I never met him in person. He was dead before I'd ever heard of him. But I was there that morning, Sept. 4, 1999 -- the morning Danny's mother set fire to his house while he slept and killed him.
Danny was 13 and severely autistic. He was, by all accounts, difficult. Any parent will tell you a 13-year-old boy is difficult enough to handle. Much more so, I'd guess, if they can barely speak, read, write, or communicate their needs. Such was life with Danny, so far as I can reconstruct.
His parents, Leroy and Michele, were divorced. Michele didn't make it a secret that it was difficult to raise the young boy. She also didn't accept help from Leroy. In fact she refused it...
