The Paducah Sun from Paducah, Kentucky • 1

Copyright 1987 Paducah, Kentucky 27' DAILY HOME DELIVERY 35 NEWSSTAND Tuesday, June 9, 1987 Mom av slie killed Marlena rvi- i 1 I tmu lAur miM dU Mkyfield volunteers not ready to give up By JOE WALKER Sun Staff Writer MAYFIELD, Ky. On the bulletin board in Find Marlena headquarters on the Mayfield Court Square, a newspaper bearing a color photograph of Pam Bailey with her four-year-old daughter, Marlena Childress, has this caption: "Please bring my little girl back. You have no right to her. I know she wants to come home." Pam Bailey cried and addressed envelopes with dozens of other Find Marlena volunteers, never hinting that she knew the secret of her child's death. That is why seven weeks and three days after Bailey reported Marlena abducted from their Union City, home a handful of Mayfield volunteers stood shocked at the news that Bailey had confessed to killing her little girl.

The child's disappearance prompted a massive nationwide search using 40,000 letters, 300,000 posters, and 50 million direct flyers. Truckers, dentists, doctors, and business 'people joined the search, from Maine to Texas. The driving force was Clara Girl was struck, body dumped, she tells police By BILL BARTLEMAN and DENNIS HILL Son Staff Writers UNION CITY, Tenn. The prolonged and painful search for red-haired, four-year-old Marlena Childress took a wrenching, bizarre turn early today when the missing child's mother was charged with murder. Climaxing a search that had become a cause for volunteers throughout the region, Union City Police Chief David Rhodes said a second-degree murder charge against Pam Childress Bailey, 22, was based on information provided to police by Stan Cavness, a former Dyer County juvenile officer who lives in Jackson.

Rhodes said Bailey was taken into custody at 8 p.m. Monday and that she confessed to killing her little girl. According to Rhodes, Bailey said she was tending a smaller child in her home on April 16, the day Marlena was reported missing. Bailey, according to Rhodes, said Marlena was running in and out of the house and "in a heat of passion" she struck Marlena, who fell to the floor. Rhodes quoted Bailey as saying she thought that the youngster was dead and put her body into a pickup truckand started driving toward Martin.

Along the way, Bailey told police, she stopped and phoned a male acquaintance in Martin. Bailey and the man met on the bridge over the north fork of Obion River, and Marlena's body was dumped over the rail. Rhodes said the body was dumped into the river between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. on April 16.

The chief declined to identify the man, but said he had been questioned. He said police did not have enough evidence to file charges against the man. Rhodes said the possibility that the mother was involved in the abduction was a possibility police MARLENA CHILDRESS since April 16 Ohio River oi Paducahj A I 'Sfenft Union Tennessee i SN I XS-v River 'c rx fttenS. V'eakley County 8 ARKLE THIELEMANThe Sun had been looking at since the child was reported Wyrick, who set up the Find Marlena headquarters outside her restaurant in the Mayfield Mini- missing. Mall.

"She was the last one who saw the child and obviously we were looking at her. We looked at some other areas that did not develop," said Rhodes. Bailey will be arraigned Wednesday and a Dreliminary hearing will be scheduled. Weakley County Rescue Squad probes Obion River about 200 yards downstream from Campground Road bridge. LYN McDANIELThe Sun Rescue squads had dragged a four-mile stretch of the river since 10 o.m.

Monday without success. David Morris, a deputy with the Obion sheriff's department, said Bailey told her story to Cavness, who also was a volunteer with the Help Find Marlena Childress Committee. Cavness then took the information to police, Morris said. Bailey's parents, Mr. and Mrs.

LaWade Strick land of Mayfield, and the girl's father, Kevin Childress, were present for a noon news conference. Strickland said before the conference that he had not been able to speak with his daughter. roaay, wyncs wasn't reaay to concede, noting that the child's body which Bailey allegedly dumped in the Obion Creek had not been found. "There are just too many loose ends," Wyrick said. "We still don't have a body.

We don't know how Marlena died." Wyrick said she had talked with a New York private investigator whom she described as a missing child expert. Wyrick refused to identify the investigator. "She said she had documented many cases where the mother confessed to something she didn't do, just to rid herself of the anxiety and guilt," Wyrick said. "I am not saying that is what happened, I am just saying we need to wait and see." By mid-morning word of the confession had caused many people to stop payment on checks to the Find Marlena Fund. The balance had been $1,100, enough to cover a recent printing bill.

"We are getting broker and broker," Wyrick said. "I think See SEARCHbock page He first learned of her confession at 11 p.m. Monday when police called. He hired an attorney, Wayne Emmons, of 3:30 a.m. today to represent his daughter.

Emmons said he wasn familiar with the family and had assisted in the search for the child in Memphis. He had asked the Memphis Police Association to set. up a telephone line to take tips. "We had been getting lots of tips in that area" because of the interest generated by the pictures ot Marlena. He also, had participated with volunteers about two weeks ago in a meeting, at which information and posters were distributed.

