Learning of a murder in your hometown is gruesome enough on its own, but when you live in a small town like Thibodaux that does not get much violent news, the local papers like to play up the details.

Most of Thibodaux has heard of the decapitation and dismemberment of seven-year-old Jori Lirette that took place Aug. 14. It would be hard not to hear of it, as not only did our local papers pick it up, but so did Fox, WWL, ABC and so many more. Our town has hit newsstands everywhere, but not for the better.

Most people are learning the details of how a man killed his son, who had cerebral palsy, and left evidence of his murder for the mother to find.

The man was caught early, however, when a passing motorcyclist saw the evidence first and called police. Within 30 minutes the man confessed, claiming that he was tired of taking care of the special needs child.

What people in Thibodaux are learning, however, is a little different from what the rest of the world receives. We are learning that a man who walked with us, dined with us and shopped with us killed his son in the most gruesome way possible. We know where he did it, how he did it and allegedly why he did it. We know where the child was found. We know what the scene looked like. We can go down the street and stare at it if we are really curious.

Did we need to know this amount of information? Are most people really concerned about why the kitchen sink had to be submitted into evidence? Details such as these, ones that made even police tear up according to The Associated Press, are typically released during and after the murder trial. The man just received an attorney Aug. 16. People are still in shock. Counselors are still visiting elementary schools. The nitty-gritty details can be splashed across the news after we know what really happened, how it happened, and why it happened, not while we’re still dazedly trying to figure out how it could have happened in our beloved town.

We understand this type of things is newsworthy. Murder like this doesn’t happen in Thibodaux. But the local papers need to calm down and remember their sensitivity training, because this is a little boy we are talking about. This was a child who was brutally murdered by his own father. Until we know the facts, we don’t need to gossip.

This is obviously another Casey Anthony case, only this time we have a confession and a pretty vivid description of how it happened. But did we need to make up for the lack of details in Anthony’s case by including so many details in this one?