Daniel L. Crocker, 39, turned himself in. As a Christian, he said, it was the right thing to do. Mr. Crocker lived with his wife of 11 years, Nicolette, 36, and their two children in a quiet community near Dulles Airport in Virginia. He was a warehouse manager and his wife was a stay-at-home mom, home schooling Isaac, 9, and Analiese, 8. They had come to the area from California seven years earlier. They were active in Fairfax Assembly of God church. But Mr. Crocker was living with a terrible secret. When he was 19 and on drugs in Kansas City, Kansas he sexually assaulted and killed 19 year-old Tracy Fresquez. He told his wife before they were married, blaming it on the drug influence. Over the years, they struggled with how to reconcile the slaying with their faith. He had asked God’s forgiveness, but the burden seemed to get heavier as time passed by. The showdown came when Mr. Crocker began ministering to an inmate as part of his church’s prison outreach. “How can you go and visit this man and tell him all about God, and you know in your heart that you should be there too?” Mrs. Crocker asked him after one of the visits. For the next several weeks Mr. Crocker deliberated over how he should turn himself in. Then, with the help of a Prison Fellowship official, Kansas authorities were contacted and Crocker surrendered. He quit his job and explained to his children what had happened. The family prayed together and read from the Bible. The children cried and begged their daddy, “Don’t
...