Indiana Gazette from Indiana, Pennsylvania • 5

More Page One Sunday, August 1, 1S99 A-S Gases show how easily murderers can slip away hard evidence to tie Barton to the killings of Debra Barton and Eloise Spivey, found dead in 1993, inside a blood-splattered trailer at a campground. Investigators discovered bloody footprints by the camper door, but the FBI couldn't identify the brand of shoe a possible Link to the killer. Police had a possible motive: a $600,000 insurance policy on Mrs. Barton's life, and a girlfriend on the side. Sheriff Wynn said state and Georgia detectives aided local investigators.

They tracked down hundreds of campers, many from out of state. Barton left no impression. "If he comes in here and acts normal, nobody noticed anything," says the Alabama sheriff. "And we really couldn't find anything at the scene of the crime to connect him to the crime." Stayner, the suspect in the multiple murders in Yosemite, didn't fit the puzzle that the FBI and others pieced together in the February deaths of three women. Not long before Stayner's arrest, they were tracking a band of ex-cons, most already behind bars on other offenses.

They were encouraged by incriminating remarks and a report from a crime lab. Stayner is now also suspected in the unsolved death of an uncle in 1990. By ARUNE LEVINSON AP National Writer Last week. Sheriff Roy Wynn's heart broke. He saw carnage in Atlanta by a man long suspected of carnage in his own Cherokee County in Alabama.

There, six years ago, the man was linked to the hacking deaths of a woman and her mother. Months of police work in Alabama came to naught. Now, the same MarkO. Barton splattered blood in Georgia. "I just felt real saddened, all these people had lost their lives," Wynn said from Centre, Ala.

"I hoped someday we could bring this man to Barton's case was only die latest in which it seemed police had their hands on a killer only to see him slip away to kill again. Early this year police questioned Cary Stayner in the killings of three Yosemite National Park sightseers. But they dismissed the 37-year-old motel handyman as a suspect until he confessed to the July 21 beheading of a park naturalist. He later confessed to killing all four. While the FBI and Houston police hunted Angel Maturino Resendiz for a string of murders, unwitting immigration agents nabbed him for illegally entering the country, and have done this, we should have done that," says Professor James Fyfe, a former New York City police lieutenant who teaches at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Rules of evidence may frustrate cops, he says, "because the Constitution, very fairly, requires a whole set of safeguards on the criminal justice process. Even in good police work, a lot can go wrong. There Is plain bad luck. Thereto also a lot of crime. Not enough communication.

More stranger-on-stranger murder. Turl Like everyone else, police use computers and the Internet to aid their work. But explains Victor Kappeler, who teaches police studies at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, "the communication between law enforcement agencies is still very, very poor. It goes back, historically, to turf and jurisdiction and territoriality." The resolution of three tragic cases in July draws lots of attention to these problems. Together, they look like a trend.

But they're not Some murderers get away, and not only serial killers. Consider Cyrano Marks. Two weeks ago in Atlanta, Marks killed his girlfriend, her sister and four children before turning the gun on himself. As it turns out, a decade ago Marks faced charges for murdering an airline employee. A udge threw out the case for insufficient evidence Consider Richard Alien Davis.

In 1993, soon after Davis abducted young Polly Klass from her home in Petaluma, his car got stuck In a ditch. Two Sonoma County sheriff's deputies, investigating a trespassing report, found Davis stranded on a private road. They helped free him, checked for outstanding warrants, and sent him on his way. They didn't know about the kidnapping 20 miles away; the information was not broadcast on their radio channel. Davis, now on death row, later told police that when the deputies found him, that Polly was sitting on a hillside, alive.

He said he killed her later. Every case presents unique problems for investigators. Georgia authorities say Barton shot his way through two stock-trading offices in AUanta on Thursday, killing nine, injuring 13. Afterward, in their apartment, his wife and two children were found dead. During the rampage, it was learned that Barton was the prime suspect in killing his first wife and her mother.

