One of my favorite stories growing up was Edgar Allan Poe’s 1843 classic ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.?
It’s about a man who kills an old man, dismembers his body and hides it under the floorboards.
Eventually, the murderer is so overwhelmed by guilt that he imagines he can still hear the old man’s heart beating beneath the floor.
The beating steadily grows louder and louder.
Sure the police can hear it as well, the murderer finally breaks down and confesses his hideous crime.
I’m hoping that a real-life version of this story will take place with regard to whoever crashed their light-colored Buick Rendezvous into Lake Orion resident Derek Luke, 29, and just callously took off, not knowing whether their victim was alive or dead. The act was a shameful mixture of cowardice and cruelty.
The hit-and-run took place on M-24, just north of Dennison St., in downtown Oxford at approximately 12:20 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 17. The Rendezvous continued to head south into Lake Orion and was last spotted turning onto E. Flint St.
Luke suffered numerous severe and life-threatening injuries as a result of the accident. Fortunately, he’s recovering slowly, but surely. The process has been very painful and difficult for him.
His family wants to find the person responsible and bring them to justice.
So do I. That’s why I did my part to help them last week by writing a story that appeared in both The Oxford Leader and Lake Orion Review.
I sincerely hope the person responsible reads the story and is suffering considerably. I hope they can’t sleep. I hope they can’t eat. I hope they’re nervous, scared, paranoid and unable to enjoy a single second of their day. I hope their feelings of guilt have been mounting and soon become too much to bear.
I hope they can hear that dreaded heart beating louder and louder in their ears.
I hope their guilt combined with reading the story and hearing people talk about it finally drives this person to do the right thing and confess.
You didn’t just physically hurt a young man. You inflicted a ton of emotional pain and mental anguish on an entire family and circle of friends.
You didn’t hit a deer.
You hit a fellow human being who’s a father, a son, a boyfriend, a nephew.
End the Luke family’s suffering and help them begin to heal. Come forward.
Admit what you did and apologize.