I want to tell you all about an angel that walked this earth for an all too brief period.  Even though her time here was too short, she touched many, many lives, and is still touching them today from the heavens above us. Her name was Carrie Daugherty.  And there was no one quite like Carrie.  She was funny, and smart, caring and compassionate.  Her love for her family was deeper than anything, except for maybe the Tn Vols haha.   Her brutal murder was yet another painful chapter in her family's tragic history. I went to high school with her older sister, so I came to know Carrie and the Daugherty's.  They are an incredibly family who despite numerous tragadies have unfailing faith and continue to carry on.


Carrie was a staunch supporter of all childhood cancer victims and their families.  Carrie's older sister lost her 2 yr old daughter to cancer a few years ago, and it devestated the entire family.   At the time of her murder, Carrie was in the middle of organizing a charity run for the foundation found in her neice's memory.

On the night of March 19 2008, Carrie had just finished her evening shift at Barley's, a popular pizzera/bar in Knoxville, TN.  She was taking a break from her studies at the University of Tn.  She drove home, expecting to fall into bed after a busy night at work.  She had no way of knowing she would never make it that far.  As soon as Carrie exited her car, she was ambushed, by her roomate's boyfriend, Micha Johnson.  He viciously attacked Carrie, beating her with a brick, a shovel, and put a rope around her neck.  For reasons unknown, he dragged her to her front steps, then back out to her car during the attack.  He hit her so hard he broke the brick in to two peices.   Neighbor's down the street heard the attack, including Carrie screaming for her life, and called 911.  Strangely however, her roomate who was inside the house at the time claims she didn't hear anything at all.   Police have not released a motive in this case.  But they have admitted that Carrie wrote in her journal shortly before she died that she feared for her life because of Micha Johnson and was afraid he would kill her.  The trial was supposed to begin this summer but has been delayed until Feb of 2010.

What has me outraged about this is Micha Johnson shouldn't have been out on the streets.   He was already in the middle of an assault trial at the time he murdered Carrie.  Micha Johnson was a former student at the University of TN.   He viciously attacked a fellow student, unprovoked, which put the student in the ICU for several days.  He was permenantly expelled from the University, but was out on bond, romaing the streets.  If this vicious animal had been locked up instead, Carrie would be alive today.

In Carrie's honor, please visit the website for the foundation started in her niece's name: http://www.emilyspowerforacure.com/