Barton denied this in his last note. Alabama authorities never did find enough sent him back to Mexico. Another spectacular murder case. Another spectacular blunder. All in a matter of weeks.

Or were they blunders at all? The public is getting a horrifying look at the daily frustration of police work, experts say. "It's more common than the general public knows," says Vernon Geberth, former head of Bronx homicide in the New York Police Department Now a consultant, Geberth claims prosecutors are more reluctant today to take oh cases that aren't a sure win. "There are a lot of people who commit murder who are walking the street" because, he says, prosecutors "don't believe they're able to sustain a beyond- the-reasonable-. doubt scenario." The reverse is also true. Every day in this country, people are falsely accused.

"We have three or four people let off each year from death row because they were wrongfully convicted," says Larry Gaines, a former officer who chairs the Criminal Justice Department at California State University at San Bernardino. "Criminal investigation is not a precise science." Fairness built into the U.S. Constitution plays a big part "Retrospectively, it's easy to say we should News briefs By The Associated Press GOP sets deadline for compromise Man charged with Woodstock sex crimes Heat claims another 46 lives ROME, N.Y. A 26-year-old man was arrested and charged with sex crimes for an alleged assault on a 15-year-old girl as fires raged in the final hours otwooastocK. Timothy A.

Weeden, a state prison guard from Rome, was arrested early Monday soon after the alleged assault and was indicted Tuesday on charges of first-degree sodomy and sexual abuse, third-degree sodomy and endangering the welfare of a child. The girl left the concert grounds to use a bathroom at a gas station, where she was allegedly forced to perform oral sex, said Bemadette Romano, Oneida County first assistant district attorney. i ne girl tied ana tola a group ot mends at the concert wno return ea to the gas station and apprehended Weeden with the help of several security guards from a nearby hospital, according to Oneida County Investigator Richard Dodge. Authorities said they aia not mow weeaen naa attended me concert. State police investigating eight allegations of rapes four at the con Continued from page A-l through the House only after Hasten, and the leadership agreed to condition the tax-rate decline on annual reductions in interest due on the national debt.

There are numerous other differences between the two bills, including, for example, compering proposals for reducing capital gains taxes and varying lists of provisions inserted at the behest of individual-lawmakers. With narrow voting margins ia both the House and Senate, Republican leaders will have little margh) for error as they produce a comproj-mise. But the price of failure will be high. Several Republicans, speaking oA condition of anonymity, said the GOP hopes to build public support for the measure during the planned August break to fortify the parry for the veto struggle that lies ahead. Most Democrats opposed the Senate bill, as was the case in the House, and Clinton sharply attacked the measure shortly after the Senate approved it.

cert, three in the camping area and one near the mosh pit during a performance said pursuing leads will be difficult because the 225,000 con-certgoers have scattered around the They are reviewing a pay-per-view broadcast of the three-day event as well as photos published In newspapers and on the Internet Airliner missing near Colombian border Continued from page A-l On Sunday, thunderstorms and a cold front should finally bring temperatures into the 80s for New York and its suburbs, said National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Reynolds. "Personally, I'm looking forward to turning off the air conditioning and opening all the windows at home," said Reynolds, echoing the thoughts of many overheated New Yorkers. But the heat wave was not limited to the East Coast. In Wisconsin, temperatures climbed above 100 degrees in some CARACAS, Venezuela A commercial airliner with 16 people aboard was missing Friday near the Colombian border, and authorities believed it either crashed or was hijacked. Highlights; of tax bill ine Avior Airlines plane, a twin-engine beechcrart, took oh tnday in the southwestern city of Barinas for what was supposed to be a 25-mmute flight to the border town of Guasdualito.

Navy Capt Julio Nunez said security forces were looking for the missing plane with three military planes and a helicopter "As of this moment, we have no report of an accident. It's possible that the aircraft has been hijacked. The pilot never declared an emergency, Nunez told The Associated Press. He said their last contact with the airplane was when it took off in Barinas. Bus accident sends workers to hospital DOWNERS GROVE, 111.