Marlena's parents, Kevin Childress and Pam Bailey, May 15 at Barkley Regional Airport See OBIONback page Court: Cities must pay Area phone co-ops hoping PSC move ends loan freeze tor loss due to zoning From staff and wire service reports Co-ops affected by suspensions Electric co-ops Headquarters Amount Owen County 3,995,000 Green River Owensboro 3,402,000 South Kentucky Somerset 3,088,000 Salt River Bardstown 2,841,000 Jackson Purchase Paducah 1 ,592,000 Cumberland Valley Gray 1,400,000 Clark Winchester .1,111 Licking Valley West Liberty 1 ,087,000 Henderson-Union Henderson 1,059,000 Harrison County Cynthiana Fleming-Mason Flemingsburg Farmers Glasgow Inter-County Danville. Nolin Elizabethtown'. 840,000 813,000 770,000 668,000 577,000 329.000 -Inside- Region Some legislative resistance cited in Eddyville prison warden's Mississippi appointment A 10 Washington Democrats should nominate a candidate who acts Republican, Jerry Falwell advises B12 Entertainment Randy Travis, Statlers big winners in Music City News awards Bll Sports Hickman native returns to coach basketball Bl Index Ann Landers A15 Classifieds Comics BI2 B7 Editorials A4 Food B16 Hospital notes B13 Supplements: mart and Kroger. Forecast Partly cloudy tonight, with chance of thunderstorms, low in the lower 60s. Partly sunny Wednesday with chance of thunderstorms, high in the lower to mid 80s.

WEATHER A14 Vol. -No. 137 sections 32 pages Big Sandy Paintsville $23,572,000 liam H. Rehnquist wrote for the court. Key drew this scenario: "A planning commission involuntarily re-zones an area previously zoned for business but not being used for business as a residential area.

The property owners are upset. They were going to develop the property, but now can't use it, for business purposes. By present- ing proof of those plans to a planning commission, they would be entitled to damages, as I understand today's ruling." Four other times since 1981 the high court has tried to resolve the important property-rights issue. Each time, the justices backed away from cases granted review after finding procedural problems. The decision was sparked by a California dispute in which the First English Evangelical Lutheran Church is seeking compensation from Los Angeles County.

But the ruling did not resolve that particular dispute, sending it back to the California state courts. The Glendale church used to operate a camp, called Lutherglen, on 21 acres it owns in the mountains north of Los Angeles. See ZONINGback page From staff and wire service reports Local utilities affected by an REA freeze on Kentucky loans await Public Service Commission action mat could help. The commission on July 28 will reconsider a rate increase denied Big Rivers Electric Corp. of Henderson.

The increase was required by the Rural Electrification Administration as part of its renegotiation of delinquent loans to Big Rivers. "We're still sitting here in limbo," said Harlon Parker, general manager of Ballard Rural Telephone Cooperative. The company, which provides phone service throughout Ballard County and in western McCracken, has a $3.6 million REA loan, frozen since April, to finance new equipment and office construction. REA Administrator Harold Hunter said last week the problem in Kentucky can be solved, but he does not know when the REA can start loaning money. The Ballard cooperative has not considered shopping for ether financing and would not do so until the end of the year, Parker said.

Dates for seeking bids on the equipment, will be postponed, although a contract to replace cable in Kevil The Supreme Court, in a case of enormous importance to local zoning officials, ruled today that property owners must be compensated when new restrictions are placed, even temporarily, on the use of their land. Dan Key, attorney for the Planning and Zoning Commission of Paducah, said most zoning changes here are requested by the property owners themselves and would not be affected by the court's ruling. "Local planning commissions have the power to institute zoning changes," Key said, "but I guarantee you there would not be very many that are not instigated by property owners in light of this Supreme Court decision." By a 6-3 vote, the court said the "just required by the Constitution's Fifth Amendment for any "taking" of private property for public use applies to zoning laws or other regulations that impose new limits on an owner's use of land. "Temporary takings which deny a landowner all use of his property are not different in kind from permanent takings, for which the Constitution clearly requires compensation," Chief Justice Wil Telephone co-ops West Kentucky Mayfield $18,400,000 Highland Sunbright 6,100,000 South Central Glasgow 4,600,000 Mountain Liberty 4,000,000 Ballard La Center 3,500,000 Foothills Staffordsville 550,000 Peoples McKee 500,000 Total $37,650,000 'Only 20 percent of operations are in Kentucky. Source Kentucky Public Service Commission commission will be resolved so his cooperative's $17.2 million loan will become available.

The company, which serves five See CO-OPSback page and Heath will be awarded this year. Glen Sears, general manager of West Kentucky Rural Telephone Cooperative, said he still hopes the dispute between REA and the state.