St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 21

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH r'CinST NEWS ANALYSIS: Changes in laws alter EDITORIAL: St. Louis Police should adopt COMMENTARY: The United States should lead 7 ItiWlMki approach to medical malpractice claims 5C employment procedures devoid of cultural bias6C the global fight against drugs Tf 7C T. LOUISMGION SECTION A MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1994 BILL McCLELLAN ON MY OWN urder On Bridge Haunting Police, Family Of Victim 'A Horrible Place To Detective Says 5 Ordeal on the Bridge 4 i By Kim Bell Of the Post-Dispatch Staff Barbara Wood's terrifying ride in her teal green Geo Storm ended on the McKinley Bridge, a weathered span of potholes and burned-out streetlamps that rises the Mississippi River. On the Illinois end are toll booths.

On the Missouri side, cold factories. Police say the men who had abducted Wood dragged her onto the middle of the bridge. As she struggled, they shot her and pushed her body into the frigid water. "It's a horrible place to die," St. Louis County Police Detective Thomas Smith said after a recent visit to the bridge.

"It's quite nauseating like a scene from a horror movie." Wood's body has been missing since her abduction Jan. 15. The river's churning current and cold temperature have made searching difficult. Authorities have charged one man with the murder and are struggling to build a case against an accomplice, the driver. Others might be involved, says Prosecutor Robert P.

McCulloch of St. Louis County. It started as a carjacking on the parking lot of the South County Shopping Center, which police say is relatively crime-free. Wood, 44, had driven there about 6 p.m. to work the night shift selling women's clothing at Dillard's.

Nearly two hours later, her attackers flung her into the river. Authorities aren't saying how the attackers got to the parking lot or why they picked Wood. Police say they don't know what hap pened to her during the ride to the bridge. After she was thrown off, someone drove off in her car, leaving Hall on the bridge. As a toll collector alerted police, Hall tried to run from the bridge.

Witnesses swerved their car in front of Hall, slowing him until police caught up, said Venice Police Officer Mike White. McCulloch said that in late January police questioned a man who remains a suspect, but authorities lack evidence to charge him. They believe he drove Wood's car and shot Wood four times as she struggled to get away on the bridge. Hall, of the 5700 block of St. Louis Avenue, remains in the Madison County Jail without bond.

In a telephone conversation with a reporter, he would not discuss the crime. He wouldn't explain why he was on foot on the bridge at the time of his arrest. At-the time Hall was arrested, he was on parole for the shooting of a 4-year-old girl in 1987. That fact infuriates Wood's family: "This guy who murdered wasn't just a petty larceny, bad check-writer type," said Scott Wood, 26, the older of Wood's two sons. "He's violent.

The parole Wood Odell Mitchell Jr.Post-Dispatch Venice Police Officer Mike White walks Friday near the spot on the McKinley Bridge where Barbara Wood was shot and thrown into the Mississippi River. This week, McCulloch took over the case from the Illinois state's attorney's office. McCulloch wants it because the crime began at a shopping mall in St. Louis County and ended on the Missouri side of the bridge. McCulloch plans to seek the death penalty for the one suspect charged so far.

Stanley Hall, 25, was arrested on the bridge as witnesses kept him from escaping. "This is really a frightening and outrageous crime the reason people are afraid and so angry about crime," said Illinois State's Attorney William R. Haine of Madison County. "This poor woman was where she had a right to be secure." Keeping An Eye On Slippery Spots And Our Children AST MONDAY, speed-skater Dan Jansen -lost his balance as he roared around a turn in the 500-meter race at the Winter Olympics. That slip cost him a chance for a medal.

A television reporter rushed up to Jansen's coach, who looked heart-broken. The reporter breathlessly mentioned that another skater had also lost his balance at the same turn. "Do you think it's slippery out there?" the television reporter asked. The coach gave him a sad and quizzical look. "The ice is always slippery," he said.

