to your gut. You were right to keep the windows closed, and your husband was right to report the gate left open. Until the murderer is in custody you should be taking extra precautions.

I feel sorry for her family.

Please keep those windows locked and your big dogs nearby.

Thanks for the info!
And, thanks for the hugs.

You live in a beautiful neighborhood. I hope the murder is solved soon. You and your neighbors should be able to enjoy the night breezes in peace.

Allison's family should have closure to this horrific event in their lives. They should be able to grieve without worry.

And, strange as it may seem, we are in a different development than Allison's house.

Even though she's only on the next block, it is a more recent development than ours. Our house was built in the 50s and is less than 1000 square feet! Allison's is double that and built (I think) in the 70s.

So, we have a mixture of homes in the neighborhood. Which makes it nice, actually. Less cookie-cutter like.

Thanks for your kind words and support. It really means a lot.

Pretty soon, everybody lives in fear, regardless if they are directly involved.

It's a sad testament to our times.

May they all rest in peace

Don't beat yourself up over feeling nervous. Perfectly natural.

I sure hope they solve the crime for everyone's sake.

extremely rare. Yes, they happen, Nightstalker stuff does happen, but rarely to the point of extreme. That was over 20 years ago.

Unless you are involved with a violent person who is mentally ill, involved in a messy divorce or custody battle, involved with a person who is stalking you or someone in your family due to disillusioned romance, etc, the chances of you being targeted in this type of situation is just not going to happen. If you're not involved in a life of crime, dealing drugs or trading in stolen goods, you're not exposing yourself to a criminal element that has any reason to bring you harm.

If you're not involved in the cash trade of some sort, such as owning a pawn shop, buying and selling gold and gems, owning a shop that mostly takes cash, etc. Or if you're not extremely wealthy and walking around flashing Louis Vuitton and dripping in diamonds with a nice Aston Martin parked in front, you're not likely to be a target of any sort either.

Most of us manage to walk this earth relatively unscathed. Being attacked by a total stranger in your own home, when you have dogs and other humans in the house is highly, highly unlikely. You seem like a very nice person. It's sad that this event in your neighborhood has made you so scared. Your dogs will protect you, and your own caution and intuition will also.

I suggest, if it's affordable, installing motion detector lights around the exterior of your home. I had one on my front porch, around both sides and in the back garden. No one was getting close to my house without a light going on. I also had a very noisy dog who alerted on leaves dropping. Better safe than sorry. What's reassuring is that crooks just almost never target a home with dogs.

I also invested in really bothersome 'barrier planting'. At every point of possible egress into my home and onto the property, I planted bougainvilla, that nice thorny rampant plant, best along fence lines. Rose bushes and thorny other things under windows, etc. So it can be pretty, but really repels any crooks who are thinking of having a look or coming on in. I also invested in a very pretty but very sturdy iron front door with a metal screen. I could see out, but no one could see in. Painted it white to be decorative and not all scary looking. That being said, I took all the bars off the windows and installed alarmed screens as well, but I never activated the alarm system!

This was a home on the border of Hancock Park and the Crenshaw 'hood, gang territory in mid-city Los Angeles. It was very safe and very pretty! That being said, there was a guy shot dead around the corner in the street about 100 meters away from us one night. Had nothing to do with me though.

You'll be fine, just do what you're doing, but know that in reality, you're not next!

A very dear friend of mine was brutally murdered in 2012, and it still haunts me. The 2 murderers were caught because fortunately they were really, really stupid & are now serving life in prison, but I still think of what Z went through in his final minutes. I hope they find the monster that did it.