Wrestling With A Demon

THIS IS 19 months ago, and 15-year-old Corey Detwiler and his dad are wrestling in the dining room.

Corey is a freshman wrestler at Pennridge High in Perkasie, Pa., the same place where his father, Andy, wrestled. But this time, they are not wrestling for fun. They're wrestling for a 12-gauge shotgun.

Andy wants to kill his wife, Suzanne. Corey wants to stop him. Andy wrests the gun away, sees it's not loaded and rushes to the garage for shells. As he does, the door gets locked behind him. Everybody hides. Andy fires through the lock and comes wife hunting again.

"Where is she?" he roars.

"She went to the basement!" Corey's older brother, A.J., 17, lies from a closet.

As Andy runs down the basement stairs. A.J. and his mom sprint for the front door, but they're so panicked they can't unlock it. Suzanne runs for the back deck, followed by A.J. Her husband bounds up from the basement and fires through the window, hitting her in the back. A.J. scrambles over the backyard fence, around the house and madly leans on the doorbell.

Corey answers it. A.J. is screaming, "Dad just shot Mom!" Corey has gotten A.J.'s shotgun, loads the two barrels and runs out on the back deck to find his dad leaning over his bloodied mom.

"Get the f—away from my mother!" Corey screams. When his dad turns to face him, Corey fires, staggering his father, who limps for the fence, still holding the shotgun. Corey shoots him in the back, killing him.

Twenty feet away, Suzanne is already gone.

NOW IT'S last Saturday, and Corey is about to wrestle again for Pennridge High. Just before he steps onto the mat, he prays to his parents, "Help me win for you guys."