Please Be Careful

This post today is especially for the ladies. Even though the media coverage was lacking (and that's a whole 'nother post) I'm sure that most of you have heard of Nailah Franklin.
She was a young, black professional woman living in Chicago who went missing on September 18th of this year. Her body was found about a week later. She had recently filed for an order of protection against a man she used to date after receiving harassing text messages and emails from him. While the police still consider him a "person of interest", he was questioned and released. Those of you who have been keeping up with the story know all of this and are probably wondering why I'm talking about it a whole month later. Well, I know of this man...have even actually met him once. He is the father of my good friend's daughter. When Nailah's body was discovered, a few days later, I got a text from this friend telling me to read Page 5 of the Chicago newspaper. She said that "the man" they were talking about in the story was the father of her child. Needless to say, I was shocked! I wanted to talk to my friend to get the details and make sure she was ok. But the text she sent implied that she needed some time to process everything.
I just talked to her yesterday and she's doing fine. However, the father of her child and the man most people suspect had something to do with Nailah's demise is still running the streets. She gave me the whole story about what happened between herself and this man. She even forwarded me emails between herself and this man, and between her and Nailah. It was just a crazy, crazy mess and even now she's living in fear about something happening to her or her family. He has already shot up her house as well as throwing a brick through the front window. He's threatened her, her family and sent some very eerie text messages referencing Nailah's death. Of course, my friend is in constant contact with the police and they are aware of everything.

Ladies, I'm saying all this to say...please, PLEASE be careful of who you spend your time with. Nailah and my friend were very trusting of this man. But only to the point that any of us would be. And that's what's scary. From what I could see when I met him and what my friend told me, he's very smooth and a slick talker. He was doing well for himself (he had a Bentley and bought my friend a Lexus) but ultimately it turned out to be a total illusion. He has so many people wrapped up in his web of deceit, everything he has built up is falling down around him. He is truly a sociopath in every sense of the word.

It takes nothing to do a quick Google check on someone. It takes nothing to send your friends and family a quick text letting them know where you will be if you are out with someone new. Please just BE CAREFUL. Love yall...have a good rest of the day!