When I was just out of high school in 1997, in Montgomery County, Maryland, there was a murder committed by Samuel Shienbien and his friend. They left the dismembered body of their victim in a neighborhood near where some of my friends lived. It was big news that made waves nationally and internationally for different reasons. I was struck by this story because of the brutality and because everyone involved was my age. I wouldn’t say I was fixated on death at that time but I was certainly fixated on “what is life” (probably still am). The news reports often referred to a burned “torso.” The word always stuck with me and still brings up thoughts of this homicide all these years later.