The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 20

4MTHE DES MOINES REGISTER Friday, June 28, 1991 BOB NANDELL'Tht Ruiiter Omaha investigator to take on Gosch case Asbestos won't affect students' return in fall YV 1. A A 3 A St is By FRANK SANTIAGO Roy Stephens, an Omaha investigator who helped authorities crack open I baffling Nebraska kidnapping case, has Joined the hunt for missing West Des Moines newspaper carrier Johnny Gosch. Noreen Gosch said Thursday that Stephens has begun sorting through "good information" that has surfaced in recent months about Gosch's apparent kidnapping almost nine years ago, Gosch declined to discuss details, but sources say Stephens has been in Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota tracking down leads that have come to the family. "He's like a bulldog," said Gosch, whose son vanished while delivering the Des Moines Sunday Register on Sept 5, 1982, near his home. "Roy will get ahold of something, and he won't let go." Stephens, director of operations for the Missing Youth Foundation in Omaha, said the Gosch investigation will be difficult because years have passed.

Stephens' work helped prosecutors in March win the conviction of David Phelps, a Perry native accused of kidnapping 9-year-old Jill Cutshall in Norfolk, Neb. She has never been found. His investigation caused a sensation. Stephens had taken Phelps to a wildlife preserve near Norfolk and fired a shot into the air. The shaken Phelps then went with Stephens to a local motel and agreed to an interview by an Omaha television crew summoned by Stephens.

During the taping, Phelps said he had been with the girl in 1987 when she disappeared but had left her alive with a friend at the preserve. The friend wasn't charged. The tape and other details gathered by Stephens were critical to the state's case against Phelps, who has insisted he is innocent Lawyers on both sides were outraged by Stephens' tactics. Prosecutor James Smith described Stephens' work as "unprofessional" and said police often referred to him as "the big dummy." Stephens said he wasn't annoyed by the comments. He said he had become obsessed with the Cutshall case and had fired the handgun in frustration.

Stephens is one of several investigators, including agents from the FBI and Division of Criminal Investigation, who have entered the case. He is recuperating from the most recent Methodist Medical Center. More than a year after his roommates tried to kill him, Robert Hasiak has undergone five operations to recon Victim of shooting recuperating both physically and emotionally Ibwan, 76, spins to L.A. Vith speed and vrroomm By VERONICA FOWLER Of Th Rtgistvr'i Amtt Bureau It would be an understatement to say that Robert Hasiak is a survivor. Since being shot once in the face and once in the side in March 1990 by Lisa Fox and her teen-age daughter Sonya, Hasiak has undergone five surgeries and has at least one more to go.

The hollow-point bullets tore out his upper teeth and his sinuses. Another bullet ripped through his lungs and destroyed part of his stomach, liver and spleen. "I'm not supposed to be alive," he says from his Iowa Methodist Hospital bed, his face black and blue from the latest surgery. Formed Support Group But he is alive and trying to put his life back together. He's formed a support group with two other people who have survived beatings and stabbings by people close to them people who like Hasiak were supposed to be dead but survived through luck and stubbornness.

"The only people who can truly understand it is the victim and survivor of an attempted murder," he says. He left Des Moines the afternoon of May 15 and followed an Interstate highway route that included overnight stops at North Platte, Cheyenne, Provo, Utah; and Barstow, Calif. He reached Los Angeles about mid-afternoon, May 19. Coming home he stopped overnight at Flagstaff, Santa Rosa, N.M.; and Oklahoma City. Trouble? Just one incident.

In Wyoming he stopped beneath an underpass to escape rain and don his rain gear. Getting ready to leave, the Gold Wing slipped off its kick stand and flopped on its side. Rhoads could not right the heavy machine alone. His hand signals finally got two young men to stop. They got Gold Wing on its wheels and he was off again.

That rain, and one the final morning in Oklahoma City (it quit before he started out), wasn't the only weather problems, he said. Wind was tough much of the time, and it was cold. "If I go again it won't be in May," said Rhoads. 3 Continued from Page One the Lbs Angela area? "Well, that is rather strange, I have to agree with you," replied Rhoads. "I guess the answer is there was not much reason to stay any longer because my son was working and my wife and I plan to drive out there in our car to see him again in July." Rhoads of 3204 E.

9th a self-employed printing salesman, started riding motorcycles when one of his sons brought one home upon leaving the Marine Corps. Rhoads has owned several of his own, including one he rode alone to California about nine years ago. He says he's been in two accidents as a motorcyclist. He was injured both times, but not seriously. Rhoads' current machine is a Honda Gold Wing 1100, a maroon-colored beauty that cruised without effort at 70 mph on much of his California trip.

his nose. He has lost 30 percent of his mouth opening. His arm has lost 10 percent of its ability to function. There is no sense of feeling on the left side of his face. Two weeks after the shooting, he had lost 40 pounds.

