The Springfield News-Leader from Springfield, Missouri • Page 1

Tournaments: Ohio team wins Lady Classic; finals for two others set 1C Springfield EMM. Saturday December 30, 2000 www.OzarksNow.com Springfield, Missouri 50C 1 a Sheriff prepares to leave post iteirip to Bull Eugene Claypool Jr. might not be only arrest in death of Donald Hardwick. 1 File photo Sheriff John Pierpont's last day in office, after 20 years of service, will be Sunday. said Claypool was arrested Thursday and is being held in the city jail in lieu of $500,000 bond.

Rushefsky and police said the stabbing of Donald Hardwick who won $1 .7 million in the lottery in 1998 and took the $850,000 cash payout does not appear to be random. Hardwick was found dead in his home in the 3900 block of West Division Street about 7:30 a.m. Monday by his wife, 59- police spokesman Kirk Manlove. When Claypool was interviewed by police following his arrest, he confessed to breaking into the residence with the intent to steal cash, court documents said. Claypool told police he stole a cigarette case containing $36 while in the house, which he entered through a window.

During the burglary, Hardwick woke up and Claypool stabbed him, documents show. He fled the scene in Hardwick's truck. Claypool was arrested Thursday on a Barton County Police: Administrator-elect can't assume duties quite yet of divorce By Kelly Heierman News-Leader A 21-year-old Springfield man was charged Friday in connection with the Christmas Day slaying of a 72-year-old Springfield man. Eugene Claypool Jr. was charged with second-degree murder, armed criminal action, first-degree burglary and first-degree tampering.

Assistant Greene County Prosecutor Cynthia Rushefsky I to shootini Michelle Lawson told husband she wanted to end marriage, police say. From Our Staff Come midnight Sunday, there will be a new sheriff in town. Sunday will be the last official day that John T. Pierpont, Greene County sheriffs for the past 20 years, will hold the law enforcement post. Jack Merritt, who defeated Pierpont in the primary, will become sheriff.

"People have elected me five times as sheriff, and I think they knew why I ran again, but that's not to be and I understand that," Pierpont said. Inside: Our report. IB Missouri to lose 1,145 Ward jobs The Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY The closing of Montgomery Ward Co. stores will cost Missouri 1,145 jobs and nearly $26 million in wages, the Missouri Department of Economic Development said Friday. Montgomery Ward announced Thursday that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will close all of its 250 stores and 10 distribution centers nationwide over the next several months.

Wards has 761 employees in -Missouri, with five stores in Kansas City and other stores in Jefferson City, Springfield, St. Joseph and Joplin. The department estimates that another 384 jobs will be lost from companies that do business with Wards. The bankruptcy filing is the company's second in three years. It last sought bankruptcy protection from creditors in 1997 and emerged in August 1999 under a reorganization plan requiring it to be purchased by GE Capital, a unit of conglomerate General Electric.

Montgomery Ward had been rolling out a new store format and revamping the merchandise at its 250 locations in 30 states to appeal to its typical middle-income female shopper. At the 76 that had been overhauled, a new "Wards" marquee had been erected. The company dates back to 1872. Low visibility with the average consumer hurt. 7A probation violation warrant with an original charge of theft of anhydrous ammonia and a Springfield warrant for obstructing an officer, police said.

Greene County Prosecutor Darrell Moore said Claypool may not be the only person charged. Police are being quiet about Claypool's arrest, saying no further details will be released until the investigation is complete. "For us to release any details would greatly risk the investigation," Manlove said. Talk Family pnoto This photo shows Michelle Lyn Cobb Lawson as a high school senior. Web Extra: Archive stories; links to the Springfield Police Department and more.

Click Wet Extra icon at www com "We believe that communications between him and her maybe a few days prior to the shooting in which she was going to sever the relationship is what prompted the shooting," Manlove said. See SHOOTING, Page 12A tea led IHI year-old Edna Hardwick. Claypool was arrested after fingerprints found on Hardwick's stolen 1999 Chevrolet pickup match-was found by Claypool ed Claypool's. The truck authorities Monday on U.S. 65 just north of Greene County AA.

"The detectives and the crime lab did an excellent job in the case," said Springfield 1 Named in 10 Greene County civil suits spanning from 1990 to 1999, Gross has been ordered to pay overdue rent, a health club membership, a medical bill, her utilities, a $6,000 credit card bill and salary advances from a previous job. For that reason and others, Little questioned whether Gross was fit for the job, which requires her to safeguard about 500 of the community's most vulnerable people See GROSS, Page 11 A Sunday, Monday and Liam Truchard News-Leader Carolyn Gross, Greene County's public administrator-elect, talks with attorney Bill McDonald. Gross says she secured the $250,000 bond required in order to start the duties of her office. By Angela Wilson News-Leader Michelle Lyn Cobb Lawson of Marshfield loved the outdoors, Labradors and the Dallas Cowboys. She was also the favorite relative of her six nephews and a niece.

