primal reaction

The tragic discovery of 8 year old Sandra Cantu's body this past Monday, JonBenet's likewise brutal and unsolved murder is relived. Experts like Tamara Walker,RN want to help parents address this difficult topic with their children and Dr. Debra Moore explores the importance of our human connection--

Media chronicle wide grief for slain Tracy girl
By Cynthia Hubert
Friday, Apr. 10, 2009

"Joanne Arpino remembers Polly Klaas. She thinks a lot about Caylee Anthony. She said she will never forget JonBenet Ramsey's sweet face.

But lately, the retired nurse has been haunted by the images of another little girl whose life ended in tragedy, Sandra Cantu of Tracy.

The reaction is not surprising, said psychologist Debra Moore of Sacramento.

"As human beings, we are evolutionarily programmed to feel this way," Moore said. "Protecting our young as a way of continuing the species is about as primitive as it gets.

"When a child is harmed, everything inside of us screams out that this cannot be, that we cannot have this. When we see the images of someone so vulnerable, we react."...

Moore, the psychologist, said whether people feel a connection to someone who has died seems to have little to do with whether they knew the individual directly, or even lived on the same continent...

"It's very beneficial for these families to know that we are all connected, and that someone has taken the time and the effort to visit a memorial or to write," Moore said. "That's very powerful. This is a great gift that people are giving."