Twenty-one people were injured, some critically, after a car slammed into the back of a small bus and caused it to tip over, ejecting several passengers, authorities said. The bus passengers were heading to work at a factory when the accident occurred about 10 p.m. Friday on Interstate 355 in suburban Chicago, said Master Sgt. Luis Tigera of the Illinois state police. The bus hit a pole before it tipped over.

The passengers were being transported by an employment agency to work an overnight shift at TDI Batteries in Downers Grove. They were coming from Cicero, Jordan Gettimier tries to beat the heat with a large supply of ke water as he works on a damaged road in the 102-degree heat Friday in St. louts (AP Photo) a I On Friday night, severe thunderstorms with wind gusts up to 70 mph toppled trees, downed power lines and killed two people. In western Pennsylvania, temperatures hit the mid-SOs, with the heat index in Pittsburgh expected to hit 105 degrees. In Philadelphia, the mercury was expected to approach 100 degrees.

Temperatures in Texas and pans of the Southeast and Southwest were expected to approach 100 degrees on Saturday. In New York, it wasn't just hot it was dry, too. Rain ha; become a dim memory. The city received .44 inches of rain this month about the equivalent of two good thunderstorms, said Reynolds. It was the driest July ever In New York, he spjd.

The previous winner for hottest July was 199J, when the average temperature was just above 60 degrees. July 1999 had an average temperature above 81 degrees more than four degrees above the usual temperature for this time of year. But Reynolds said the seemingly endless hot speLl could come to an end as early as Sunday. "We should get a break, finally," he said. dtiiSEa? rib.

5 Many of the passengers were Spanish-speaking, making it difficult for authorities to una out immediately what happened. The car's driver was among those injured. At least 15 people were taken to hospitals. Six had life-threatening injuries, said Sue Sullivan, a nursing supervisor at Good Samaritan Hospital. Several lanes of the highway remained closed while officers cleared the ill il scene.

Man charged with assault sues airline NEWARK, J. Continental Airlines is being sued by a passenger who was arrested and accused ot slamming one ot its workers to the ground. In his lawsuit filed Friday, John C. Davis Jr. blames the July 22 alterca Children play in a gushing fin hydrant in downtown Washington, D.C.

Saturday. (AP Photo) tion at Newark International Airport on the airline, alleging Continental training causes workers to te violent ana hostile towards their customers." Davis' lawyer, Anthony J. Pope, said an airline worker pushed Davis' wife when she tried to catch a child who had.run ahead, and that the Impact stirs no visible dust worker grabbed Davis by the neck. Police cited witnesses who said Davis, 29, struck gate agent An gelo Sot- tile, 50, belore throwing rum neaonrst onto me noor. Sottile broke two neck bones and spent eight days in the hospital.

Davis was arrested and charged with aggravated assault He was released on $50,000 bail. By The Associated Press Highlights in the tax relief bills passed by the House and the Senate: INCOME TAXES House bill: Across-the-board 10 percent cut in income tax rates, phased in over 10 years. Annual installments would lack in only if the government's cost of borrowing to pay the national debt dropped. Senate bill: Reduce bottom 15 percent income tax bracket to 14 percent and raise the income level for that bracket to $47,050 for married couples and $27,750 for single people. MARRIAGE PENALTY House bill: Allow married couples to claim a standard deduction of $8,600, replacing current $7,200 deduction.

Senate bill: Also allow $8,600 standard deduction, starting in 2001, and let married couples hie returns as singles in a combined form. CAPITAL GAINS House bill: Cut top tax rate for most investments held at least a year from 20 percent to 1 percent. Senate bill: Exclude from taxes the first $1,000 in long-term capital gains, ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX House bill: Ensure personal credits do not cause middle-class people to become subject to the tax and gradually repeal the AMI over 10 years. Senate bill: Make permanent exemptions for personal credits so they do not apply to the AMX ESTATE TAX House bill: Phase down and eventually repeal tax on inheritances. Senate bill: Raise exemption to $1.5 million beginning in 2007 and repeal rates above 50 percent, RETIREMENT House bill: Increase contribution limits to some employee benefit plans and reduce time for vesting in some pensions from five yean to three years.

