MICHAEL McCLISH INVESTIGATED AS SUSPECT IN ASHA VEIL'S MURDER

There has finally been some forward motion in the Asha Veil murder case (click on the three dots beside the title of this entry to see the Sentinel article). To briefly recap for new readers of this blog, Asha Veil was a local woman, six months pregnant, a cashier at the Ben Lomond Market. She disappeared in September 2006 and was discovered dead on September 14th; her body had been dumped on Love Creek Road. She was still wearing her cashier's uniform.

Now, Michael McClish (a coworker at the market, already in jail on rape charges) is being investigated as a suspect in the killing. I want to remind readers that he has not been formally charged and, according to the Sentinel, there are other suspects in this case as well.

The reason I am being cautious about McClish is not to defend him in any way, but because I feel it's important for me to closely mirror the statements of the Sheriff's department. This has been a difficult waiting period for everyone and the temptation is to rush to justice, name a person, and set the ball rolling for a trial and conviction. It would be good if this could happen now, but the right suspect has to be implicated, and, though I have no love lost on Michael McClish (who used to bother my daughter Kat and offer her rides home "anytime"), I feel it is important to continue to see how this case begins to shape up. However, I hope that it is NOT another year from now.

The bottom line is that Asha and Anina's lives were important and someone who hated them and was crazy took their lives from them. Someone wanted Asha gone, and her daughter as well. That is still the bald and horrifying fact for me. And for what?
What was the killer's motive? Was Asha carrying his baby and he wanted to eliminate her and thus eliminate child support payments?

My community has never been the same since Asha died and I think it will take a long time to recover. There is often a pall of melancholy over people; some folks claim that Ben Lomond has moved on from this time, but I think it's certainly tinted the atmosphere, the way even a touch of gray in pink paint will dull the whole color just a little. For me, it's because Asha should have been alive right now, holding her baby, showing her off, buttoning Anina in a sweater because the April weather is still cold. And nothing, nothing in the world can bring them back.

All that can be done now is to keep this case moving forward, and keep it in the public eye--which is what, in my small way, I am doing.