Wednesday, September 14, 2011

"... in OUR Community" - Kimberly Diane McCollum Boyd (1975-2005)



This week marks the anniversary of one of the most useless tragedies ever to happen in our community... and I post this to honor her memory as a friend, relative, wife and a MOM.... This is a woman who lived in OUR community who was kidnapped at gunpoint (in OUR community) as she was arriving for work, forced to drive her car to an ATM and withdraw money (maximum was #300.00). Somewhere along the line after this, there was an altercation on the side of the road where he beat her and shot her in the stomach. The attacker (thug) then pushed Kimberly back into her SUV and he drove off in her vehicle. He then passed a line of cars waiting to turn left at the Hwy 41 and Hwy 92 intersection and he attempted to cut in front of an oncoming cement truck to try to beat it across the intersection. He slammed into the cement truck and then jumped out of the vehicle with Kim's purse clutched in his grimy hands. A Good Samaritan, Hero, and one of OUR community members who had witnessed most of the incident coming down Hwy 41 yelled for him to stop. Shawn Roberts, who is a licensed gun carrier, yelled for the felon to stop and the convicted rapist and armed robber turned the gun on Mr. Roberts (bad idea) Roberts shot him in the chest and head (DRT) "Dead Right There".

Mr. Roberts then went to the mangled Sequoia hoping to find my wife in good condition, but instead found her lying there forever lost.

Kimberly's husband Michael Boyd, began lobbying the State of Georgia Legislature to put an Emergency button on all ATM's that can be pressed in case of an emergency that would notify 911 dispatch immediately - the passed and is now law - "Kimberly's Call"

Michael's recollection and notes of the event posted below:

The Story as told by Michael Boyd

The morning of September 12, 2005 started out just like any other Monday morning for our family. I was not due in at work until 1:00 and Kim had a pickup at 9:00 at the Budget store. Chloe had the sniffles the night before and did not go to sleep until late, so Kim and I decided that we would keep her at home instead of her going to school with Kim that morning. Kim got up unusually early that morning probably because she was excited to run the report for that week's business. She had gotten quite a few corporate reservations because of hurricane Katrina, and she needed to prep a truck and trailer for a Louisiana police officer that was renting them at 9:00 that morning. She also decided that morning to let Connor sleep in a few more minutes and to take him to school instead of letting him ride the bus. I was still half a sleep around 8:00 when Connor and Kim came out of the bathroom ready to go. As Kim came near the bed, I said, "Bye honey, see you in a little while, love you." She said, "Love you," and then I told Connor to come over to the side of the bed where I was, so I could give him a hug and kiss. I was fully expecting so see Kim in an hour or two because she would always come back from the office around 11:00 or so to pick up Chloe and see me off to work. As Connor walked back toward his mommy, I told Kim again, "Bye honey, see you later," and she said, "Ok see you in a little while," then she was gone.

I went ahead and got up around 8:30 and fixed a pot of coffee and ate some muffins and Chloe woke up around 8:45. I told her that I could still call mommy to come and take her to school, or I could take her to our bed and let her sleep a little while longer. She pointed toward our bed and she went back to sleep almost as quickly as her head hit the pillow on her mother's side. I went back downstairs and watched some morning television and enjoyed not having to watch Barney and Friends and Sesame Street and then I went and checked some emails. Around 10:15 Kim's brother, Ryan, called me and told me that he had tried to call Kim on her cell and got no answer and he had just driven up on what looked like an accident in an area that Kim could have possibly been on the way to work. He had been to the doctor and was on his way back home. He then said he saw a white Sequoia and he got out and started walking toward the scene as I ran through the house trying to find my shoes to run out of the door to make sure my baby was alright, just in case it was her car in the accident. Ryan started to panic on the cell phone and about that time my brother-in-law, Scott, who had been driving down Hwy 41 to Gold's Gym, walked through the door with two Cobb County detectives. At that moment as Scott and these two strangers told me what had just transpired, the worst unimaginable nightmare hit me square in the face like a freight train, and I lost my breath and screamed, "Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! Not my Baby! She's just little!! Not my Baby! How could this happen!" My life and the lives of my children had just been crushed and changed forever.

