Published: October 09, 2008 11:51 am         

Victim remembered as ‘loving child’

Growing up, Christina Hodge loved ATVs, dune buggies and motorcycles. Last week, she was looking forward to her first ride on her father’s new Harley-Davidson Saturday.

“She was going to come over Saturday and clean my house and I was going to take her for a ride on the Harley,” said her father, Carl Hodge.

Those plans never came to fruition. Carl Hodge received a phone call Thursday that Christina had been murdered. She was found outside her home on Haley Ridge Road dead from a single gunshot wound. Her boyfriend, Michael Keith McQueen, was arraigned Friday and charged with her murder.

Carl Hodge knew there were problems in his daughter’s relationship, but he is struggling to come to grips with her death.

“She was a very loving child,” Carl Hodge said of his daughter, whom he has had custody of since she was 4. “She loved her daddy.”

From the time she was a child, Carl Hodge said his daughter enjoyed being the center of attention. He remembered walking to the store with his second wife, Vickie, when Christina was about 4. Hodge said a passing driver whistled at Vickie. However, when Christina told the story to Carl later that day, the driver was whistling at her.

“She just wanted to be loved all the time,” Carl Hodge said. “When she was little, she was always sitting in somebody’s lap.”

Vickie passed away three years ago. Carl Hodge said Christina Hodge will be buried next to her.

“In Vickie’s obituary, Christina was listed as her daughter,” Carl Hodge said. “Vickie was her mother.”

Carl Hodge said his daughter’s relationship with McQueen was one of constant abuse. Christina Hodge, the mother of three, had left McQueen on a number of occasions, but eventually returned each time. Carl Hodge said he doesn’t believe it was out of love, but rather out of fear for the safety of her three children.

“Her life revolved around her children,” Carl Hodge said.

On more than one occasion, Carl Hodge said he had gone to the couple’s home to pick up his daughter and get her out of there, but like the other times, she eventually went home. Even when Christina Hodge spoke to him or came to see him, she did what she could to hide the abuse. Only by speaking to Christina’s friends and McQueen’s family did he learn how bad the abuse was.

“One time I saw her, she claimed she had been in a car wreck,” Carl Hodge said. “I found out later that they had gotten into a fight and he had taken her fingers and pulled them apart. It was just constant abuse.”

Hodge said he spoke to McQueen about the situation.

“He tried to intimidate me,” Hodge said, adding that he did not back down from McQueen. “After that, whenever he talked to me, he called me ‘sir.’”

The last time Carl Hodge spoke with his daughter was the night before the murder. At that time, Carl Hodge said Christina told him that she was leaving McQueen.

“A friend of hers from somewhere in the Carolinas was coming to get her and they were going get an apartment together,” he said of the last conversation.

However, he got a call the following morning from one of Christina’s friends, who told him she had been killed.

Carl Hodge said he has spoken with McQueen’s family, telling them he doesn’t hold them responsible and that they are welcome to come to the funeral.

“I don’t have nothing against any of them, except Mike,” Carl Hodge said.

McQueen was scheduled to return to Laurel District Court Tuesday for a preliminary hearing, at which time the judge will determine if there is sufficient cause to present the case to a Laurel County Grand Jury.

Staff writer Dean Manning may be reached at dmanning@sentinel-echo.com.