The scene at the park resembled the sidelines at a Little League game. Cameramen sat in lawn chairs chatting casually on mobile phones about the grim discovery while munching on pad thai less than 50 feet from the remains. Chinese takeout food boxes and pizza-greased paper plates littered the small cul-de-sac where we stood packed together behind the yellow bunting of the police tape that was holding us back from the crime scene. Neighborhood preteens lined up behind the press horde and sold cans of Coke for a dollar each.
It was embarrassing to be part of the drooling pack. The body that had been chewed on by animals for months belonged to a girl not much younger than I. But the truth is, when I heard that a body had been found, I felt the adrenaline rush of breaking news, just like my colleagues.
