Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 17

Reno Gazette-Journal Sunday, October 30, 1988 17A GOP hard-pressed to wrest Senate control from Democrats By Jim DrlnkardAP WASHINGTON Republicans looking for gauges of how they will fare in the nation's 33 Senate races on election day can take little hope from the two most closely contested battles: Florida and Washington state. Washington and Florida have open seats that Republicans hope to claim in their uphill battle for retaking control of the Senate, which they won in 1980 and lost six years later. In both, Democrats are showing surprising last-minute strength. In Washington, where polls show a dead heat, Republican former Sen. Slade Gorton is airing testimonial ads that seek to plant doubts about the ideology of liberal Rep.

Mike Lowry. "Mike Lowry scares the hell out of me," says one voter in the ad. But Lowry is running strongly with appeals to environmental and social issues and criticisms of Gorton's record. Republican Rep. Connie Mack is taking a similar tack in Florida.

He is trying to link his opponent, Rep. Buddy MacKay, to Democratic presidential candidate has been criticized for running an outmoded 1980-style campaign based on Rea-ganesque "less government" themes. Connecticut: Incumbent Republican Lowell Weicker always has a tight contest. A recent University of Connecticut poll showed him even with stato Attorney General Joe Lieberman, who is running as a nuts-and-bolts politician and accusing Weicker of being preoccupied with grand consititutional issues and forgetting his state's parochial interests. New Jersey: Some of the nastiest television ads of the year appear to be eroding the margin of freshman incumbent Frank Lautenberg.

His GOP opponent, Pete Dawkins, found that his own impressive resume Rhodes scholar, Heisman trophy winner, Army general didn't automatically translate into political capital. But Republicans now claim public resentment of Lautenberg's own negative advertising has put Dawkins within striking distance. Wisconsin: GOP nominee Susan Enge-leiter has used televised debates to chip away at the lead of millionaire Democrat Herb Kohl, a political novice. the Democrats in Virginia and Wisconsin, and two, Florida and Washington, are up for grabs. Republicans have conceded all along that they would need every lucky break to retake the Senate, including a strong coattail effect from Bush.

While the presidential contest seemed to be giving marginal boosts to Republican hopefuls in a few states, it appears far short of the kind of sweep that gave the GOP Senate control in 1980, when a 12-seat shift accompanied Reagan's landslide White House win. "It's not like 1980, when there was a need among voters to voice change," said Tom Mason, communications director for the Republican National Senatorial Committee. Robert A. Chlopak, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, agreed: "1980 was a repudiation of high interest rates. You don't have that dynamic" this year.

To the extent there are themes running throughout the Senate races, they seem to be items chosen from the idea grab-bag to suit each state: the environment, Social Security, education, crime and drugs, and Michael Dukakis in a TV spot that claims both are against such weapons systems as the B-l bomber, the MX missile and President Reagan's Star Wars defense idea. "Hey, Buddy and Mike you're liberal," it concludes. But polls show the two candidates dead even, despite Vice President George Bush's 20-point advantage over Dukakis in the state. Democrats now enjoy a 54-46 advantage in the Senate. Republicans' longshot hopes to shift five seats depend on a combination of money and a good Bush showing in key states.

In some areas, the favorite tactic is to link the Democrat to Dukakis. But as it has throughout this election year, the scorecard still seems to be leaning the Democrats' way. Of 15 Democrats seeking re-election, all are considered at least safe; some hold double-digit leads. Of the dozen GOP incumbents, two Nevada Sen. Chic Hecht and appointed Nebraska Sen.

David Karnes are trailing popular Democratic challengers. In six open seats where no incumbent is on the ballot the GOP holds a decided advantage in Vermont and Mississippi, "family issues" such as day care are favorites. Democrats have sought to claim the issues as their own, but Republicans have made use of them as well. Seen less frequently are the ideological labeling campaigns such as the GOP is waging in Florida and Washington, and vague "for the future" or "for the state" appeals. Here is a rundown on some of the pivotal contests: Washington: In addition to each other, Lowry and Gorton are battling their own negative images.

The formerly bearded and often-rumpled Lowry has adopted a clean-cut, neatly pressed persona and toned down his rhetoric to appease voters wary of his liberalism. Gorton has done televised "mea culpas" for the cold and naughty reputation that contributed to his 1986 defeat. Florida: MacKay's surprising strength may stem partly from his come-from-behind victory in a Democratic primary runoff Oct. 4. That kept his name before the voters, and the party appears united behind him.

Mack, who has held poll leads throughout the election season against a changing array of Democratic opponents, Unsolved cases From page 1A a background investigation. We'd be able to trace her activities and those of the suspect 24 hours prior to and after her death." The woman was in her early- to mid-208. Her dental work indicated she was European, but an exhaustive search through both American and European missing persons networks has turned up nothing, Coppa says. Other cases, such as the execution-style murder of a Truckee man, go unsolved because the criminal destroys or hides the evidence. Santiago Mendoza, a 40-year-old lumber worker, was killed in 1985 by a single shot to the back of his head.

His house was set on fire in an apparent attempt to cover up the killing, Nevada County sheriff's officials say. Before the shooting, Mendoza received two telephone calls that prompted him to order his wife to take the couple's two children and keep them away from the house. Rumors circulating at the time indicated the murder was drug-related, but investigators never found enough evidence to determine whether that was true or to determine who killed Mendoza. Still other mysterious violent crimes are the work of people passing through town, criminals experienced enough to know how to get rid of damning evidence. Lots of Ideas, but no proof Speculation has linked some Nevada cases with famous serial killers, such as Ottis Toole, Henry Lucas and Ted Bundy, all of whom have admitted passing through northern Nevada.

