The Aerie

Joe Sodd III

Our neighbor's son was murdered yesterday.

He died a few miles away, in a quiet neighborhood wedged in between the freeway and a couple of colleges, while riding his moped home from giving a dance performance. Joe Sodd III was minding his own business when someone, for reasons unknown, decided to stab him to death.

I didn't know Joe Sodd III terribly well (grandson of the Minnesota PGA Hall of Fame player). When he worked as a waiter at a local restaurant, he had served my wife and I dinner. But as the Star Tribune points out, he was a gifted young man with lots to offer the world.

I cannot fathom his parent's grief, nor do I wish to try. Just thinking about it makes my head spin. The Star Tribune did a service by posting a video that shows some of this young man's accomplishments. There are any number of web tributes to Joe by his peers, which show how many people cared about him, and how much he will be missed.

The Sodd's have lived down the block from us for the seventeen years that we've lived in this house, and it is my deep regret that I did not get to know their son better. He was a student at Marcy Holmes school, and the photo above is eight years old now, with Joe in the center, from a production of 'Bye By e Birdie.'

There will be a memorial for Joe on Sunday at the Triple Rock Social Club which is very close to where he was killed.

Posted by Albatross at June 19, 2008 10:38 PM | TrackBack