In 1995, Mary K. Ross, a 25-year-old single mother and college student, was brutally stabbed to death in her Sioux Falls, South Dakota apartment while her baby watched. Her murder remains one of the city’s most haunting crimes, raising painful questions about how evil drifts from place to place, preying on the vulnerable and recruiting the unguarded. This essay reflects on violence, vulnerability, and how compassion can endure even in the face of unimaginable brutality.

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