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Dear Laura Garza, I’m sorry for what happened to you. You were obviously a sweet and innocent girl. These things only happen to sweet innocent girls. Your poor family is having to try to explain to the world that you were a good girl because people seem to think only a so-called bad girl would leave a club with a man she didn’t know; but people don’t realize that bad girls aren’t naive girls and what you did was pretty naive. You trusted your safety to a stranger in a dangerous city like New York. Bad girls know better than to do that. Bad girls carry a knife or a gun in their purse. Bad girls are up to no good to begin with so they never let their guard down as completely as you did yours. You were not a bad girl.

Other people call you stupid. They say smart girls today know better than to do what you did. I don’t think you were stupid. I think you weren’t the best judge of character. You probably went through life believing in the good of mankind. You didn’t think someone could harm you because you’re nice to everybody, and you figured as long as you’re nice to everybody, everybody will be nice to you. Maybe you were too sheltered. It’s obvious your family loves you to the end of the earth and back. You probably didn’t go through many hardships in life. You probably didn’t have many bad experiences with people, and that’s why you were so trusting. You figured people were basically good.  It’s not that you knew better than to leave a nightclub with a stranger, but you still went and did it even while a voice in the back of your head was cautioning you that you might be putting yourself in danger. That would define stupidity. I don’t think you did that. I don’t think you felt in any way like you were in danger.

I guess you found Michael Mele attractive or something. It happens. Girls get swept off their feet all the time and sometimes they get caught up in the moment and take a chance. You’re not the first woman to leave a club with a man she just met and you’re not going to be the last. You were having a good time with the guy. You didn’t pick up that he was a convicted sex offender. It’s not like convicted sex offenders wear signs. Maybe they should be branded on the forehead, but we can discus that later. The point here is, Mele didn’t look like a pervert and he obviously didn’t act like a pervert because only a suicidal woman would have left with someone who was acting like a creepy pervert. Obviously Mele acted normal, and he looked normal. Beyond that he was a good- looking guy. You liked him. You were having fun with him. You didn’t want the night to end. You wanted more time with him. Maybe you even wanted to go to bed with him. If that’s what happened, there’s nothing wrong with it necessarily, except, a girl really shouldn’t take the chance of going home with a stranger, no matter how powerful her attraction to him, especially in a place like New York City. You made a mistake. I’m sorry it had to prove fatal. It’s sad that you had to lose your life to spare other women from being victimized by Michael Mele.