Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir

A strange voice on the phone told Natasha that her mother had been shot and killed. A police officer arrived at Natasha’s dorm room and took her to the police station. There, Natasha saw her mother’s initialed briefcase. She awaited the arrival of Grandmother Turnbough, whom the police had also called. As soon as Natasha saw her grandmother, she leaned into the elder woman and wept. The police officer told them that Joel had not yet been arrested and might pose a threat to others. That night, they found him at a motel near Atlanta. He still had the gun that he used to kill Gwen. As he was arrested, he said that he had planned to kill himself, too.

The next day, Natasha, her grandmother, and her father drove to Mississippi to meet Gwen’s body. First, they went to her apartment to collect some of the things she left behind. In the parking lot in front of her apartment complex, there was a chalk outline that traced “where her body had lain” (194). There was also a stain that marked her trail of blood. A television news crew waited beside their van.