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Justice for the Shephard family
The long nightmare is over for the family members of Jason Shephard.
They came to Delaware County more than two years after they first arrived here in hopes of finding their missing son. Two years ago they heard the crushing news that their son, 23-year-old intern Jason Shephard, had been murdered.
In a saga that almost defies belief, they quickly learned police had arrested the man who picked them up at the airport. According to what was spelled out in heart-rending detail at his trial, Smithson took a fancy to the young intern who was going to be at the Edgmont firm where he worked for a few days. He lured the 23-year-old to his Thornbury home, drugged him and attempted to rape him in some kind of rape fantasy gone bad. Shephard apparently awoke during the assault and tried to fend Smithson off. He paid for that with his life, with Smithson strangling the life out of him.
Smithson filed a missing person report and then went to the airport to pick up Shephard’s parents.
On their arrival, they asked him if there was anything new in their son’s disappearance. He responded, “No.” At the time, Jason Shephard’s dead body was wrapped in sheets in his basement.
The Shephard family spent the last week in search of justice for their son. It was delivered by a Delaware County jury.
First they convicted Smithson of all charges against him, including first-degree murder.
Yesterday, they wasted little time in delivering their sentence – life in jail as opposed to the death penalty.
Among those they heard from in the sentencing phase of the trial was Smithson himself, who had not taken the stand during his trial.
The Shephard family will now return to their North Dakota home. On Thursday they likely will sit together to share a Thanksgiving dinner. There will be an empty spot at that table, just as there is now an empty spot in the lives. It will always be there. It will never go away.
The Shephards came to Delaware County for justice. They got it, but they did not get what they undoubtedly really wanted. They did not get their son back.
Bill Smithson will have the rest of his life to think about why.
They came to Delaware County more than two years after they first arrived here in hopes of finding their missing son. Two years ago they heard the crushing news that their son, 23-year-old intern Jason Shephard, had been murdered.
In a saga that almost defies belief, they quickly learned police had arrested the man who picked them up at the airport. According to what was spelled out in heart-rending detail at his trial, Smithson took a fancy to the young intern who was going to be at the Edgmont firm where he worked for a few days. He lured the 23-year-old to his Thornbury home, drugged him and attempted to rape him in some kind of rape fantasy gone bad. Shephard apparently awoke during the assault and tried to fend Smithson off. He paid for that with his life, with Smithson strangling the life out of him.
Smithson filed a missing person report and then went to the airport to pick up Shephard’s parents.
On their arrival, they asked him if there was anything new in their son’s disappearance. He responded, “No.” At the time, Jason Shephard’s dead body was wrapped in sheets in his basement.
The Shephard family spent the last week in search of justice for their son. It was delivered by a Delaware County jury.
First they convicted Smithson of all charges against him, including first-degree murder.
Yesterday, they wasted little time in delivering their sentence – life in jail as opposed to the death penalty.
Among those they heard from in the sentencing phase of the trial was Smithson himself, who had not taken the stand during his trial.
The Shephard family will now return to their North Dakota home. On Thursday they likely will sit together to share a Thanksgiving dinner. There will be an empty spot at that table, just as there is now an empty spot in the lives. It will always be there. It will never go away.
The Shephards came to Delaware County for justice. They got it, but they did not get what they undoubtedly really wanted. They did not get their son back.
Bill Smithson will have the rest of his life to think about why.
posted by Heron's Nest at
7:26 AM
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