A grieving mother got a unique measure of closure after burning down the house where her 7-year-old daughter was raped and suffocated five years ago.
Somer Thompson’s killer Jared Harrell, 29, now convicted and serving a life sentence, was squatting in the house at the time of the young girl’s murder. The Orange Park, Fla. residence was in foreclosure after Harrell’s parents moved out.
When the bank took possession of the house, it transferred ownership to the Somer Thompson Foundation.
Faced with the question of what to do with the house, Somer’s mother Diena Thompson came up a novel idea: burn it to the ground.
Thompson went ahead and donated the house to the Orange Park Fire Department for the station to conduct its training exercises.
WJXT reports, “Small fires were started and extinguished in the Gano Avenue house all morning while firefighters with the Orange Park, Clay County and NAS Jacksonville fire departments conducted training."
"About 1:10 p.m., the murdered girl's mother joined firefighters, setting the house on fire.”
“I get to burn their house down,” Thompson said. “I am the big bad wolf this time, knocking down your door.”
Diena Thompson threw a flare into the house's back window and watched it ignite.
She called the experience "cathartic."
Local residents cheered when smoke started pouring from the windows and the house went up in flames.
Witnessing the sore sight turn to ashes, Thompson honored her baby girl:
"She’s our sunshine, and she’s going to save children; she’s going to save lives.”
“She deserves nothing but glory for being the sacrificial lamb,” said Thompson, “and if she saves another child, then we've done something amazing."
It was an emotional day for everyone involved.
“It’s been a long time coming,” OPFD Fire Chief Ty Silcox said. “I think the community is ready to start healing, and I think being a part of this is going to help the community to start [to] heal.”
Now all that's left on the property are ashes and a pile of bricks.
While Thompson hasn’t decided what to do with the land now that the house is gone, she hopes to turn the site that was once the source of great pain into something beautiful for the community.
“Thank God for the people who have to look at this, and thank God when they see what a beautiful thing will come to fruition on this property after we’re done with this.”
According to WJXT, “Silcox said Thompson has already done something beautiful, by giving first responders a training opportunity that could save a life.”
Silcox told the Fla. news station,
"It's probably been five or more years since we've had a structure in the town that we've been able to do live fire training in. I think the benefit to this community is the healing process that should take place and we're looking forward to that."
Watch the full News4 Jacksonville report below.