Senate bill: Raise contribution limits for mdividual retirement, accounts from $2,000 to $5,000 and gradually raise income limits for contributors, i Dial 465-8100, Ext. 1726 Lottery The impact point was not visible from Earth, but NASA engineers believe that the craft was in line to hit the target crater. "Everything went normally, so we have every reason to believe it made it to the impact site," said David Folta, the Goddard Space Flight Center engineer who gave the final guidance signals to Prospector. "There is no reason to believe we didn't get to where we wanted to go." Folta said the spacecraft received the signals and was operating normally when it went over the lunar north pole and disappeared behind the moon where it was to ignite its rockets. Had the rocket firing failed, said Folta, the craft would have reappeared in orbit, still sending out radio signals.

Instead, there was only silence. Barker said there is a possibility the spacecraft hit at such a shallow angle that it skipped, like a flat stone across a pond, before it came to rest. This would diminish the dust cloud, he said, but there could still be a water plume. He did calculations that showed if Prospector crashed into one of the frigid craters, heat from (lie impact could vaporize the Ice and form a wet cloud visible from Earth. Although mission scientists believed there was only a 10 percent chance of success, the possibility of harvesting a final bit of science was worth the effort.

Goldstein said Saturday that he also had hoped for a dust cloud, but none was seen by any of the 20 or so observatory telescopes that focused on the moon at the moment of impact. "We didn't see any dust. Ti is a bit of a disappointment," he said. Officials of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers, or ALPO, encouraged amateur astronomers to focus telescopes on the moon and report any signs of Prospector's Impact Despite the lack of obvious evidence, officials said Lunar Prospector appeared to have followed the instructions from the ground to slow itself with an automatic rocket firing and then smash against the moon. Continued from Page A-1 Lunar Prospector was scheduled to end its mission on Saturday and scientists running the $63 million project decided smashing the craft into the moon in search for water was a fitting end.

David Morse, a NASA spokesman at the Ames Research Center in Mof-fett Field, said mission scientists "were very happy and whooped it up a little" when it became clear the craft had hit the moon. Prospector was launched Jan. 6, 1996, and spent about 18 months in lunar orbit, using five instruments to map the magnetic, chemical and gravitational character of the moon. One instrument received a signal for hydrogen, leading scientists to suggest mere was frozen water in the deep, constantly shaded craters around the lunar poles. By some estimates, the could be as much as 300 million metric Ions of ice in the frozen lunar soil.

David B. Goldstein, a University of Texas researcher, was the first to suggest using Prospector as sort of a. rocket-powered diving rod. The winning numbers drawn Saturday In the "Super 6 Lotto" game were: 08-16-42-60-63-66. Iwo players matched all Ave winning numbers drawn In Saturday's "Pennsylvania Cash 5" game and will share a jackpot worth $128,763, a lottery official said.

Each winner will receive $64,381.50. Cook said 217 players matched four numbers ana won $248 each; 7,243 players matched three numbers and won $8 each; and 71,360 players matched two numbers and won $1 each. The winning numbers drawn Saturday in the "Pennsylvania Cash 5" game were: 08-11 '13-26-33. HARR1SBURG (AP) Here are the winning nulmben selected Saturday in the Pennsylvania State Lottery: Dairy Number 877 Big 4 3864 Wednesday's "Pennsylvania Super 6 Lotto" will be worth at least $36 million because no player matched the six winning numbers drawn In Saturday's game, a lottery official said. Lottery director Daniel K.

Cook said 29 players matched five numbers and won $4,968 each; 2,379 players matched four numbers and won $56.50 each; and 66,243 players matched three numbers and won $2 each..