"I tell my friends I have a really effective diet, but that it may be hazardous to your health." 'The Victim Has Nothing' The legal proceedings have been difficult as well. He praises the support and protection given to him by the Ames Police Department, but says, "The defendant essentially has all the rights. The victim has nothing." While a victim reparation program has helped, said Hasiak, it's not enough. Defense lawyers, said Hasiak, asked questions about every detail of his life. The legal proceedings were constantly being delayed.

Eventually, Sonya Fox was put on five years' probation. "The judge there said it was a heinous act. I think the sentence was heinous as well," Hasiak said. Lisa Fox, 34, was found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to up to 25 years. Adding to his frustration is that he can't even figure out why the Foxes shot him.

"I wish I knew." He had named the Foxes beneficiaries in his insurance policy and he suspects that is the reason. Meanwhile, he says, he's resigned from his job as a meat products specialist at Iowa State University for personal reasons. He's been job hunting, but finds that because of the repeated surgeries, he can't even give a potential employer a possible starting date. "I've had a lot taken from me, stuff I'll never get back," Hasiak says. "But I'm very happy to be alive." By KELLYE CARTER RHfctar Staff Wrtfcr Crews are cleaning asbestos from Callanan Middle School after a construction-related mishap, but it won't affect students and teachers returning in the fall, a school official said Thursday.

It is unclear what happened June 3, but asbestos-filled dust coated corridors in parts of the first and second floors, the basement and the stairwells, said Eugene Clark, the Des Moines school district's facility management director. The school at 3010 Center is undergoing a $2.3 million addition and remodeling, which includes asbestos removal from the ceilings in the vocal music and band rooms, Gark said. Asbestos is an insulation material that has been found to cause cancer. "I cannot give you an honest answer to say I know how it happened," Clark said. "I've got all kinds of theories.

I don't want to point any fingers until I can get this pinned down." He estimated that it would cost around 340,000 to clean the asbestos-and-dust mess. District lawyers will investigate to determine who should pay, Clark said. Callanan Principal Marian Ehlers has set up an office at nearby Ruby Van Meter School until the cleanup is complete, Clark said. "We expect the building to be clean by early next week," he said. Mark Hanson, past president of the Callanan Parent-Teacher Association, said he talked to Ehlers, and she said there were several rumors about the asbestos situation.

One said Callanan students would have to attend classes at Prairie Meadows horse track in Altoona because the school would be unable to open in the fall, he said. The rumors are false, Clark said. The problem will not create a health hazard for students and staff members returning from summer vacation, he added. While some of the construction and remodeling may not be finished by the start of the school year, the "critical" areas will be ready, Clark said. As part of a $14.5 million bond project approved by voters in 1989, i Callanan is getting a new gymnasi- urn, locker rooms, media center and classrooms, plus remodeled science I rooms and restrooms.

A corridor will be remodeled and an elevator added to make the school handicapped- accessible. ISU president wants school best off kind Iowa State University President Martin Jischke told Des Moines businessmen Thursday by cooperating with the school they could "en sure the future of Iowa." Jischke, who started at ISU earlier this month, presented his case for "Iowa State as the nation's premier land grant university" at a lunch meeting sponsored by the Greater Des Moines Chamber of Commerce Federation and the Rotary Club. 1 By making the school the best of its kind, ISU can help keep bright young Iowans from moving to other states, he said. "They want educational opportunity that will allow them to compete anywhere in the world," he said. "Second best isn't good enough." lririr.iirim- SAVEWtoWOFF CRAFTSMAN0 RIDING MOWERS ELECTRIC STMT REAR ENGINE 25418 25731 25416 8HP.

8H.P. 10H.P. WASW NOW NOW NOW 1 1 SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED) Your monefs worth and twhoieht more. (i I've had a lot taken from me J) Robert Hasiak He remembers the day he was shot in his Ames home. He was living with Lisa Fox, an Iowa State University student, and her daughter Sonya, then a 16-year-old Ames High student.

Lisa Fox told him that she and Sonya wanted to talk with him in the living room. He went into the living room and Sonya pointed a Smith and Wesson revolver at him. "It was just like my mouth exploded. Then I thought, 'Ge-ez. I had to have been Spitting out his own blood and teeth, he went into the kitchen, where Lisa Fox shot at him four more times, striking him in the side.

"I was screaming, 'Why are you trying to kill Oddly, he said, there was little pain. "To be honest, all I felt was a nudge." Hasiak fell to the floor and then the pain became unbearable. "It's like when you cut your finger. At first it doesn't hurt. It's only after a bit that it hurts." Painful Aftermath While the shooting itself was horrible, Hasiak says, the aftermath has been almost as bad.

Just the physical part has been painful and sometimes embarrassing. For months, before one of his operations, he had to gingerly feed himself bits of baby food. With no upper teeth, upper palate or sinuses, "There was nothing between my tongue and my brain. Just air." If he wasn't careful, food would come out TT or? 20-70 OFF Si 2ForJr SCOTT PAPER PRODUCTS Choose From: Scotties Facials Scott Towels Big Roll Viva Napkins 140 Count 25 IN struct his face. one at Iowa NOW iWqIt LI It's easy to pay for your Register subscription with your Visa or MasterCard.

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