nothing to do a lot with me. It really is some issues with the family," he said.
Bryson said after reviewing the police investigation it was clear a crime was committed. Charges were filed Friday. Lemuel, 59, and Julia Redd, 56, are scheduled to make an initial court appearance October 26. If convicted, the Redds could face one to 15 years in prison.
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David Harcourt
Administrator
| Joined: | 31 Dec 1969 |
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| Posts: | 1127 |
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Posted: 4 Oct 2006 10:55 pm |
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I've just looked via Google for a picture of Lemuel and Julia and can't find one, although Lemuel Redd is a name which pops up several times in Utah history.
The Utah Office of Tourism's website, for example, reports that:
In 1880, the party of Mormon settlers known as the "Hole in the Rock Pioneers" made a harrowing journey to this remote section of Southeastern Utah. Among them was twenty-four year old Lemuel Redd, who brought energy and a zest for life to his new desert home. Until he died in 1923, Redd was a revered rancher, politician and Mormon Church leader. He built his home of ruddy blocks of native sandstone and embellished it with the wide porches and gingerbread trim also found during the era on the houses in more populated parts of the country.
There is also a photograph of Lemuel's house.
Isn't the web wonderful?Attached Image (viewed 252 times):
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David Harcourt
Administrator
| Joined: | 31 Dec 1969 |
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| Posts: | 1127 |
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Posted: 4 Oct 2006 11:46 pm |
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I suppose, since this is the Internet, I had better explain why I found this so funny. (I have already had one anxious email about this.)
* Yes, it wasn't funny at the time for the poor young woman involved.
* No, the situation which Lemuel and Julia now find themselves in isn't funny.
* But I persist in thinking it funny that two people who have between them shuffled across this moral coil for more that 115 years could do something so incredibly dumb.
I mean, what did they think was going to happen next?
That their daughter was going to settle down at home and forget all about her husband-to-be and everyone would live happily ever afterwards?
I think these people would do well to plead temporary insanity.
And what about that 240-mile drive, eh? It must have been a doozy. What games did they play on the journey? What conversational topics came up? I think we should be told.
It's also pretty funny that the daughter is pressing charges instead of shutting up and getting on with her life.
I mean, what did she think was going to happen next?
Isn't it strange what people would do to themselves, and aren't they (and we) lucky to live in a part of the world where if we're miserable it's because we did it to ourselves, or it was done to us with our knowledge and consent?
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jaybee2003
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| Joined: | 31 Dec 1969 |
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| Posts: | 272 |
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Posted: 7 Oct 2006 01:53 am |
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Hi David. I haven't seen or read of this elsewhere yet. While the story alone is entertaining as a story and one can't help think 'Jerry Springer' and "only in America", the reality may not be so amusing.
Some thoughts as I read weren't of hilarity or dumbness, but instead were of a great sadness at the possibility of a) parents who are so deeply convicted and removed from 'worldy reality' through religion, and acting on that with the utmost faith and conviction b) the possibility of the great agony of a child to such parents perhaps unwillingly trapped or confined within those restrictions, beliefs and expectations.
For all we know, there could well have been all sorts of emotional blackmail and torment at play - all in the name of religion. It could well be too that the parents aren't the least bit concerned about the charges, instead, standing strong and proud, knowing (believing) in their minds what they did was right, and that God will see them through, therefore they have no need to fear anything 'the world' might throw at them. Who knows. I can't envisage a happy healthy grandchild/grandparent relationship for the future either, and that is tragic, especially if the base of the problem is in the name of religion.
However, your comment about waiting for the movie could well prove to be accurate.
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