Somer Thompson: woeful news of her death recalls memories of Jacksonville's Maddie Clifton

On tentative news that the body of Orange Park, Florida resident, Somer ReneeThompson, 7 (above right), was discovered yesterday in a landfill, many residing in nearby Jacksonville, Florida recall the brief life and brutal 1998 death of Madlyn Rae Clifton, 8 (above left),    

Yesterday's announcement--that a child's body found in a landfill had been tentatively identified as Somer Renee Thompson, 7, of Orange Park, Florida--recalls the brutal murder of Madlyn Rae Clifton, 8, whose 1998 death profoundly sensitized North Florida residents.

The spritely second-grader named Somer stepped from a Clay County school bus Monday afternoon, Oct.19, and following a purported tiff with another child, seemed to vanish from the well-manicured, North Florida bedroom community, located 3 miles from Naval Air Station Jacksonville.

In the recent soundings of Somer Thompson's unspeakable death, aftershocks of another girl's murder now resonate strongly among family, friends, police and volunteers who searched in vain throughout Jacksonville the 8 days Maddie Clifton went missing. 

With an announcement that Somer Thompson had a birthmark like one found on the child's body discovered yesterday, painful memories surfaced as if it were only yesterday--not 11 years ago on Nov. 3--that Maddie did not come home.

A profusion of purple ribbons--Maddie's favorite color--marking a collective, untenable anguish, returned in vivid recall. Hopeful vigils, then a city's grief, surrounded Maddie's funeral, overflowing with people who may not have known her in life, but who bonded to her in memory.

Maddie. People still call her name.

Who in Jacksonville can forget the Nov. 14 day in 1998?  Hundreds of mourners--with heads bowed respectfully and hands over heart--lined San Jose Blvd., after Maddie's remains left San Jose Catholic Church and arrived at Oaklawn Cemetery.

What seems striking in both cases is not only Somer's and Maddie's similar, brown hair, their sparkling eyes-- with ages separated by a single year--but what mainly comes to light is both children's seeming love for life and trust in everyone.

That both girls' deaths occurred early in the academic year--when their new shoes still retained their novel appeal--at a time North Florida's mild, fall weather had spread itself so magnificently throughout the region, providing sunny hours of after-school fun.

Tragically similar: in both cases, two sorrowful, North Florida law officials announced the little girls' deaths. More than a decade ago, Jacksonville Sheriff Nat Glover fought tears while saying, "she [Phillips' mother, Melissa] saw Maddie's feet hanging out of [Joshua Phillips'] bed."

Yesterday's incomprehensible announcement from Clay County Sheriff, Rick Beseler, recalled Glover's grievous,1998 statement.

Then as now, there would be shock, after which, the inevitable question of why would resound.

Like many murder victims, Maddie Clifton died at the hands of someone she knew. Her 14-year-old neighbor, Joshua Phillips, would stand trial as an adult, then receive a first-degree murder conviction. 

Joshua Phillips, now 25, is serving a life sentence without parole in Wakulla Correctional Institution.

Phillips lived with his parents in a one-story house, across the street from the Clifton family. The teen told police detectives he accidentally hit Maddie with a baseball while they were playing, that, fearing his father's wrath, he dragged Maddie inside, and bludgeoned her with a baseball bat to silence her cries. Concealing Maddie within the frame of his waterbed, Josh went about the house as usual.

Later, during dinner that same evening, Joshua heard Maddie whimpering. Phillips then returned to his room, where, using a knife to silence his friend, he stabbed Maddie in the neck and chest.

For 8 nights, Josh slept over Maddie's body before his mother, Missy, discovered the child's sock-covered feet extruding from the waterbed frame.

Hard facts surrounding Jacksonville's grief-stricken, early November days of 1998 now prompt minds to ponder, as autumn bears new pall: has Somer Thompson's young life been taken by a stranger's evil-doing, or, as in the murder of Maddie Clifton, did someone she knew cause her death?