An old friend of Mary’s, I need to know what court house department 23, Judge Nadler is in, the Santa Clara court house on Homestead or is it in the Heading street court house. Please e-mail me if you know wear Richards’s arraignment will be on the 14th. Thank you.
--Tad
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At 47 years old, my daughters ask me “Dad!!! Why do you embarrass us by asking all of the standard questions of all of our friends”. The standard questions are: Wear do you live, who do you live with, do you have a cell phone, what is the number, what is your mom and dads phone number, wear are you all going, when will you get there and when will you be home”. This of course I ask in a polite and kidding way. For years I though I was just being a good dad, wanting to know who, where and when they wear going to be and with who and when they would be home. I know it was quite embarrassing for them and I would often ask my self “is this really necessary”.

Well in December, when I opened the Mercury news paper to the Valley section and saw the article about Mary and Richards’s arrest in the case, it all came back to me and I realized that I had some deep emotions related to this case and yes, the standard questions do matter!

The time line is a little fussy in my head, but I remembered my first days at the old Santa Clara high school. My first day at the school I was greeted with the presents of Mary and her first day at a new school. She walked in the room like she owned it. Not in any way over bearing but she just blow my mind as she locked eyes on the seat next to mine and sat down next to me and side “ Hi my name is Mary, I’m new here, what's this school all about”? From that point on, we had a very casual friendly relationship. She eventually worked her way into one click and I had done the same in a click worlds apart. We would always say hi or wave to each other without interfering with our status within our clicks.

I left Santa Clara high early in 77” and received my GED and went into the Navy, coming out of boot camp in 78” a friend told me about Mary’s murder, wear it happen and the hole story. It shocked me like everyone in the school and community. It broke my hart that this could happen to such a nice girl. She was just a nice girl in a cruel world that would not allow her to grow any more.

This is just my story about a nice girl that made me fell like a good person at a time of our lives that we all have questions about in life. She will always be in my thoughts as my daughters grow up. I will never forget her. My deepest sympathy goes out to the family and friends that continue life with wonderful thoughts of Mary.

Tad Arias.

--Tad Arias
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