“This was savage and brutal.”

Sabina Rose O'Donnell
My son called me from Philadelphia today. It was lunchtime. He said, “Do you want to hear how fucked up some people are in this city?” He proceeded to tell me some very sad news.


Sabina Rose O’Donnell was 21 years old. She was a pretty girl who worked as a waitress in a restaurant my son frequents. Notice I said she “was” a pretty girl. Some asshole murdered her this past Tuesday night.

I take that back. Some ASSHOLE “destroyed” her in the middle of a hot, dark, Philadelphia night. He, mostly likely a “he,” didn’t just kill her. It was a “savage and brutal” affair. He forcefully dragged her to an empty lot behind her apartment. He smashed her face with a blunt object, her pretty happy face. Police say there was evidence that he raped her. He robbed her. Contents of her purse were found strewn about the lot near her naked lifeless body. Her purse was found on the curb at the intersection nearby. Her wallet was empty. The monster strangled her with a piece of her own clothing. Some beast of an asshole slaughtered this poor woman. He is still alive somewhere.

What in God’s name possesses people to do shit like this?? I don’t understand it. It was probably some crazed crack-head whose addiction-addled brain was beyond lunacy in his selfish quest for another fix. Sabina was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sabina herself became merely one more fix for this monster’s savage and unquenchable lust. It was more than just a crime. It was hideousness in its lowest form.

Why am I writing about this murder? One of how many dozens that take place in Philadelphia? My reason: Sabina’s murder happened just two blocks from where my son lives. I have been there. My feet have walked those streets and my eyes have seen the area in which Sabina lived and, sadly, died. On her last day, she shared drinks with friends at El Camino Real, a Tex-Mex restaurant where my son and I, along with his girlfriend and my youngest daughter, not long ago shared a meal of wonderful pulled pork BBQ sandwiches, sangria and margaritas. Sabina spent some of her last moments within those very walls, among friends. Then she died alone. Neither I, nor my son, nor Sabina’s friends were there to save her. She died in the clutches of a monstrous asshole in a dark empty lot. How many are the times I have driven in that two block area late at night after driving my son home! If only it had been on one of those nights that this savage attempted to attack her. I, the same as anyone of you reading my words, would have given my all to intervene so that she would still be smiling today. Rest in peace, Sabina. Rest in peace.

Further details on Sabina’s murder can be found here: Northern Liberties waitress, 21, found slain

3 Comments

  • Sam

    June 22, 2010

    They caught the killer. He’s only 18. What a dumb shit.

  • Bernard Short

    September 29, 2016

    ( WAY 2 GO SEPTA ) Because if it wasn’t for those Septa Owned Cameras underneath The Market Frankford Elevated light rail system chances are that this kid would’ve never been caught because I’ve watched this story on NBC10 News several years ago when they aired the story about a 20 year old young woman who’d been murdered with her naked young body found in an overgrown lot because she was found beaten & strangled to death & I remember the part when they’ve show a video of the young woman being followed by this kid on a cruiser bike because he’d tracked her down then he had plans to rape her instead of taking her bike but instead of letting this guy inside of her the kid strangled her & beat her to death to stop her from fighting him back & because of all of that he’a now in Prison thinking about what he’d done to that young woman .

  • Sam

    September 29, 2016

    Glad he’s in jail! Thanks for your comment!

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