James Porteous of Sparks says he has heard rumors that Ted Bundy might be responsible for the murder of his daugh- 16 was the last time Settlemier heard her daughter's voice. "Hi Mom," the message said. "I'm in Nevada. I'll be home late. Leave the key under the mat." Witnesses saw Stroh try to rent a motel room in Winnemucca, and a motel clerk there tried to find her a room in Reno, says Winnemucca police Sgt.

Rick James. "Somebody out there saw something" James says. "We just don't know who." Stefanie Stroh's case will be featured on an upcoming segment of NBC's "Unsolved Mysteries." Settlemier and James both say they hope a viewer will provide the missing piece to the puzzle of her disappearance. The parents of Tony Franko and Jennifer Martin, two Lemmon Valley youn-sters who disappeared from the same area four years apart, echo Settlemier's discontent. They both say their lives will be on hold until the case is solved.

Tony Franko was 10 years old when he disappeared on his way to school in 1983. Jennifer was 11 when she was last seen walking home from a Lemmon Valley store with a six-pack of Coke and a candy bar. Washoe County sheriff's Capt. Coppa says, of all unsolved cases, missing children are by far the most disturbing. "The frustration to know these youngsters disappeared without a trace is horrendous," he says.

"We owe something to these younsters, to their parents, to the community." No matter how busy he is and no matter how many other cases demand his time and attention, Coppa says he thinks about and tries to uncover new angles to Tony and Jennifer's cases every day. "You live and breathe these cases because you're dealing with a human being a very young human being who is no longer at home, who is no longer at school, who is no longer laughing. "It wears at you it tugs at you and it never lets you rest." Authorities never determined the exact cause of her death. Lisa's parents, Doris and Vernon Bonham, say police stay in touch and alert them when there's something new on the case. Vernon Bonham says although he and his wife still miss Lisa and think of her every day, they have learned over the years to stop focusing on their own remorse, and start looking for ways to keep other parents from experiencing the all-consuming grief that comes from a child's murder.

"Our concern is still there, but there's nothing else we can do at this point," he says. "We're concerned about the others who have had the same situation happen to them. "Whoever (Lisa's killer) is has probably done others, and that makes it worse. At this point, I think society should be more concerned about who did it, because they'll probably do it again." Reno police decline to comment on Lisa's case other than to say they are still working on it. But, law enforcement officials say, the longer a case remains unsolved, the less likely it is ever to be cracked.

Time becomes a factor "The time factor is a big part of it," says Placer County sheriff's Detective Jones. "Witnesses and evidence have a tendency to disappear or get weaker. "The longer a case drags on, the more difficult it is to develop a successful prosecution." When a case is new, a team of officers generally are dispatched to the case, Coppa says. That attack is crucial because, even if the case isn't immediately solved, a solid base of information makes future leads easier to follow. "The initial assault on the case is most important.

You've got to hit 'em hard and hit 'em fast." i ter, Rulan McGill. The 32-year-old Winnemucca school teacher came to Reno in 1979 to see her dentist and do some shopping. Three days later, her father found her nude body partially submerged in an irrigation ditch behind a public warehouse at Greg Street and Industrial Way in Sparks. She had been stabbed to death, and probably raped. Sparks police decline to comment on the case.

In some cases, authorities know who committed a crime, but can't prove it. "I can think of two of those cases," Coppa says. "But it doesn't deter us from continuing on in the expectation that it'll come together. Sometimes it does." But sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes, as in the case of 24-year-old casino worker Leslie Ellen Quincey, police simply don't have enough evidence to link anyone to a crime.

Quincey's fiance told police she had telephoned him shortly after midnight Oct. 1, 1987, after working a swing shift as a change girl at the Western Village Inn Casino. She said she was having a drink there and would be home soon. A week later, police found her body in the trunk of her faded 1968 Buick Skylark, parked at a Sparks pizza parlor. She had been stabbed to death.

11 years later, it's a mystery An even older case is that of 6-year-old Lisa Bonham, whose killer has eluded authorities for 11 years. The petite blonde disappeared Sept. 3, 1977, on a half-mile trek from a relative's house to Reno's Idlewild Park, where she was to meet her 12-year-old brother. Three hours later, her clothes and pock-etbook were found in a trash can at a scenic pull-out off Interstate 80 about six miles west of Reno. After a 2V2-month search for the girl, hikers found her remains in Dog Valley.

But after all the initial leads are exhausted, the high number of pending criminal cases demands that officers are pulled off the older case one by one. "As time goes by, less and less people are involved because more and more cases come up that require their attention," Jones says. Eventually, an unsolved case is assigned to a single investigator who stays on it and plugs away at any new detail, any possible lead. At that point, Coppa says, it becomes a lower-profile case, but still a priority. "Unsolved cases are always a priority.

The bottom line is you don't just let them sit there. "The role of the detective is to pay attention to details, and look below what is apparent. If the magic is there, you'll do it." Families left to suffer But sometimes the magic just isn't there. And that's particularly frustrating for the parent of missing children, parents who don't know if their children are. alive or dead.

"It's just not knowing that's the hardest," says Joni Settlemier, whose daugh- ter, Stefanie Stroh, disappeared a year, ago. "You keep hoping she might possibly be alive. As time goes by, it's harder to imagine, but we all keep hoping." Stroh, 21, was returning from a two-year "dream trip" around the world when she disappeared just hours from her parents' San Francisco home. She ended her trip in New York, and hitchhiked across the country with a friend. The two split up in Salt Lake City, and Stroh headed for California.

She called her mother from each state she passed through, until she made it to Nevada. She called from Wells Oct. 15 and said she would be home the next day. But an answering machine message left Oct. One day only 24.50 SavHello ToA Gentleman.

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