I was preparing another piece when I saw a headline that bore the name of our great sport. And the news wasn’t good.
Former Saint Louis University Billiken Megan Boken was shot and killed in her car Monday afternoon, while in town for an alumni game. There are conflicting eyewitness reports as to whether the gunman was inside Boken’s care when the killing occurred. Police suspect the motive was robbery, and they do not believe that Boken knew her killer. He is described as an African-American male, mid-twenties, 5’8″ to 5’10”, with a thin build and a short haircut. Local news in the area notes that gun crime has increased 17 percent over the same YTD time span as 2011. Boken was reportedly fatally shot in her neck and chest. The suspect fled the area on foot. Boken was pronounced dead on arrival at a nearby hospital.
Boken was a player of reasonable note. An outside hitter, she took her high school to their first class-AA state championship her senior year before heading off to a prolific career with Saint Louis. She filled in for an injured teammate early in her freshman season and played in all but 9 games that year (at that time, what we now call “sets” were called “games” at the NCAA level). She was part of the team that went to the NCAA tournament her sophomore year, and started every match. The same was true on both counts her junior year, and she added All-Atlantic 10 second-team honors, as well as landing on the A-10 championship all-tournament roster. That honor rose to honorable mention for the all-conference first team her final year. Boken graduated from Saint Louis University’s business school last year with a degree in business administration with a concentration on marketing, and had only just begun working at an ad firm.
The family has asked for privacy, and released a statement expressing their deep sorrow and shock at the loss of their daughter and sister, and thanking the community for their support. By all accounts, it seems like Boken was not only a pretty good volleyball player, she was also a wonderful young woman. No one is a perfect angel all the time, and people aren’t generally fond of speaking ill of the dead, but I’ve no reason to disbelieve them. Who wouldn’t have good things to say about a young woman taken from this world in what should have been the prime of her life.
Olympic champion Misty May-Treanor released a message on her facebook account, expressing her condolences, and in one of the only redeeming moments for social media I’ve ever seen, Megan’s sister Mary responded, thanking May-Treanor and revealing that some of the sisters’ last moments together were watching the May-Treanor/Walsh Jennings partnership take Olympic gold for the third time. That’s gotta just melt your heart.
Megan Boken was 23 (1989-2012). And that’s the part I really hate. I don’t like news about people who are younger than me dying.
I hope her loved ones can find solace, and her killer is found and brought to justice. I will attempt to follow up on this story.
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