An Utterly Hideous Crime

What explains this powerful reaction to the death of a young man I never knew? The utterly hideous nature of the crime? The abruptness of his death? The victim's mirrored closeness in age to my own child? That it might have been her? That I might have been the grieving mother? The excitement I imagine accompanied the young Taupo man driving into the big city on a Friday night? An unaccountable 'knowledge' that this was a lovely young man? All of these? None of these? It does not matter. The reaction simply is.