Talk:Murder of Marcia Trimble

Untitled
In regards to the speedy deletion suggestion, a Google search for "Marcia Trimble" and "Nashville" brings up several hits. Ask any long time resident of Nashville and many will remember the Marcia Trimble case a full 30 years after it happened. The case is highlighted on the anniversary of her death on many Nashville TV and radio stations. I'd like some input on why this is not significant enough for a wiki article. -Ichabod 00:48, 10 May 2005 (UTC)


 * It's not a speedy delete candidate, don't worry. I removed the header and I'll remove it again if someone puts it back up. Mike H 01:49, May 10, 2005 (UTC)

Just added more information 01/15/2007
I just added some additional information to the original article which will hopefully provide more details to the public. Never give up. JournalWriter


 * Thank you for your contributions. However I must ask if you just cut and pasted those sections?  Be advised that extensive cutting and pasting sections could be considered plagiarism if not attributed properly.  Also it is not within Wikipedia's scope to have entire sections quoted from other sources.  --Ichabod 23:58, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Reply to Ichabod: The added information is not copy/pasted. It is sourced at the end of the article: The Nashville Scene, April 25 - May 1, 2002. The only information that is copy/pasted is the statement released by the Davidson County Metro Police, with the date of release inclusive. The police statement, as all police statements, should not be altered into a synopsis, as they are given by Authorites for public consumption and to generate leads in the case. I live in south Nashville and I do hope they solve this crime...I believe (and hope) the DNA evidence will eventually bring this atrocity to a close. One good thing - it's believed that police will release a new statement next month. JournalWriter

Many writers
Great work with the article. However, could you clarify who the "many writers" are in the sentence Many writers have commented that the Marcia Trimble murder was when Nashville lost its innocence.

Sources are key in an article like this staying, especially since it's quite evident that other people think this is not a notable subject. Mike H 20:16, May 10, 2005 (UTC)

Also, bring up the impact of the murder on Nashville today, so people don't think it's just a random child murder from the '70s. Mike H 20:17, May 10, 2005 (UTC)

Will work to help you keep Marcia Trimble
This deal almost brought Nashville to a halt in a way that previous child/adolescent murders did not (remember Paula Herron?). I can't name the writers, but this was more when Nashville lost its innocence than at any other point, and along with the Janet March case is still Nashville's #1 unsolved crime (maybe even a bit ahead of Janet). Rlquall 03:30, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)


 * Now that the Janet March case is solved, with husband Perry doing what is essentially life for her killing, this is again definitely Nashville's #1 unsolved crime. However, the media and general public fascination with it is still somewhat unsettling to me.  As I noted above, it is not even close to unique &mdash;there was another unsolved murder of a little girl who rode the bus that used to go to the old "All Weather Rollerdrome" on Thompson Lane (the building where H. H. Gregg is now); despite her definitively having been raped and brutally murdered, with an old sock shoved down her throat and her body left across the road from the Roller Drome in what was then a vacant field, very little about this is ever said.  It is also arguable more famous than the far more recent disappearance of a 11 year old girl waiting for the school bus in East Nashville about three years ago.  All that I can gather is that the social classes of the three are different; Marcia was from an affluent, Green Hills family rather than working class like the other two. But the story remains so strongly that when Marcia's mother recently remarried, even that became a story.  Rlquall 16:14, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

While Green Hills in general is an affluent neighborhood, it's not exclusively affluent. I don't know what the Trimbles' socioeconomic status was at the time of Marcia's murder, there were many areas of Green Hills at that time that were solidly middle-class. This is an area that to this day is full of small- to medium-size, '50s and '60s ranch homes with average-size lots. These are the very homes that today are being razed so that people with more money than sense can build a McMansion and live in what is NOW an upscale, in-town area. Don't mistake the Green Hills of today with the Green Hills of 30 years ago. 129.59.8.10 20:04, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Plagiarism from 'Scene' article
Could it not be that Jerome Bennett was waiting close by for a female from Harpeth Hall School to appear?

I have just made extensive revisions and updated with news that broke today. I did not, however, do anything about a cut-and-paste instance I have discovered. At least the entire final section of the article, "3 Different Theories Proposed by Authorities," is verbatim from this Nashville Scene article.

