I hesitate to make this post. I do not want any of you to think I am feeling sorry for myself or trying to get your pity - that I am not.

These past few days have been so hard for me; I am so sad. I think the cause might be a combination of me physically not feeling well, the upcoming anniversary of mom's death, and the fact her murder remains unsolved.

I have been trying to get answers from the GA Crime Victims Advocay, without success. I get so frustrated when dealing with any of the agencies working on her case.

Sorry, I know my postings here are of the 'feast or famine' nature, either no posts for a month or so or posts for 2 consecutive days. It is the nature of the beast!

Yesterday I took the initiative to write a letter of opinion to the Macon Telegraph. The story behind the letter is this: Macon and Bibb county released statistics this week about crime rates for 2006. My letter follows (you may recognize the last paragraph, I borrowed it from a posting I did last summer):

Statistics are a joke

The newly released crime statistics for Macon and Bibb County seem to be somewhat of a joke to me. My mother, Carol Mathis, was murdered in Macon in the spring of 2006. I would be interested to see statistics regarding the ratio or percentage of violent crimes that have been solved and are waiting for processing of evidence by the state crime lab.

I am told we are waiting for evidence to be processed in my mother's case. I do not understand the delay. Does our state have that many unsolved murder cases? I am told her case will be processed "in order."

Yet, all it takes is careful watching of the news to realize this is not fact. For example Jenny Ewing's case had DNA processed with results returned within days. Why are there discrepancies? Is it because Mrs. Ewing and her family were/are more influential than my mom or family? I cannot make sense of it all.

Nothing about this is fair. It is definitely not fair that my mom was murdered. My mom was an awesome lady and I cannot begin to tell you the things I lost when she was killed.

I really wish I had an update to post, but I do not. I am told we are still waiting on results from the crime lab. I do not understand the delay. The reasoning I am given is that evidence from my mom's murder will be processed in order, that it has to get in line behind the other murders with evidence to be processed. Does our state really have that many new unsolved murder cases that need evidence processed? I have to wonder. Every official I ask 'hem-haws' around the question and I don't believe I have gotten a real answer yet.

On the local news there have been reports of the decreased crime rates of Macon and Bibb County for 2006. I have seen those stories with a picture of my mom's apartment door with police tape across it accompanying the story. Those stories and statistics provide no comfort to me.

My husband tells me to start "turning up the heat" on the detectives and Macon PD. Sounds like a good idea to me, but I have no clue as to how to even begin doing that. Any suggestions?