Here in the Albany area, a murder mystery has been enthralling residents since 2022. Samantha Humphrey, 14, was strangled to death and up until now, a suspect was never taken into custody. Until now that is. The accused murderer is 17, so he is as yet unnamed.
The suspect, according to multiple media outlets, was Humphrey’s on-again/off-again boyfriend. Unlike the traditional media outlets, I will not be posting her picture as I have a policy of typically not posting photographs of minors and I only name minors if they are named in said media outlets. I have only a few exceptions to that policy, and even though she’s deceased, she was a minor at the time of death and I don’t feel that that qualifies as one of those exceptions.
So what would possess him to allegedly kill her? Reports are that she feared that she was pregnant, though the accuracy of that belief is in dispute according to a Facebook page that was set up to mourn her death and find her killer.
Upon hearing the news that he was a potential father, he reportedly became enraged and insisted that she get rid of the baby, likely as in abort the baby, which of course is a mortal sin. But then again, what they did to get into this situation was likewise a mortal sin.
The boy in question is looking at 15 years to life for the charge of second-degree murder. Whether or not she was actually pregnant, she’s still dead and someone has to answer for that. If they truly have their man, then he deserves the maximum sentence.
If, however, he’s innocent and someone else did it, then he deserves to be vindicated. Let us not forget that he is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. In the court of public opinion, however, it seems that he has been named, shamed, tried and convicted. I don’t know if that’s appropriate, but people are going to post what they’re going to post.
It took so long for him to be arrested because, as local NBC affiliate WNYT first reported, various law enforcement agencies needed to get their ducks in a row in regards to proving it was murder rather than suicide and in regards to the method of demise.
No media outlet is releasing his name even though he’s 17 and I’m pretty sure that you can name a suspect at that age. However, the Facebook page to which I alluded does have at least a couple of posts that purport to name him. One poster, whom I will not name, posted this grammatical abortion, referring to the alleged killer by his supposed first name:
“May [he] serve life in prison. Without [the] possibility of parole. I know a trial still has to happen and hopefully he [will] get a life sentence. Hope [sic] jury does [the] right thing.”
Even though another post on that page contained what may or may not be his first and last name, I am choosing not to name him because I don’t want to take a chance on getting into legal peril for naming a minor. If you really want to know what his name supposedly is, the Facebook page is easy to find if you know how what to type into the search bar.
I was a Criminal Justice student. I definitely understand the need to get things right the first time in order to make charges stick, but three years? That seems awfully excessive. Well, the important thing is that the accused killer is in a juvenile facility, locked away from society after pleading not guilty following his arrest, which took place on his way to school.
I understand the anger over finding out that he was potentially going to be a father, believe me.
I know a thing or two about unwanted kids, but a possible suggestion of an abortion? Alleged murder? Those don’t seem like appropriate responses. In my case, never once did I consider murdering the mother of my child. I simply resigned myself to the fact that I made a serious mistake and that I’d have to deal with the consequences of my hormone-driven, stupid actions for 18 years. Thankfully, I wiggled out of responsibility. And without killing anyone!
I understand that 14 is a very young age to be pregnant, but the best solution, I think, would have been to agree to give the child up for adoption, if she was in fact pregnant in the first place.
But then again, if she’d simply not fornicated, she’d be alive, so in that respect, she’s kind of responsible for her own death, at least partially. To put it in other terms, if she hadn’t spread her legs in the first place, she’d be alive, free to do whatever it is that Samantha Humphreys do.
Even though I feel that she needs to be blamed, at least a little bit, for her own death, that does not excuse her apparent murder, if in fact that’s what happened. The sad part here, the unfortunate aspect, is that this guy’s life is now over. If he’s tried and convicted, he’ll be behind bars until he’s in his mid-thirties. And, if the allegations are true, all because he couldn’t keep it in his pants.
Of course it goes without saying that, if it is true that he became enraged and then murdered her, he is definitely to blame for his role in the death. Nothing justifies what he is accused of doing. That being said, I understand and respect his anger and again, I definitely understand the lack of a desire to be a father.
This is what happens when you have sex out of wedlock and this is absolutely what can happen if you have sex at such a young age. But cooler heads should have prevailed here. She could have and should have been given the chance to carry the baby to term and then give it up so that both of them could make it through high school.
In this particular case, I have to say that both of them are to blame. Let’s call it 60%/40% blame with the potential murderer bearing the brunt of the fault. She had the ability to say no and she chose to fornicate without protection. That’s on her.
Don’t misunderstand me here. Even though she was reckless and irresponsible, she did not deserve to die per se, especially in that manner. If it’s true that this young man is her killer, then he absolutely deserves hard time for what he is accused of doing.
But again, she wasn’t completely innocent here.
Ladies, especially young ladies that young, should be prepared to suffer the consequences of unprotected sexual behavior. If they’re not willing to wait until marriage, or if they’re not willing to at least use protection, then perhaps they should just keep those legs shut to begin with. It might just be a matter of life and death as it apparently is here.