The news has been full of the murder of Tiffany Souers. Huge headlines in yesterday’s Greenville News proclaimed "Suspect Captured!", and today the headline told of Jerry Inman’s confession to the crime.
In this morning’s paper, tucked away back on the third page of the Metro section, was the news of the murder of Nishan Huff, age 23. Huff was discovered by her boyfriend shot to death in her apartment just off of Pleasantburg Drive. Right now there are no suspects.
Chicketa Huff said her sister graduated with honors from Francis Marion University, where she had a double major.
"She was an overachiever," she said.
Huff said her sister, a member of a sorority, lived alone, and comes from a close-knit family. Huff said she had worked at the Outback Steakhouse for a year or more.
Both of these crimes are tragic, to be sure, but the question must be asked. Why was Tiffany Souers’s murder elevated to front page status, and Nishan Huff’s all but neglected? Was it because one was a current college student and one was not? Was it because strangulation by a bikini top is so much more dramatic than a gunshot? Or could it be something else? Souers’s picture was posted everywhere, showing a blond-haired cute coed – someone anybody would like. Although no ethnicity was given, Huff’s given name would indicate something other than blond hair. Could race be an issue here? Even if my assumption about ethnicity is totally incorrect, why is there a difference in the attention given to one over the other at all?
I don’t mean to diminish the tragedy surrounding Souers’s murder. However, I would think that Nishan Huff’s murder deserves just as much attention as the Souers case. I hope that the authorities work as diligently in solving it.