A
Hollywood woman who wrote poems
about a stormy, violent relationship
was slain early Thursday morning
just hours after attending a
poetry reading at a popular downtown
nightspot.
Police
found the body of Lorie Nicholson-Tennant,
25, shortly after 4:25 a.m. in
her locked bedroom in the 6700
block of Forrest Street, dead
from a ''severe trauma to the
body,'' said police Capt. Tony
Rode.
Friends
and neighbors say her throat
was slit.
Police
have not identified a suspect.
As part of their investigation,
they contacted the victim's ex-husband,
Kevin Nicholson, 40.
Friends
and fellow poets gathered at
the victim's Hollywood home,
grief stricken at the news of
her sudden, violent death.
''The
girl is an angel in every aspect,''
said Will Bell, who met Nicholson-Tennant
when she joined the poetry scene
here two years ago.
According
to police and friends who talked
to the slain woman's mother,
Diana Tennant, this is how the
victim spent her final hours:
Nicholson-Tennant
-- nicknamed Elle -- went to
an open- mike event Wednesday
night at Ginger Bay Cafe, where
she recited her latest poem,
Hall Pass.
''It
was a funny rant about how her
son's too young to have a hall
pass,'' said Ingrid Bazin, a
poet and friend.
Friends
said Nicholson-Tennant, who lived
with her mother, left the club
around 12:45 a.m.
Later,
around 4 a.m., her mother said
she heard a commotion and tried
to enter her daughter's room.
The door was locked, Rode said.
'Her
mother said she heard `No, don't!
Call the police!' '' said Morris,
a neighbor and friend who picks
up Nicholson-Tennant's 5-year-old
son from Driftwood Elementary
School. Nicholson-Tennant also
has a 3-year-old son.
An
information technology specialist,
Nicholson-Tennant put her computer
skills to work for Bell, designing
a poetry website, www.eliterarycafe.com,
where some of her own writing
can be found.
Domestic
violence and her tortured personal
relationship with a man were
recurring themes in her poetry.
Some readers say she even foretold
her murder.
''From
reading her poetry she almost
predicted this,'' said Evens
Colas, a Miami musician. ``Most
of her poetry was about what
she was going through in her
marriage -- in her life. It was
about suffering. It was about
joy.''
In
one poem posted April 27, she
described her troubled marriage.
''It
was you that hit me because I
found [out] about your cheating,''
reads one line from the poem.
In
a working version of another
poem titled I Cannot
Write, she rages against
poetry for failing to capture
the pain in her life.
``His
hand across my face
You
think he was beating me
every damn day
When
I write Pain
It's
not fixing it
I'm
just accomplishing
A
perpetuating cycle
Of
self prophetess.''
Nicholson-Tennant
and Kevin Nicholson married in
March 1997. A year later, she
filed a domestic-violence complaint
against him. It was later dismissed,
according to court records. She
filed for divorce in March 2003.
She and her friends recently
celebrated her divorce, Bell
said.
''The
reality is just setting in,''
said Alexander Proctor, a poet
and friend who arrived at the
murder scene just as Nicholson-Tennant's
body was taken away by the medical
examiner. ``She's a beautiful
creature. I don't want revenge,
but I want justice.'
To donate to a fund for Lorrie
Tennant's children, money can
be placed in the following account:
Washington Mutual, account number
0951817314.
March4orth,
LLC (2002 - 2005) 