Remembering Lorissa's Birthday and why the effort must and will continue.

It's a bittersweet remembrance given that she is no longer with us to share in what should be a happy occasion, but it is a necessary part of remembering anyone who has left this world, remembering the day that they were first given to this world. Those words definitely hold a special meaning for Lorissa, because to those who knew her and of her, she was a gift. A kind-heart with a child-like innocence and naivety that was altogether quite fetching to any individual, and one that is sorely missed by those who knew and cared about her. My new found friend Missie, a childhood friend of Lorissa's, has also chosen to mark this occasion with a very poignant birthday wish to this now departed angel, which can be read on Facebook. I have also elected to re-post it here for sake of convenience, but I encourage all reading to visit Justice For Lorissa and the Petition To The Virginia Police to Re-Open Lorissa's Case links and mark this occasion with your support.

I've been trying all day to think of the proper words to make a post reminding everyone that today is Lorissa's birthday... All I want to say is HAPPY in front of birthday, but today isn't a happy day. It's the day my friend would've turned 43 if she wouldn't have been murdered ; (
I've just been trying to remember all the birthday celebrations we had as children and the crazy birthday things we did in our teens and beyond ;)~
My happy day to Lorissa will be the day Doug is found guilty in a court of law. Your continued support of sharing her story will help us achive that and we hope that's soon!!! Thanks for your support!!!
♡ RIP my friend ♡

 P.S. - With whatever assurance I can give you Missie, come what may, we will prevail. Rest In Peace Lorissa.

A look at the Waverly PD, the people who allegedly handled Lorissa's case.

There have been many bizarre things surrounding the circumstances of Lorissa's passing, not the least of which being all the false stories that were circulated on the internet. However, the one that has been the most troubling is this question: What kind of police force allows a potential murder suspect to walk without so much as an in-depth investigation into all of the anomalies surrounding her death (how she shoots herself with a shotgun and leaves no prints, has no powder burns on her hands, and leaves a suicide note with no blood on it, for example) and allows said person to flee the state without a second round of questioning? I got that answer back in early September when I attempted to see the incident report of an allegedly closed case, and it was the same sort of police force that shouts at the same person for doing so.

I had elected not to take a video camera with me when I requested to see the incident report and decided to back off rather than push the issue when I realized the police were not going to allow me to see the report without a court order. The reason for this is that there tends to be other things wrong with police departments that cover up the circumstances of people being deceased under mysterious circumstances, such as having officers with problems controlling their tempers. Apparently there was an incident in Waverly, Virginia involving one of its 7 officers and a case of clear and shocking police brutality, the like of which you would normally associate with a 3rd world country.

In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that the event in question happened in early April of this year, which was after the local government had ousted former chief of police Kevin Lands, who was in charge of investigating Lorissa's death. However, most of his staff are still on the force, including the other officer featured in this video at the 1:22 mark (he did not give me his name or badge number), who was also the officer who shouted at me and told me that any media credentials (including MSM network affiliates) would not get me in to see the report without a court order (I get the feeling that I'd have to get a higher court than the local one to give one given that Waverly is notorious for its kangaroo proceedings regarding traffic violations by out-of-town folks according to several testimonials on this site).

Indeed, the story of Waverly as a town with Boss Hog styled local politics goes pretty deep, and includes a nice, fat salary for most of its so-called public servants that averages about $52,000 per year (chief of police as high as $98,000 per year) in a town with an average median income of just above $33,000 per year. One could safely guess that a lot of that money comes from somewhere other than the modest tax base of the town proper. But it goes a bit further than what in my opinion is a seedy speed-trap under the guise of serving and protecting, as a resident of Waverly by the name of Larry Turner found out back in April of this year when his face was left mangled after an alleged altercation with one of Waverly's esteemed local officials sporting the bronze star.

There will be more about my own encounter with this police department in the next blog entry once I get my video testimonial with David Keeter up on Youtube, but all readers of this blog should definitely be getting a clear picture of why Lorissa's case was botched so terribly. Either by sheer ineptitude or an outright abuse of power (it is my opinion that both played a pivotal role in justice not being served immediately following Lorissa's death), Doug Taylor was let off on an alibi that was changed no less than 3 times in the span of a few hours. There have been a number of additional 2nd hand accounts I have heard from David regarding Lorissa's encounters with the Waverly PD that I won't get into at this time that further testify to a lack of professionalism on the part of both Lands (who now has the same position in Halifax, where they apparently have been without a head cop for about a year) and at least 1 of his subordinates during his tenure as chief in 2008 up until Lorissa's death in late 2009.

It should be stated for the record that in anticipation of frivolous charges of libel that all assertions not immediately sourced or recounted as my own experiences are opinion, and has been noted as such within the article. So my advice to anyone who would assume to apologize for Mr. Lands and his police force would do well to check into these things themselves before commenting. As the classic government propaganda line goes, if the Waverly PD has done their job well, then they have nothing to hide and should release the incident report of Lorissa McComas' passing immediately.

Setting The Record Straight (Part 4)

Due to a number of issues with my computer thanks to the stroke of genius that was Windows 8 (sarcasm), a good amount of footage that I took in early September while visiting Waverly, Virginia was not uploaded to Youtube. Now having resolved these issues, I can now provide visuals to go along with every thing that was shared in the previous installments of this part of the Lorissa McComas saga. What I observed while observing Lorissa and David's former house at 10342 Petersburg Road (Waverly, Virginia), the apartment at 132 B Sylvan Street (Waverly, Virginia) and the nearby Glen's Texaco and Automotive (literally a stone's throw from the apartment) confirms everything that I have learned from David since making contact with him earlier this year.

