Wal-Mart settles wrongful death lawsuit

Wal-Mart has settled a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the parents of a 19 year-old employee that was raped and killed after leaving her night shift position at a Wal-Mart store in Texas in 2005. The clerk, Megan LeeAnn Holden, was abducted by Johnny Lee Williams, Jr. in the parking lot of a Tyler, Texas Wal-Mart store in January 2005. Her body was found 400 miles away, and Williams was arrested in Arizona shortly thereafter.

Sheri Dunlap, Megan's mother, wants to see Wal-Mart parking lots everywhere become safer for shoppers and employees alike. Although a Wal-Mart surveillance video helped convict Williams of the crime, videos are used after the fact and are not preventative. It does not take much for a kidnapper to strike in the darker areas of any parking lot, but especially in large lots like at a Wal-Mart store.

Wal-Mart shoppers, do you take precautions when entering and exiting a Wal-Mart store when night falls? Precautions include always parking underneath or near a night light, parking as close to the entrance as possible, and always be alert of what may be beside or behind you. Wal-Mart's part could be to make much of the parking lots at its stores very visible at night (read: more light...much more) and possibly having externally-accessible security outside open entrances, if that does not exist already.