Mother of Murdered Seven-Year-Old Girl Gets Serious Closure: She Burned the Killer’s House Down

20 Feb, 2015 by Cassy Fiano

Print this article Font size -16+

What would you do if you suddenly had ownership of the house that your child was murdered in? For Diena Thomspon, the answer was easy: she burned the house down.

It had been 5 long years since the day Diena Thompson’s little girl was walking home from school and then lured into a Florida home where she was raped and suffocated.

But Mom got to exact a unique measure of closure on Thursday, courtesy of the house where the horrible crime against 7-year-old Somer was committed in 2009: She got to burn it down.

“I am the big bad wolf this time, knocking down your door,” Thompson told WJXT-TV outside the Orange Park property surrounded by firefighters.

Somer’s convicted killer, 29-year-old Jared Harrell, was squatting in the house at the time of her murder; it was in foreclosure after Harrell’s parents moved out.

The bank, after taking possession, transferred ownership of the house to the Somer Thompson Foundation — which gave her mom a novel idea.

Thompson got in touch with the Orange Park Fire Department and offered that the house could be a great benefit if it was used for training exercises — and then burned to the ground. Firefighters commenced training on Monday and finished with Thompson walking up to the house and throwing a flare inside, igniting the whole place.

“Burn, baby, burn,” Thompson told WJXT. Cheers went up as smoke billowed from the windows; more shouts came as the first flames were seen, the station said.

This was a brilliant way to get closure and close the book on a bad chapter in her life. Not only did she get a small measure of revenge, she also was able to do something good at the same time by helping out the local fire department. It’s a win-win.