For days, the capital region has been transfixed on the horrible, sad story of Ardeth Wood. Attractive, athletic and popular, Ms. Wood, 27, led a charmed life. She came from a close, nurturing family that taught her to love God and books. Her friends adored her. A doctoral student in philosophy, Ms. Wood was described by younger brother Colum, who works part-time at the Citizen, as "the smartest person I ever met." She was a high achiever, but more importantly, those who knew her were impressed with her fundamental decency.
Ms. Wood's body was discovered Monday, near Green's Creek and the Ottawa River, not far from where she went missing last week. She was visiting from university, and had left the family home in Orl�ans to go for a bike ride. She never returned. On Sunday, police divers recovered her bike from the creek. Her body was found 24 hours later, and police have since released a composite sketch of a man they believe could be responsible for her death.
The crime has sickened the community -- and, yes, "community" is the right way to describe Ottawa, even though we are the fourth-largest city in Canada. Suddenly, Ottawa doesn't seem so big anymore. People who had never met the Woods volunteered, in large numbers, to help search for their daughter. Life in big cities is supposed to be anonymous and impersonal, but in the past week Ottawa has become a small town again.
People across the city are grieving for "Ardeth," a woman they never met. Jacquie Miller, the Citizen's assistant arts editor and one of those who has wept, wrote that "We are strangers, but we feel we knew her. (Ardeth Wood) is our friend, our sister, our daughter."
What accounts for this response, and what does it say about ourselves as a community? First, Ms. Wood's death challenges the perception that Ottawa is a boringly safe city, unlike Toronto or Vancouver or Edmonton, where pretty women and girls tend to go missing.
As Ottawa police Chief Vince Bevan told reporters, "You know in your own experience that youth and women have felt free to cycle, to jog and live their lives without the fear of something like this." The National Capital Commission bike paths and trails are among the city's attractions, but now the NCC is warning women not to venture on them alone. Our green space has always been something Ottawans celebrate, but now it is something we fear.
If Ottawa was thought to be immune from this kind of horror, people such as Ms. Wood were supposed to be doubly immune. She was a woman who her entire life had made the right choices. Our sense of justice would prefer the world to be one where only those who make bad choices meet bad consequences.
As it happens, crime statistics do show that female murder victims usually know their assailants -- prostitutes killed by johns, girlfriends by bad boyfriends, wives by abusive husbands. Police believe, however, that Ms. Wood was a random victim. That's terrifying, because it means that no woman can be completely safe.
Ms. Wood's parents and her two brothers are enduring this tragedy with remarkable fortitude. They derive their strength from faith, family and friends, all of which they have in abundance.
We mourn with the family, but at the same time are inspired by them.