Greg Burchett is a tenured professor of Life Sciences at Riverside City College, and currently lives in Riverside, California with his surving son, Gregory. Missing The Links A Mother's Murder of My 17-Month Old Son Garrison By Gregory E. Burchett, Joanie Gibbons-Anderson, Robert Jew AuthorHouse Copyright © 2013 Gregory E. Burchett All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4918-1489-5 Contents Preface....................................................................ixChapter 1: Growing Up and the Business of Life.............................1Chapter 2: Centrifugal Force...............................................17Chapter 3: Evisceration and Emasculation...................................71Chapter 4: Focus...........................................................99Chapter 5: Cranial Rectal Insertion........................................215Chapter 6: Living versus Breathing.........................................255Epilogue...................................................................261 CHAPTER 1 Growing Up and the Business of Life It's interesting, the juxtaposition of personal humanity. At ourcore, we are social creatures, yet we strive for individuality.Wanting to be alone, yet needing to be surrounded by others.Whether living in a group and forming a family-unit, or beingalone with no one to either depend on, or be dependent upon. The eternal fairytale dream of finding that special someone,settling down and being a part of something larger than yourself.This is in competition with the innate desire to be independentand free-spirited, a stallion roaming free on the prairie, withno-one to answer to. I am a social beast. I prefer being with others, as a general rule,with specific moments of absolute solitude, in order to re-chargemy social "beastlike" battery. My fondest memories growingup were of being surrounded by family, tons of my childhoodfriends, at our home on football Sundays. Many pool parties,lots of food, drink, and tons of laughter. These were some ofthe best times of my life. I am one of the few people you cantalk with who actually enjoyed growing up, being a part ofhigh school, and being a teenager. This is what I want for myson, Gregory. I want him to enjoy his being a kid, for as long aspossible. It's also what I had wanted for Garrison. I didn't get married at a young age. Thought I was doing theright thing – finishing my education, finding that perfect job,paying off my bills, purchasing my first home, and after (what Ithought) growing up just a bit, opening my eyes in order to findthat special someone. I wanted to find that special someone tobuild a future with, that special someone to grow old with, andthat special someone to fall in love with. The "right thing" wasdifficult though. I made many, many mistakes. Heartless womenwho chewed me up, and spit me out. Women who were, withouta doubt, some of most sincere, honest, and sweet people whoever lived. My pushing them away, and in turn breaking theirhearts. My craving strength in someone, and being rejected.My trying to "save someone" and feeling empty inside. Mytotal lack of self-confidence, with no sense of self-worth, in anyinterpersonal romantic relationship. Simple truth – I wasn't ready for a relationship, at all. Chance Encounters Garrison's mother Lori and I met by total accident. A fortuitousmixture of timing, and of circumstance. I am an AssociateProfessor of Biology at Riverside City College, and I hadbeen selected by the administration to attend a conference oncurriculum development in San Diego in 2003. I spent threedays there, with colleagues from my school. I had a wonderfultime. It was a very good learning experience, in one of the mostbeautiful cities in the world. Lori was also at the conference. We never actually met,though. It turns out she worked at Mt. San Jacinto Community College,within a 30-minute drive of where I lived and worked. It turnsout that she knew most everyone I worked with. It turns out thatduring a group discussion, that my participation had grabbedher attention. She had realized that I was from Riverside, and shehad been "checking me out" during those few days through mycolleagues that she also knew. It turns out she had the "scoop"on me, long before I ever heard her voice. It turns out everyonetold her how "wonderful" I was. It turns out that my life changed that weekend, for both good,and bad. Throughout the weekend meetings, we had exchanged glances,but hadn't met. At the concluding meeting, she walked up to meand handed me her business card. "I think you want this." I said thank you, and handed her my card. That was it – no conversation, no getting to know one another,nothing else. Honestly, I didn't think anything more of it, andbased on my personal history, I didn't think that anything wouldhappen. She did, though. Two days later, she sent me an email. The next week, we metfor dinner. Some may think that she acted in a predatory fashion, and Iwas her "p