The Power of Google

On my Facebook page, an old friend from high school brought up a name from the past: Shane Shingledecker. He was a couple years older than us but when I was a sophomore, I had a huge crush on him. Nothing came of it but one of my favorite memories was walking to my grandmother's house after a half day of school. She lived about .5 miles from the high school and during this time, my mom was going over during the day to help my grandmother do things around the house, run errands and cook her a large mid-day meal so on my half days, I'd skip the bus ride home and walk there to partake in whatever the large lunch was (the smell of cooking onions is still a memory that always takes me back to this time) and watch a bit of The Days of Our Lives.

On this particular day, it was in the middle of winter. There was snow on the ground but the way to grandmother's house was clear. I took a shortcut that ran behind an elementary school and as I came out of the shortcut and started down her street, I heard a bike coming. I was always thinking of the possibility of running into Shane since he lived in this neighborhood but never believed I would. On this day, I did. As he rode by me, he turned and said "Hi Marianne." The first time I ever heard him say my name! After that, I no longer felt the cold for the rest of the walk.

We didn't have any friends in common so after he graduated, I never heard much about what happened to him although I thought of him every time I passed by his parents large orange house.

So today, after she brought up his name, I decided to Google him and I found this:

He is a Parolee in the Michigan Department of Corrections. Why? Criminal Sexual Conduct 3rd Degree. While married, he forced himself onto the younger sister of his girlfriend (yes, he had a wife, a girlfriend AND needed the girlfriend's sister). He was in prison for 2.5 years for it and is now a registered sex offender for the rest of his life. The verdict for his appeal was found in Google as well and while I was reading it, my only thought was "Wow" and then when I saw this picture of him, I thought "Wow" again because he sure doesn't look like the dorky kid from 1987 with the thick head of extremely curly hair.

While wishing he hadn't done this to himself, I wished I hadn't Googled it. I think it was better just to wonder and hope that he was well and happy.