Title: Where the White Dove Flies: The True Story of the Homicide of Whyatt James Sander
Author: Monica Bliss Ockwig
Publisher: Xlibris
ISBN: 9781450023801
Pages: 49, Paperback/Hardcover/Kindle
Genre: True Crime/Non-Fiction
Reviewed by: Barbara Miller, Pacific Book Review
Book Review
There aren’t any words that can truly comfort the parents, grandparents and family for the tragic death of a 3 month old baby, however when the death is deemed a murder, the emotions become unimaginable. It’s the gripping scenario of truly painful circumstances in which Monica Bliss Ockwig, the grandmother to the victim, brings to light in her true story of the homicide of Whyatt James Sander titled, Where the White Dove Flies.The book is a tribute to Ockwig’s grandson; a recount of facts articulated with emotional prose in a journalistic format. Her terse book of less than 50 pages reads like “Cliffs Notes” of the event. Monica Bliss Ockwig spares any elaborate descriptions or embellishments while she concentrated on the facts of the case, bringing the reader into her mindset from the first ring of the phone call notifying her of the mishap to the funeral, then following through with the court proceedings. The details of a woman under the influence of drugs and alcohol, inconceivably backing up a van over the campsite tent housing a mother and a baby, killing the infant and nearly killing the mother as well, becomes hashed out in many angles of thought.
A rather difficult and upsetting series of circumstances of course, hovering around the untimely and unnecessary death of an innocent baby, the book is a blood pressure riser as Monica Ockwig brings her maternal disbelief and temper into the mix of interactions over the course of events. The reader is unavoidably empathetic to the pain and suffering of the parents and family over the dreadful loss. The ability to forgive becomes a challenge many cannot achieve, nor is it really warranted for such a cruel act? The DUI aspects of the driver complete with oblivious sentiments fuels the emotions. The courts gentle and inconceivably light sentencing also amplifies the emotional stress of the victim’s family.
The raw message is brought fourth for the reader to learn from the painful loss of one family. The behavior of addicts, the ramifications of such a loss to a family, coupled with our legal system which seems unjust is soberly discussed. This book should be required reading to all that have been arrested and convicted of DUI with alcohol and cocaine usage, and used by MADD and other political activist groups in strengthening the laws and increasing penalties.
