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Published May 09, 2008 11:49 am - The deepest of Heather Jensen’s scars lie below the skin.
There’s the scar on her right arm from a car wreck that left her with several plates and screws in her forearm, she said.
For driver who killed friend, pain never goes away
By Melissa Dunson
mdunson@joplinglobe.com
The deepest of Heather Jensen’s scars lie below the skin.
There’s the scar on her right arm from a car wreck that left her with several plates and screws in her forearm, she said.
But it’s the scars that no one can see — scars from a different night, when she was driving — that keep her up at night.
“Some days I have to force myself to get up and look in the mirror,” Jensen said. “Sometimes I don’t like myself, like I don’t even want to be in my own skin. It depends on what day of the week it is.”
Jensen, now a 29-year-old Webb City resident, killed her best friend, Vanessa Leary, in a high-speed car accident in 2003. She got behind the wheel after a three-week methamphetamine binge. Jensen was 24. Leary had just turned 21. Jensen spent four years in prison for what she did.
‘Invincible’
During her four years in prison, Jensen said she had lots of time to think about what she did and why she did it.
“At the time, you think you’re invincible,” she said. “Now, I realize that was stupidity. It took someone else’s life to make me realize I wasn’t invincible.”
Jensen said she consistently took unjustifiable risks as a teenager, and time after time walked away nearly unscathed. She described herself as “crazy,” “wild,” and a “daredevil.” She said she jumped from one motorcycle to another while racing down the road, totaled three cars, dabbled in illegal drugs and got drunk for the first time at age 13.
“I kind of liked to see how much I could get away with,” she said.
Jensen doesn’t remember much about the day Vanessa died. She picked up her friend and headed for Wal-Mart to pick up toys for Vanessa’s 3-year-old son, Joshua.
The last conversation the two friends had could have been between any two girls who had grown up together; they were talking about boys.
“The last thing I remember telling (Vanessa) was, ‘You’re a dork,’” Jensen said.
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