LATimes
A killing unlocks a devastating secret
A tortured young man shoots a genial youth leader. Now that his story of sexual abuse is known, even the widow supports the killer.
Reporting from Fort Bragg, Calif. — Twenty days before his planned storybook wedding in Yosemite National Park, Aaron Vargas got drunk on beer and vodka and pocketed a loaded revolver. Then he drove to a remote trailer and shot Darrell McNeill to death in front of the man's horrified wife.
McNeill's death shocked residents of this small city on the rugged Northern California coast, and so did Vargas' motive. But what came next might have been the biggest surprise of all.
Assistant Dist. Atty. Elizabeth Norman describes McNeill, who was unarmed when he was killed, as "a little old man with Parkinson's disease, who was in his little trailer home in his stockings, pants and T-shirt."
But Elizabeth McNeill, Darrell's widow, tells a different story in court documents: "My husband had a secret life that was unknown to me.... I believe my husband sexually molested Aaron when Aaron was a child and may have also molested other children in Fort Bragg."
A killing unlocks a devastating secret
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