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| Photo from PNJ.com Sean Dugas |
Sean was a little eclectic - and that's saying a lot when you're working in a newsroom, which is typically filled with rather eclectic, creative people. The copy desk is usually a motley crew, and the group at Pensacola was no different. But Sean was unique and easily stuck out in our rather vanilla night crew (well, vanilla compared to Sean).
He had a crazy head of dreadlocks with a mountain man beard and usually was dressed in plaid bell bottoms from the 70s. He could easily be mistaken for a homeless person. He was his own person and didn't care what anyone thought or what society told him he should like.
Sean, though, was one of the nicest guys I have ever met.
A newsroom isn't always a happy place. It's a high stress job that doesn't always deal with the greatest topics. These things can greatly affect the mood of the room as a whole or even just a few people.
It rarely affected Sean. He was always happy and always had time to stop to talk to anyone. If he saw that you were having a rough day, he'd try to cheer you up.
Sean never knew a stranger. He could strike up a conversation with anyone, and it was a great characteristic to have for a reporter. Not only was he willing to talk to anyone, he was more than willing to go cover anything at anytime. He was a go getter. Sean never complained about any of it. He was just excited to be there; excited to go out and learn people's stories and report them back to others.
I was lucky enough to get to know Sean in the two years we were both at the Pensacola News Journal. Every conversation with him was always interesting. It seemed like he could talk about anything and had some knowledge on it. There were many things he was passionate about, and it became quickly apparent if he cared about the topic.
If you notice, I've been speaking about Sean in the past tense. He has been missing since August 27. He was actually reported missing to the Pensacola Police Department on September 13. On Monday, a body was found partially covered in concrete in a plastic tub buried in a backyard in a Georgia town north of Atlanta.
Police have determined it is Sean.
When I got home from school on Tuesday, my email and Facebook had blown up. I had no idea what was going on, and then I read the article - only to find out that Sean had been brutally killed.
I haven't had an easy time with this. I honestly didn't realize when I first read the article that I would have this hard of time with it. While I worked with Sean almost five days a week for two years, we weren't really friends. Sure, we'd go out with the large groups in the newsroom and hang out then, but it's not like we would have hung out outside of a work setting. I hadn't even talked to, seen or thought about Sean since I had visited the PNJ newsroom in 2008 or 2009.
There's been a lot of us who worked with Sean that have been commenting on Facebook, messaging on Twitter, texting - trying to deal with this. Trying to understand it.
But we don't understand any of it.
We can't.
It appears that they have the two people who most likely committed this heinous crime. And I don't understand how they could do this to someone like Sean.
You know that saying that a person would give you the shirt off his back? That was Sean. And if that shirt wasn't enough for you - he'd find another one for you. He was insanely trusting and always saw the good in everyone.
And that's what makes this even harder to understand. It's unfathomable to think anyone could be so violent to someone who was so caring and loving and peaceful.
As a copy editor, I read stories of crimes like this. I knew people were "creative" with how cruel they could be. I knew this happened to real people. But, it is very, very different when it happens to someone you know.
I'm sharing this story because I hope you NEVER have to experience something like this. But, I'm also sharing this because I want people to know Sean. You'll never get to meet him, but he's the type of person who deserves to live on.
Sean was a humble person; he never wanted to be on a pedestal. He just wanted to be and enjoy life. To honor Sean, I challenge anyone who reads this to be a little friendlier, be a little more comfortable with yourself, and to bring a little sunshine into other's lives because that's what Sean would do.
And we could all use some more Seans in our lives.
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