Introductions and such. WITSEC update by Deputy Marshal Mary Shannon.
I was dispatched to Los Angeles, California in order to contact a witness by the name of Lauren Andrews, formerly Gianna Smithson. Andrews was five years old when she witnessed her father and notorious serial killer, Gene Smithson, murder her mother. Smithson and an accomplice still yet to be identified were known as the Route 666 Rippers, a tag-team of vicious serial killers who murdered their victims along what is now known as Route 491. A suspect, Dr. Scott Braedan, was investigated at the time but was never indicted and has since disappeared.
After trial, Andrews was transferred to a foster family in remote Yachats, Oregon to Judge Troy Andrews and his wife Corrine where she had since remained. The Andrews adopted her shortly after receiving her and from all accounts, the witness did not remember her life previous to moving to Yachats.
Gene Smithson was executed by the State of New York in 2004.
The program was notified by Judge Andrews when the witness recently moved to Los Angeles as of January 2008. I contacted her in March and made her aware of her case as well as informed her that she must opt out of the program if she chooses to remain outside of a WITSEC-approved location. Andrews seemed to struggle with the information but ultimately signed the necessary documentation which has been attached to the file.
The witness is aware that Smithson's partner is still at large and that her safety has been dependent upon the sanctuary provided by the Andrews family. She acknowledges and accepts the risks of discontinuing participation in the program.
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My name is Lauren and I'm a waitress/wannabe songwriter. I know, so typical for Los Angeles, right? Except that I'm not actually from Los Angeles...which is also quite typical for Los Angeles. But it's not like there's a real big industry to break into back in good old Yachats, which is just a small coastal town in Oregon. Oh, what? You've never heard of it? Exactly my point.
The waitress part seems to be working for me though. You can catch me most days balancing trays and serving mid-priced steaks at Lone Star. I tried the Olive Garden, but they weren't hiring. (I'm not kidding.) It's not something to write home about, although my parents kind of insist on that sort of thing, but it pays the rent--most of the time. And Saturday nights, I have a semi-permanent gig at this little coffee shop where they have an open mic night. Seeing as there aren't very many people expecting to get their big break this particular way, I'm pretty much their headlining act.
So far I've only been in Los Angeles for about six months now. It took me a little while to save up enough money to make the big move and so far it's been...well, pretty much about what I'd expected. Which is to say that I didn't have the greatest of expectations so I haven't been too let down that it isn't exactly all happening overnight. Everyone's gotta start somewhere though, right?
Then there's this whole other thing that is really just too complicated to explain. I barely understand it myself, but apparently, life still has a few curveballs to catapult at you even when you have the most carefully constructed plans. In fact, I almost believe there is some ironic Fate out there that searches specifically for said plan constructions and purposely seeks to tumble them simply because it's evil or had a bad break up with a less cruel Fate or something.
All the more reason to stop making plans and start seeing where life takes me.