Kim had gotten to work sometime around 8:30. From a gas receipt, we know that she went and filled up a 15 foot truck as soon as she got to work and had pulled it in front of her store. She would then normally go in and start getting her paperwork ready for the 9:00 rental that she was expecting. What happened at this point is speculation. The police are not sure where a convicted rapist and child molester, a convicted aggravated assaulter who had intended on doing severe bodily harm to someone in Illinois, a convicted forger and suspect in armed robbery, and a convicted non registered sex offender, abducted my precious little angel. He could have gotten her at the gas station as she was getting back into the rental truck. He could have gotten her outside her store at this point and forced her into her car by gun point. Or he could have been waiting on her in the back of her Sequoia because she would usually get into her vehicle to go get furniture pads or tow dollies out of the other trucks. What we do know is that Kim somehow talked this armed robber and rapist into letting her drive almost six miles toward the direction of our home to the entrance of Cedar Crest road to a Wachovia Bank to make a forced ATM withdrawal (I am positive she did this hoping someone who knew her would see her). The ATM cameras taped her as she withdrew money with our business card in the amount of one hundred dollars. The camera showed her glance behind her several times during the transaction and you can see a shadow in the backseat. The criminal was forcing her by gun point to make an ATM withdrawal just like he had made a woman do six days earlier at the BB&T branch bank directly behind Kim's business. The only difference with that robbery was that he had already spent an hour brutally raping and assaulting that woman before forcing her to withdraw ATM funds. She, by the grace of God, was able to escape and the animal drove off in her car. Kim made the withdraw at 9:25 a.m. from that Wachovia branch during working business hours and she had no means of alerting the personnel inside the open bank that her life was in severe danger and that she was being forced to make a withdraw. There are no safety devices or systems on ATMs and the only piece of equipment there on the ATM that was not directly related to banking business was a camera that can only record what happened, so that it may be reviewed later, after theft and death have already occurred. My wife and mother of three drove by a teller window less than three feet away from potential help and freedom, and she had no means to let anyone know inside the safe and oblivious walls of the bank that she was in serious life-threatening trouble.

He then forced her to get back onto Hwy 41 headed south back toward the Hwy 92 intersection headed back to the areas she was abducted. It is speculated at this point that Kim realized the animal with a gun to her back as she drove was not going to stop at just robbing her and, according to witnesses behind her vehicle, Kim began scratching and clawing and swinging at the animal while she was driving. Just as she crossed the Alatoona Lake bridge, she slammed her vehicle broadside into the guard rail, which I am sure was an attempt by her to disorient the criminal so that she may escape. Sometime during this attempt, Kim was shot in the side. She did manage to get partially out of the vehicle, but he reached out and pulled her back into the vehicle pulling her to the backseat and trading places with her under the steering wheel. Also, according to an eyewitness, even after being shot, Kim still continued fighting for life and scratched and clawed the animal as he continued to drive down the highway. He then passed a line of cars waiting to turn left at the Hwy 41 and Hwy 92 intersection and he attempted to cut in front of an oncoming cement truck to try to beat it across the intersection. He slammed into the cement truck and then jumped out of the vehicle with Kim's purse clutched in his grimy hands. A Good Samaritan who had witnessed most of the incident coming down Hwy 41 yelled for him to stop. Shawn Roberts, who is a licensed gun carrier because he owns his own business and travels a lot, yelled for the animal to stop and the convicted rapist and armed robber turned the gun on Mr. Roberts and Roberts shot him in the chest and head dead. Roberts then went to the mangled Sequoia hoping to find my wife in good condition, but instead found her lying there forever lost. The trauma and impact of the accident was too much for my baby to endure. If not for her courage and bravery and her refusing to be a passive victim, this animal would have escaped back into our community just like he had on September 6, 2005 to rape, pillage and murder again. It was Kim's desperate desire to get back to her family and to protect others that gave this 5'5" 110 lb beautiful woman the strength and courage to help defeat a demon that would have surely escaped back amongst unaware families to do irreversible harm once again.

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