Mother Of Plano Woman Targeted By Killer: "Get Out, Move On"
NORTH TEXAS (CBS 11 NEWS) - Debbie Lane doesn't want to glaze over the violence. She pauses to correct herself, as she describes the phone call she received Monday morning from a Plano detective.
"Meredith was the first victim identified, and he could confirm her death. Excuse me -- he could confirm her brutal murder. I mince no words about it. It was a heinous, evil, monstrous crime."
Debbie's daughter, Meredith Lane, was one of eight victims killed during a football watch party she was hosting at her home in Plano on Sunday.
The suspected gunman, Spencer Hight, Meredith's husband, who she was in the process of divorcing, was shot and killed by a responding police officer.
Lane says after learning her daughter had been murdered she instantly knew who was responsible. "There was nobody else. Nobody else who would consider doing such a thing," she said.
Lane describes the party that night as a celebration of freedom, as her daughter entered the final stage of her divorce. "She was starting to plan on pursuing her MBA, looking at SMU, looking at UT Dallas… she was moving on in every way possible and she was happy as a lark."
She calls her daughter's death her worst nightmare and says her composure in a time of grief and her lack of tears have caught people, herself included, by surprise.
Lane says she never made a conscious decision to speak so openly of her daughter's death, but when people started asking questions, she saw no reason not to answer them.
"All I know is that I'll talk to anyone about any of this, because I'm hoping that other young women – or older women – who have doubts about their partner... think there's something a little fishy there... or the person is brutal in some way, get out, don't look back. Find a good person, and move on, and leave it behind because otherwise you could end up dead," she said.
She's hoping that message can save someone else. "That's why I think I'm not weeping like a mad woman, because it matters."
Meredith Lane's funeral is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at the Ted Dickey West Funeral Home located at 7990 President George Bush Turnpike in Dallas.