Just The Tip-sters

One unseasonably cool (as opposed to freezing) late winter morning on March 10, 1997, at a small  travel stop gas station and convenience store right off Interstate 80 in Cozad, a tiny farming community in the heart of Nebraska, a late model Pontiac Grand Am pulled into the parking lot and up to the pumps.  Inside the store, 41 year-old Leah Rowlands was behind the counter on her very first day in her new role as manager – her hard work and happy attitude had earned her that position after just a few months.  The divorced mother of two was finally getting her life back in order after a tough breakup with a new town, a new boyfriend and a future that appeared nothing but bright.  Back at the gas pumps, a large man wearing a hoodie under a leather jacket, sweat pants rolled up to his knees and wearing no shoes got out of the Pontiac, filled the tank and headed into the store.  Once inside he grabbed a canned soft drink out of the cooler, opened it and started drinking from it while he waited for a mother and he