Police are searching for a 23-year-old Tennessee man accused of fatally shooting his mother and a close friend. Authorities were alerted to the situation after Casey Lawhorn took to Facebook, posting a detailed description of his crimes. The hopelessness of his words is difficult to fathom, as he explains in the post that the only viable option left for him is suicide.
If anything, Lawhorn’s post offers terrifying insight into someone who is void of any faith or hope, and who truly cannot see any light at the end of the tunnel. It is the pit, the epitome of atheistic nihilism.
Late Sunday afternoon he took to his Facebook page and wrote plainly: “This morning, at around 01:30, I shot and killed my mother (Vi Lawhorn) and a close friend of mine (Avery Gaines) with a stolen .22 LR.”
But he didn’t stop there. Lawhorn went on to describe in disturbing detail his exact moves and thought process as he carried out the brutal shooting.
Lawhorn’s language in the post becomes increasingly dark, as he assesses the situation in light of his crimes and concludes that suicide is the only reasonable option.
“People keep saying that suicide isn’t worth it, that it isn’t too late, that I should turn myself in instead,” he wrote. “Well, friends, it is too late. Has been for more than 12 hours now … .”
The cold, chilling and methodical words offer insight into the darkness that had enshrouded the mind of this troubled young man, who shared that he has been suicidal “since late high school.”
“Let’s think critically for a minute,” he wrote. “Ignoring everything about why I hate myself and why I’m suicidal from before midnight this morning, just looking at today’s events, how should I be expected to not kill myself?. Surely any normal person would wish death on themselves after doing what I did, seeing what I saw, and hearing what I heard. And all that’s waiting on me is life in prison, or maybe the death penalty.”
With execution or life imprisonment awaiting his capture, Lawhorn said he chooses the “nothingness of death.”
“If I would get the death penalty, then I should definitely kill myself, otherwise I’m just wasting tax dollars on lengthy legal processes,” he wrote. “Even without being executed, just wasting away in prison sounds awful, and also a horrible use of state money. And who would look forward to life in prison? I’m almost 24, that’s a crazy amount of time behind bars. And it would be so lonely. I’m sure most of my friends would want to visit me at least once, if for no other reason than to try to understand what I did.”
He continued: “But after that first year, I can’t imagine I’d have any weekly visitors. Not even family, or perhaps especially not family. I’m not trying to say people don’t care about me, I know a lot of you do, it’s just that people in general don’t keep up a habit of going to visit a friend in prison. Life carries on for everyone else. And the sooner this is all over, then the sooner everyone can move on. If I’m dead by the time you are reading this, you can heal faster than if I’m still around and in court, and in prison.”
The Facebook post concluded with a plea for his brother: “Don’t give me or my family your thoughts and prayers. No one will be hurt by this more than my brother (Chad Lawhorn).”
Then, his words take a particularly atheistic turn, as he urges people to stop “talking to the sky,” and insists that he does not “want or need forgiveness from anyone.”
“He will probably need a lot of help getting through this, and if you think you are helping him just by talking to the sky, you’re f**king wrong,” Lawhorn wrote of his sibling. “If you want to help him in this insanely difficult time I’m putting him through, actually do something, don’t just think about it. I’m sorry to him more than anyone. That said, I don’t want or need forgiveness from anyone.”
Despite his defiant statements about the non-existence of God, Lawhorn goes on to entertain the thought of an afterlife – resigning himself to a fate of ending up in “hell.” He says that the “betrayal” of his family is a terrible “sin” that should result in severe punishment.
“What I did is unforgivable,” the man continued. “And prayer is a waste of time, nothing happens after death, but if there is a hell, I’m going to be in the lake of ice at the bottom. Betrayal of family and betrayal of guests are two of the worst sins.”
“However, as I sit here in Mississippi, writing this on the side of I-59 south after my car broke down, what I look forward to is the nothingness after death.”
Lord, as I sit here in this traffic on I 59, knowing what’s going on around me, I pray for whatever is going on WITHIN Casey Lawhorn. We ALL do things that are unworthy, we ALL fall short, but PLEASE speak to his heart & mind & let Him know in some way that YOU STILL LOVE HIM
— SUPA TROOP (@_SupaTroop_) April 9, 2018
Authorities in Jasper County, Mississippi, discovered Lawhorn’s vehicle Sunday evening on the side of a highway, but as of Monday they had yet to locate the suspect himself.
“Lawhorn was not in the vehicle but is still presumed to be in Jasper County,” the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department wrote on Facebook, as reported by the Daily Mail.
It is important to note that despite the police having discovered his vehicle, they have yet to locate the suspect himself. Obviously, this troubled young man is in an incredibly dark place following a horrific crime. Despite his claims, he is in desperate need of prayer.
In addition to praying for the victims’ loved ones, pray that somehow this disturbed and hopeless man may find faith in his most desperate of hours, and that he might choose to live, face the consequences of his actions and embrace the forgiveness of our almighty and wonderful savior.
(H/T: Daily Mail)