But here's the problem: That 2001 article and its companion piece constitute the most thorough summary of what was known about the case to date. The series is an important document and an especially damning read now that we know the detectives who called Jeffrey Womack a suspect in 2001 knew, and had concealed, the fact that DNA evidence had excluded him as a possible source of the DNA found at the scene.

I have added those 2001 articles as references. I'll leave it to others to decide how to cure the plagiarism without weakening the article.

Tom Wood (talk) 19:22, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

You really should not have made EXTENSIVE revisions. Some of the so-called "Plagiarisms" are not plagiarisms at all. They are verbatim statements by police officials. It is not ethical to mar the words of an official police statement; even if that statement is relayed via The Nashville Scene.

As an aside, did you notice that the police have said nothing of other assailants? They were quoted a few years ago as saying, "Investigators said that more than one person's semen was found inside the victim's body." The local news has apparently not sought clarification on that statement since the recent arrest. Thoughts? ] —Preceding [[Wikipedia:Signatures|unsigned comment added by 76.22.188.234 (talk) 09:51, 15 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Umm, sorry, but it is a simple fact that the last section of the article is lifted verbatim from a copyrighted publication -- including quotes from police officials interviewed by that publication. Reasonable excerpts can be quoted with attribution, but there is no reasonable way to construe a verbatim passage this long as fair use.


 * The fact that local news has not reported on any clarification regarding the reports of multiple sources of semen, among other details, does not mean reporters have not tried to obtain some clarification. I happen to know they have tried. The police and prosecutorial personnel currently involved with the case have had very little to say, on or off the record.


 * As to my "extensive" revisions, you are free to challenge any one of them that you consider inaccurate or inappropriate. I corrected some errors of fact and updated the article with recent developments. I have not yet changed any of the plagiarized material because I haven't had time to devise a solution that might keep the valuable information there while not infringing copyright.
 * Tom Wood (talk) 19:04, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

Mickey Miller Statement
I'd like to remove the Mickey Miller Statement, or at least trim it down extensively. It's not very encyclopedic, especially the plea and phone number at the end. I'd like to hear what other editors have to say. --Ichabod (talk) 06:14, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

Tone and content
Have made extensive modifications to try to give the article encyclopedic tone, but think it still has breathless, popular crime quality. If the notability is the impact the case had on Nashville, then that should be discussed more with valid, third-party sources. Revised it in terms of chronology. Recommend a different title - say, Murder of Marcia Trimble, because the notablity was the crime and its impact on people's consciousness.--Parkwells (talk) 11:17, 28 February 2009 (UTC)--Parkwells (talk) 13:34, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Overall quality of article
This reads like the first draft of a poorly written research paper. The entire article should be taken down, outlined by a real author and recompiled. "The murder disturbed the residents of Nashville?" Really? That's an understatement. In addition there are sentences with awkward construction, repetitive phrasing and other errors. If you're going to take the time to write an article about an event important to so many Nashvillians, at least take the time to do it well. 68.53.99.15 (talk) 02:07, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

And just so I don't come across as being catty, here's some issues with the first paragraph (in addition to the aforementioned "disturbed the residents" comment:

1) "She was found to have been raped and murdered near her family's Green Hills home the day of her disappearance."

This sounds like Marcia was found raped and murdered the day she disappeared, when in fact her body was discovered over a month later. This is clarified in a second sentence which appears contradictory to the first.

2) "The case captured people's attention and haunted the community because of the age of the girl; the fact her body was discovered on Easter Sunday, more than a month after her disappearance; the nature of the crime compared to the low crime rate of her neighborhood; and the fact that the case was unsolved for more than 30 years."

Could you make this sentence any longer?

3) "On July 18, 2009, a jury convicted 62-year-old Jerome Barrett of two counts of second-degree murder, and was sentenced to 44 years in prison."

The poor jury. How unfair of them to be convicted for Jerome Barrett's crime.

Sloppy writing = a sloppy reputation for both the author and Wikipedia. Again, take pride in what you're posting, particularly if it's something about a crime that has riveted the attention of Nashvillians for more than 3 decades, and is just now coming to something resembling closure. 68.53.99.15 (talk) 02:17, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

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