Coralrose Fullwood: The Truth is Never Easy

This week, Patrick Murphy, who was charged with the murder of Coralrose Fullwood, plead guilty. News reports are saying he is admitting to killing Coralrose. So does this mean the case is closed?

Back in 2007, I watched several videos of Dale Fullwood (which are no longer online unfortunately) and I stated that I did not trust him. Dale Fullwood’s daughter, Coralrose, was murdered and her body was found within hours a few blocks away at a construction site by a dog walker. Dale has always told people that he came home from the bar he worked at, saw Coralrose sleeping and went to bed. By the time they awoke the next morning, she was missing. Dale told reporters that he believed she was abducted from his home as he and his family of six slept.

Read moreWhen Murphy was arrested in August 2008 due to DNA, people were convinced I had this case wrong, yet thankfully the police kept an open-mind. It turns out they had or got more information than we did at the time.

An informant in this case has told police that Coralrose’s rape and death was videotaped. See this article from the Herald-Tribune:

The night she was abducted and killed, 6-year-old Coralrose Fullwood was taken to a home along with other children to perform sex acts for a video, according to court records obtained by the Herald-Tribune.

Furthermore, they report:

According to the records released this week (June 2009), Coralrose was taken to the home of the man charged with murdering her, Patrick Dewayne Murphy, who lived two miles away from the Fullwood home.

Several adults were at the home, as well as Coralrose, three young girls and a boy, the records say, and one of the men offered the children $10 to have sex with each other while he filmed them.

And last:

He [Dale Fullwood] has told police he had no part in his daughter’s death, a crime that police say was not random.

Sadly, the truth is never easy, and that is why I am writing this post. It is not black and white. We want to believe that when we have a suspect, especially with DNA, that the case is cut and dry. It’s over. Person A is guilty and so then Person B must be honest.

Deception isn’t as simple as he did it or he didn’t. Deception can run deep and in many directions, and is often harder to solve than murder. It doesn’t leave behind DNA, but as we get closer to the truth, a picture begins to fuzz before us, and until that picture is clear, we must never give up in search of the truth.

We do not know how Coralrose was identified to be one of the children to participate in the child pornography “gathering” that night. Can we rule Dale out as having no knowledge considering all the facts in this case? To do so would mean you believe that Patrick Murphy abducted Coralrose between 2:00- 7:00 a.m. from a house full of six people without being discovered–for the purpose of bringing her to the pornography “gathering”. That seems remote to me. I don’t doubt at all that Murphy may be the one that ultimately killed Coralrose, but does that leave Dale free and clear, and most importantly honest?

Police have clearly identified that Patrick Murphy and Dale Fullwood had a connection. Witnesses reported seeing them look at pornography on Dale Fullwood’s computer where he worked. Dale Fullwood was also found to have child pornography on his computer which he was charged and sentenced to serve time.

The biggest problem one must live with when finding the truth is being willing to live in a state of ambiguity. Ambiguity make us uncomfortable. When people find things that make them uncomfortable, they want them to go away–they want easy answers. That’s not how we find the truth.

In cases with complexity, it may take years and even decades until the truth reveals itself. In some cases, we know the truth may never reveal itself. But through it all, if we want the truth, we must be willing to live with ambiguity and accept it, until the full picture of the truth reveals itself, otherwise we will just live with another deception.