My first stop was the lovely colonial that David purchased for Lorissa in late 2006, which became their home for several months preceding David's wrongful arrest by the SS...I mean ATF. Sadly, though another resident had moved into the property some time after Lorissa lost the house in 2008, it stands uninhabited and the property is showing heavy signs of neglect, with an overgrown lawn, vegetation breaking through the driveway and the paint chipping away. As alluded to in earlier videos, it was during this period that Lorissa had renewed all her contacts in the movie business and had begun to kick her Oxy Contin addiction, all by her own initiative according to David's testimony.

While my visit to Lorissa's former house was met without incident, the same cannot be said for what transpired when David and I visited Lorissa's former apartment, which was inhabited by an extremely shady person that thought we were DEA agents because of my camera (any assumptions as to the occupation of these people can be rightly made). Though I opted not to create an incident and film the apartment close-up, I did manage to get some footage of Doug Taylor's former place of employment, Glen's Texaco. The distance from the apartment to Doug's place of work was close enough to be walked in no more than 2 minutes by any person not using a walker. David even commented that someone could easy throw a baseball from the edge of the Texaco parking lot on Sylvan St. to the apartment.

More details will come in the next several weeks as I get the rest of the transcripts from my interview with David up on this blog. But in the meantime, I request that all interested parties consider where Lorissa was come 2007, and how radically different her life was in contrast to the picture painted by the rumor-mill, which has been largely repeated in all of the well-intending, though mistaken online media that have been the lone sources of her departure until David came forward. And for anyone who would like to see justice served, please visit this petition and sign your name in support of getting the Virginia state government to re-open Lorissa's case.

Click here to watch the video

Lorissa McComas 11/26/70 - 11/03/09 (R.I.P)

It has been 4 years now since the untimely passing of the angel depicted in the photograph just above these words, and in that time there has been an emptiness in the lives of all who knew her or otherwise knew of her. It is perhaps with a strange twist of providence that the anniversary of her passing has fallen on The Lord's Day, a time of spiritual rest, prayer, worship and reflection for someone of my persuasion. One might argue that I am breaking the Christian Sabbath by uploading this post, but part of me rests assured that this falls under either being a work of mercy or otherwise one of piety.

Many who have come to know the truth about what happened to Lorissa may not share my theological take on things, but all are united in their adoration of this beautiful creature and a desire to see those who took her away punished. But for this occasion I prefer to remember, and what I recall most is how I first came to know of her. As a teen with no sense of self-confidence and afflicted with a high-functioning yet noticeable variant of Asperger's Syndrome, I was often closed off to the world, particularly in the year 1996 when my family moved and I had to start my social life all over again. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that I was completely tuned out, but with it came a sense of loneliness and, at times, despair.

One night after a rough day of trying to adjust to a new high school, I found myself unable to sleep and downstairs flipping the television stations looking for yet another escape. What I found was a film that was the gateway for many of Lorissa's fans, "Lap Dancing", starring a woman that somehow seemed familiar (I had seen her image before on the cover of Playboy's Book Of Lingerie Aug/Sept Issue when I was 12, found in the woods behind my middle school by sheer happenstance, but I didn't realize it until several months later). As time went on and I came of the age where I could follow material without my parent's consent (not that I had it to begin with), I continued to follow her work on cable television and even picked up some copies of her work on VHS and DVD.

Suffice to say, I didn't date much, perhaps in part because whether she intended it or not, she had changed the way I saw things, and it isn't much of a stretch to say that few women could compete with her charms, her unique duality of innocence and seductiveness. I don't know if I have the right to say that I loved her since I never met her, and never mustered the courage to attempt to contact her fan club back when I would have been able to, but as David said in his interview with me, "I really hoped that she would succeed". It really is a strange thing how the media technology that we now possess has changed the way we see the world, and yet, I can't help but see parallels with how people have been moved by books, be they non-fiction, fiction, or religious in nature. Perhaps Lorissa's affect on me, on all of us, isn't so atypical or strange.

I sincerely hope and pray that justice will come soon, but more so, I want people to remember her as she was, her true story. It is a tragedy, and yet there is a sense of redemption and triumph to it. She had lost everything, including her own son, but she did not break under the weight of the world, but stood her ground in a Hemingway-like manner, destroyed, yet undefeated. More of this story will come when I post the rest of my interview with David, and due to the unfortunately poor quality of the audio, we will probably do another one when he is in my neck of the woods and we are able to conduct it inside without any distractions. 

As I close out this blog, I wish to end with a brief sonnet that I composed for Lorissa, in the old Shakespearean form.

Privileged were the eyes that Adam wore,

The day he awoke to fulfillment's prize,

Such is the blessed sight that man adores,

When caught within the wind as passion cries,

The light be praised, for it revealed your face,

Luminous in itself, transcending reach,

The night be welcome, it hides not your grace,

The smile that mends the heart's unhealed breach,

But oh you twisted world, delusions prevailed,

In madness you slap at God's giving hand,

At his very image, you have assailed,

Flesh of my flesh, broken to ash and sand,

But the candle recalls her and shall stay,

Till the day that you and Death fall away.

Rest in Peace Lorissa.