In any civilised society, I don't think there is any category of death worse than that of a child while his or her parents still live. It is an experience that turns the natural order upside down, that demands more in the way of strength and emotional resources than any rational person has to give. It can bring family members together or tear them apart; it can test faith or destroy it. But it leaves non as they were; it is utterly transformative. And within this unfortunate category, there can be no death more horrible than the death of a child by murder.