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___________________
For J.R.S.
The brain may take advice, but not the heart, and love, having no geography, knows no boundaries: weight and sink it deep, no matter, it will rise and find the surface: and why not? any love is natural and beautiful that lies within a person's nature; only hypocrites would hold a man responsible for what he loves, emotional illiterates and those of righteous envy, who, in their agitated concern, mistake so frequently the arrow pointing to heaven for the one that leads to hell. —Truman Capote, Other Voices, Other Rooms
But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. —Corinthians
Palmer mother recalls final conversation before son’s murder
By Foster Lawrence
Fort Sackville Sentinel staff writer
FORT SACKVILLE, Ind. — Ruth Palmer will forever remember talking with her son Robbie Palmer the evening of May 2.
Robbie, 18, temporarily returned home from a party to pick up his favorite Levi’s, whitewashed denim jacket. “He wore that thing all the time,” Ruth said. “I gave it to him for Christmas last year.
“I was sitting in this rocking chair here. After he grabbed the jacket, he bent down and kissed me and said he would see me later.
“I told him, If you’re going to be late, or not coming home, please call, and he said, Of course I will. I love you, Mom.”
She never saw him again.
His decomposing body was found by two boys on three-wheelers fifteen days later, in a ditch off Highway 41 South near Knox Road. The location is about 10 miles from the party at 25 E. 1st Street in Fort Sackville.
Two autopsies failed to determine a cause of death. A police investigation has failed to determine how or where Palmer died.
Ruth Palmer has been critical of police and county prosecutor Dallas Ellerman for not pursuing the investigation with greater professional commitment.
During the two weeks Robbie was missing, Mrs. Palmer and friends searched for him. She learned about the discovery of his body while watching an Evansville, Ind., television station news broadcast.
When the body was found, Robbie was wearing the denim jacket he picked up at home.
A cheap gold-colored chain, according to Indiana coroner Vonderbreck, was worn around his neck.
“Robbie wore that necklace all the time too,” Mrs. Palmer said.
Vonderbreck says every death investigation has three parts.
The first part is an autopsy. The second is a police investigation. The third is either a grand jury or coroner’s inquest.
Since the autopsies and police investigation have produced no leads on Palmer’s death, Vonderbreck thinks it is time for a grand jury.
Mrs. Palmer has questioned the police investigation and allegations that the party her son attended was homosexual in nature.
“People can say anything they want because Robbie is not here to defend himself.
“I had a conversation with Robbie approximately a week before he died.
“He asked me, Mom, how would you feel if I was gay?
“I told him I wouldn’t love him any less. I wouldn’t tell you to go for it because that is not the