"If anyone ever had a favorite aunt, Michelle was it," said her sister Melissa Madrzykowski, her voice breaking. "She was it. She was the greatest thing that ever happened." The 22-year-old office manager of Maschino's Home Expressions and baby of the Cobb family died Thursday afternoon after her estranged husband shot her, then killed himself. Lawson and her husband married in 1998, but separated in November. Since then, she had been living with Madrzykowski and her husband, Rob.

in Republic. Talk turned to divorce, which Michelle Lawson planned to pursue after the first of the year. That, the family and police believe, was the trigger to Thursday's murder-suicide. "He loved her very much." Melissa Madrzykowski, 36. said.

"He couldn't bear to go on without her." Springfield Police spokesman Officer Kirk Manlove said police believe the two talked a few days prior to the incident. Tuesday WAY She'll be sworn in Monday but can't work until bond is OKU By Robert Keyes News-Leader Carolyn Gross will be sworn in Monday as Greene County's next public administrator. But it may be some time before she can assume the duties of the office. Gross, elected in November to replace longtime administrator Carolyn Little, had a tough time securing the $250,000 bond required by county probate judge Calvin Holden. It was not until the last business day of the year that Gross, through her attorney, informed Holden she had found a company Kemper Insurance Co.

of Long Grove, 111. to bond her. Holden held a hearing Friday afternoon on the matter. But Gross's attorney, Bill McDonald, said it may be late next week before the paperwork arrives to confirm the bond. Would that complicate Monday's ceremony? Probably not.

A mid-1960s opinion from the attorney general's office indicates Gross can be sworn in to office Monday even without the state-required bond. But she cannot perform her administrative duties until Holden approves the Airways jet grabs suicide attempt. ride of dips and dives, terrifying passengers on the flight from London to Nairobi and injuring five people, witnesses and airline officials said. Most of the 379 passengers aboard Flight 2069 were asleep or watching a movie when the man burst into the cockpit and grabbed the controls. Passengers screamed and the engines roared as the plane plummeted an estimated 10,000 feet, witnesses said.

"There was this awful lurching, it felt like turbulence, but with this horrible noise, it was 1 t. Hi; i necessary In Greene County to protect the assets of those who fall under the public administrator's care because some of those clients have a good deal of wealth. In time, Gross may also be required to increase her bond to $500,000, Holden said. Just getting a $250,000 bond "created some problems," her attorney told Holden. "But we're not fighting it right now." McDonald did not believe those problems resulted from Gross's questionable credit history.

cide," said passenger Todd Engstrom, a 41 year-old doctor from Portland, Ore. The crew handcuffed and bound the intruder, placed him in a seat and fastened his seat belt Auger said. Still two hours short of Nairobi, control was restored as the plane flew over Sudan. Kenyan police took the man into custody in Nairobi. The cockpit door is normally locked during takeoff and landing, British Airways said, but kept open during the flight Paul Parry, a spokesman for British Airways in London, said the airline will investigate, and consider "whether our current procedures are adequate." Plane lands safely after attack Year in review: special section bond.

For now, Little will continue on as public administrator. Little could not be reached for comment Friday. The judge will likely hold another hearing on the matter within the next week or two. "We'll wait until the bond comes in and look at it," he said. Missouri statute requires a bond of at least $10,000.

But for most of her 20 years as public administrator, Little was required to keep her bond at $500,000. A high bond is considered like a roller coaster, when the pit of your stomach drops out" said Zanne Augur, 32, a graduate student at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. "But you could tell it wasn't turbulence, it was fierce movement" The cockpit intruder bit the captain's ear and finger before he was overpowered in a two-minute struggle with crew members and first class passengers, the airline said. Augur said two men sitting in the front row rushed to help. A breathless Capt.

William Hagan announced over the intercom that "a madman tried to take control of the plane and bring it down to commit a sui WEATHER Cold enooqh' This as bad as it going to oet tor a ne. a-id temr-a-Uires -p on Tuesday 2A 17 0 mm 2000 may have started off like a lamb, but it needs just 54 points this weekend to break the Missouri Valley mark. roared to its end Sunday akd Monday as a significant year full of news stones that affected Ozarkers. Big bowls Passenger on British controls in apparent The Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya A passenger burst into the cockpit of a British Airways jet with 398 people aboard and grabbed the controls Friday, sending the plane into two violent nosedives that left people screaming and praying out loud. The plane landed safely after the crew and other passengers subdued the attacker, who officials said was bent on suicide.

The man, identified only as a 27-year-old Kenyan, forced the Boeing 747-400 into a wild 1D 8C 11B 10B 103 48 Employment 8C Horoscope 103 Lie Times 88 Lotle-y 2B MwcnanJise 10C Money 7 A Cofmcs Crossword rj ADty A 1 Preserving our cultural heritage Despite a host of outside influences eroding our heritage, some of what has defined the Ozarks as a culturally distinct region survives. start Monday After a week of obscurely narred college bowl games, the postseason gets down to business with the marquee matchups. VN 110, No 3C5 Real Estate Rentals For Sale Soots Stoefcs Teievison Weier 18 11C 11C 1C EA 93 ZA il 40901" Movies S3 Option 10A 1 rVi 4 -) lint UH'n 13. Fa Values 3B 6arqe Sates 10C 42035'1.