If you're looking for a metaphor that de scribes life, how can you do better than that? It's especially apt for parents. At least that's the thought that struck me as I sat on the couch, a child on either side. The ice is always slippery. Just as Jansen trained for years, only to lose his balance at the most inappropriate time, you can do your very best as a parent, and then the unthinkable happens. One reason the coach's remark struck home was because the very next morning, I was scheduled to-go to Wayne County with a detective.

The detective and a couple of evidence technicians wanted to visit the spot where the body of 11-year-old Elissa Self-Braun was found four years ago. The man who is accused of murdering her is scheduled to go on trial this week. Elissa disappeared on her way to the bus stop three years ago. The publicity about the recent child abductions has been difficult on the family. Most troubling have been the television news "special reports" about ways in which a parent can make his or her children "street-safe." The family resented the implication that children who get snatched have not been taught to be wary of strangers.

"Elissa was very her mother says. Knowing her mother, I'm sure she was. But in some circumstances, no amount of training is sufficient. If the wrong person happens, to be on the street, no child is safe. And you never know when it can happen.

It's like the coach said, the ice is always slippery. Same thing with the meningitis that has afflicted several local children. Symptom-wise, it resembled the flu, say the doctors. Be concerned about headaches, say the health officials. But this is flu season.

Children are always getting a bug of one sort or another. These past few days, every time I've left my kids, I've been concerned. Besides watching them like a hawk, monitoring their every breath, what can a parent do except hope and pray? The ice is always slippery. Last week, I spent a good deal of time at the trial of 19-year-old Christopher Santillan. He was convicted of murdering his best friend.

Santillan's parents tried to do everything right. They sent him to an exclusive private school, where he got excellent grades. He had everything going for him. But an obsession over a girl, and the ready availability of a handgun, led him to murder. He was 17 when he shot Vinay Singh.

Singh's parents still seem to be in shock. It wasn't like their son was running around with gang members. He was running around with Santillan, a doctor's child. "We trusted Chris," said Singh's father. Well, who wouldn't? How is a parent supposed to know? Even if an astute parent realizes there's a problem over a girl, what's the big deal? Don't all teen-age boys have problems over girls? Santillan's parents, not surprisingly, were in a state of absolute denial.

They knew their son was not a murderer. They had not raised him that way. Many of their son's friends shared their feelings. Maybe they thought the evidence, which I found compelling, was part of a monstrous plot. Experts from the FBI, the Red Cross and the St.

Louis County laboratory were all, somehow, involved in the conspiracy. Santillan is a good person, I was told more than once as if even a good 17-year-old is not capable of great foolishness, great evil. The ice is always slippery, I wanted to respond, and even good kids, even smart kids, can take a tumble. I've seen too many nice kids convicted of horrible crimes to think otherwise. Bad friends, raging hormones, drugs all these things are slick spots on the ice.

On Friday, Jansen raced again. Twice, he nearly lost his balance. Each time, though, he righted himself and he not only won the gold medal, he set a world record. The problem Vith life, I thought, is that too often there are no second chances. a rS? iv 1 It' ai a Correctional Center recommended Hall's release in June six months early because of good behavior.

Hall had participated in a drug-treatment program at Farmington, worked on his GED and received training in auto mechanics, carpentry and electrical maintenance. After leaving Farmington, Hall spent 90 days at a halfway house in the St. Louis area. See KILLING, Page 2 Murder Evidence Disputed Scientist Says Genetic Test Could Clear Convicted Man By Cheryl Dahle and David Protess Special to the Post-Dispatch 1994, St. Louis Post-Dispatch The genetic test that helped convict a Southern Illinois man of murder is largely inconclusive and may even point to his inno-: cence, says a scientist who examined it.

Dr. Dan E. Krane reviewed the crucial piece of evidence that helped send Stuart Heaton to prison for life in the 1991 murder of Krystal Naab, a 16-year-old from Ramsey 111. Krane's analysis, conducted for the ie-fense without compensation, turned up two-findings that had not been presented at trial: Someone other than Heaton and Naab appears to have contributed genetic material to the crime scene. This raises the possibility that someone other than Heaton murdered Naab.

