Woman receives letter from the man who murdered her parents 30 years ago

A woman has gone viral after she uploaded a TikTok when receiving a letter from the person that murdered her family.

In a now-deleted TikTok, 28-year-old Ariel, who goes by @opencasketgood, shared with viewers a letter she had received from the man who murdered her parents 30 years ago.

The text overlay on the video read, "My parents’ murderer wrote me back. I’ve been waiting almost 30 years for this moment,” and the caption read. "I am overcome with emotion."

The letter read, "Dear Ariel, It was really good to hear from you, I hope you and the family are doing good, thank you for the opportunity to write.

“I have been praying that somehow God would comfort you in a way only He could do. You wrote an excellent letter and when I finished reading it I said out loud ‘my God’.

“I want you to know I care about you and am willing to help you in any way I can. I have wanted to write but did not want to offend you so I had to let you break the ice, so to speak.

"In my opinion, you are not wrong. This is what I have been hoping for.”

He goes on to congratulate Ariel on her educational achievements as well as her daughters, mentioning that his grandson had just graduated high school.

He goes on to say that if Ariel was open to it, he would like to send more letters or even call, saying he "would pay for it on my end."

"I am glad you wrote," he reiterates. "I have nothing but good intent, take care, Dean."

Ariel is then understandably overtaken by emotion, and takes a moment to compose herself again.

"That's amazing," she says, before ending the video.

Inevitably, people asked what happened, so she explained.

She explains it was her father's 32nd birthday, on election day in November 1992, and what she can gather from the case files, Dean shot his wife in the head, then walked down the road to where her family lived.

"It was the 90s, no-one keeps their doors locked," she prefaces. "He shot my father four times, [...] He shot my mother five times."

"He got 20 years for his wife, and two life sentences for my parents."

Ariel then explains the background, "he was married to my mother's sister-in-law from her first marriage, her first husband died. He was basically our uncle."

"Apparently there was some animosity towards them from what I've heard," she shares. "I've looked at the case files, he kept saying he wanted my parents out of the neighbourhood, and he was gonna make sure they were out of the neighbourhood. On Halloween, from what I've read in the case files, he told my father they had days to live, their 'days were numbered' that's what he said."

She explained that she was there when her parents were killed, that someone found her afterwards and he was raised by her older brother and his wife.

She said her reasoning for reaching out was not to find out the "why", saying "what will that do for me?" Instead she said she wants to "get to know him, I want to forgive him, a lot of my family has not, and I understand, but this is just a forgiveness and healing journey and for me to put this past me."

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