‘No way’: Parents left with impossible choice
Tragic Choice
Queensland mother Melissa McGuinness described sympathy for her family as “undeserved” after her son Jordan died in 2012.
“We will never seek sympathy for ourselves,” she told Gary Jubelin on I Catch Killers.
Jordan, over the blood alcohol limit and speeding, crashed into a stationary car, killing four young people and himself.
Carrying the Weight
Melissa said, “From that very moment we got the knock on the door from the police, we felt that really heavy weight of civic responsibility.”
The parents struggled with guilt, feeling the consequences of their son’s choices on themselves and the victims’ families.
Funeral Dilemma
The couple delayed Jordan’s funeral until after the victims’ services.
Melissa recalled, “How do you have a funeral for someone who’s just killed four people?”
The grief of losing a child is something Melissa McGuinness wouldn’t wish on anyone, but for the Queensland mother, sympathy from other people over the death of her son Jordan in 2012 feels “undeserved”.
“We will never seek sympathy for ourselves,” she told Gary Jubelin on this week’s episode of his podcast I Catch Killers, where she and husband Peter share the harrowing story of how Jordan, over the blood alcohol limit and driving 30km above the speed limit, crashed his vehicle into a stationary car that had broken down on the side of the road, killing four young people inside, as well as himself.
“People often share sympathy with us. And we say the sympathy is reserved solely for Jordan’s victims and Jordan’s victim’s families because of the choices Jordan made. And he would never have intended to harm anyone that night, the family that he loved the most, let alone his victims and his victim’s family’s, yet he did, through his choice.”
Advocacy from Tragedy
Through their organisation You Choose, Melissa and Peter now work to teach teens safer driving.
Peter said, “We’re gonna change Australian driving culture, or we’re going to die trying.”