One genetic sequence in Heaton's blood was not found at the crime scene and another sequence did not show up in the evidence findings that could exonerate Heaton. "You could make a strong case that the test provided grounds for excluding Heaton," said Krane, who conducted the test while at Harvard University. He is now a microbiologist at Wright State University in Dayton. Krane's overall conclusion was that the test results were "equivocal." "This DNA test doesn't tell you one way or the other," ht said. "If you were to give 1,000 molecular; biologists this test you would get 100 diffet ent interpretations." Krane is a court-certified expert who ha testified for the defense in trials involving genetic tests.

He also co-authored a scientific article on genetic testing with the state's star witness in the Heaton case, Dr. Robert Allen. Allen, who conducted the Heaton test while he was science director of the Red Cross lab in St. Louis, declined comment on Krane's analysis. Allen said he had only his memory to refer to because he no longer has the test results.

Allen now works at the Children's Medical Center in Tulsa. Don Sheafor, the former prosecutor who won the Heaton conviction, said that none of the defense witnesses had raised the issues that Krane raises. Shocking Murder The murder of Krystal Naab shocked the small farming community of Ramsey, 75 miles east of St. Louis. Naab was found dead in her family's trailer, stabbed 81 times.

A dozen witnesses saw a white pickiSp See EVIDENCE, Page 2 ISU-''' 4 ft Vk STL tf board where were they in this hearing?" Seven months before Wood's murder, Hall was paroled from the Missouri penal system. He was serving 10 years for shooting a girl in the Cabanne neighborhood of St. Louis on April 8, 1987. The girl was hit as Hall fired at a man who had quarreled with his cousin. Before that, Hall had been arrested for tampering with a car.

The prison superintendent at Farmington Ji Wes PazPost-Dispatch Wes PazPost-Dispatch Ray Gruender announces his candidacy Sunday at the St. Louis County Courthouse in Clayton. 1 1 (IT Roberta Kessler (lower right) heckles Ray Gruender, a Republican candidate for St. Louis County prosecutor, Sunday in Clayton. She accused him of "Joseph McCarthy tactics" against her husband and son.

Candidate For Prosecutor Heckled At Opening Rally GOP Campaigner Faces Anger Over Injury Fund Case I It. She accused Gruender and his ex-boss, former U.S. Attorney Stephen Higgins, of using "Joseph McCarthy tactics," innuendo, half-truths and extortion in the prosecution of her husband, Morris B. Kessler, and their son, V. John Kessler.

She also complained that Gruender and Higgins had prosecuted the cases "to serve your own political purposes." Gruender drew cheers and applause when he explained to the crowd who Roberta Kessler was and that he had succeeded in getting her husband sentenced to prison. The crowd also applauded Higgins when he challenged Kessler just after Gruender finished his talk. "Mrs. Kessler, your husband admitted felonies in connection with the infamous Second Injury Fund," said Higgins, who was at the rally to introduce Gruender. "Your husband conceded defrauding the state of Missouri." See GRUENDER, Page 3 By Mark Schlinkmann Regional Political Correspondent Ray Gruender began his campaign for bt.

Louis County prosecutor Sunday, amid heck ling by a relative of two defendants in the Second Injury Fund case. Roberta Kessler, whose husband and son pleaded guilty last year to federal charges of abusing the fund, interrupted a speech by Gruender to complain about his handling of the case as a former assistant U.S. attorney. The confrontation took place outside the county courthouse in Clayton, as Gruender, a Republican, was telling about 100 well-wish ers that violent crime had increased in the county under the Democratic incumbent, Robert P. McCulloch.

He pledged to combat it by reducing "the shocking level" of plea bargaining and suspended sentences. I like to ask you something ajpout jus tice, shouted Kessler, who was standing with two daughters in the crowd..