The Spokesman-Review from Spokane, Washington • 7

Spokane. Sept. 18, 1987. Tiff SpOKESMAN-ReVKW 7 Defender- Weflen- ft 1 lu (Continued from page 1)- rT Stall photo by DAN PELLE Searchers Dave Quaschnick, left, and Brian Baysinger examine footprints near BPA substation where Julie Weflen was last seen. Its just something were talking about informally now, Swedo said.

I dont know about our future plans. Its just like a meter maid getting abducted off the street. Whos safe? (Continued from page 1) have the potential that a federal kidnapping statute has been violated," FBI spokesman Joseph Smith said. Forcibly taking someone across a state line is a violation of federal law. Residents curious about the large number of squad cars parked alongside the road at the command post stopped to inquire, but none recalled seeing anything suspicious at the substation.

Authorities said Weflen and her husband once lived a few miles from the substation. Mike Weflen, a house painter, was working in Ritzville and was notified there Wednesday night. Deputies found Julie Weflens BPA truck with the driver-side door and hatch open. Tire tracks next to the truck seemed fresh, and skid marks as if someone had left in a hurry were evident, investigators said. There is a definite sign of a struggle, said Lt.

John Goldman. There's indications she may have been taken out of the area. Detective Capt. Ron Dashiell said. Weflen was last seen about 1 p.m.

Wednesday by other BPA employees before she left to do routine maintenance at the substation, located in an isolated area. Goldman said a journal inside the non-staffed plant showed Weflen had signed in about 2:30 p.m. The work she was supposed to have done would have taken less than an hour, officials said. About 5 p.m. a passing motorist noticed Weflens truck unattended, with its doors open, in the substations lot.

Goldman said the motorist, who lives in the area, didnt become concerned until hours later when he drove by again and saw the truck still parked there. He reported it to the sheriffs department, and a search was started about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday. The sheriffs tracking dog combed the knee-high brush that covers the open fields surrounding the substation, while detectives spent part of the night analyzing tire tracks made in the gravel. About 12 people from the sheriffs department and State Patrol searched the area until dawn looking for clues to Weflens hood, said Ivan Bush, director of the East Central Community Center.

I dont think you are going to find anywhere a person who cared more about people than Sarah Gardner. Her children, Antoinette, 29, and Anthony, 24, both of Spokane, were at the family home on South Ray with their father Thursday. There was a steady stream of visitors wishing the best for them, expressing shock over the loss, wondering how they would all cope without the woman who had filled such a big place in their lives. But there was laughter in the home as well, as they recalled Gardners grit and tenacity, and her refusal to pay any attention to what anyone else might think of the people she chose to befriend. It was not unusual, they said, for a church elder or a prominent citizen in the community to be sitting side by side in the beauty salon with a pimp or a prostitute.

She treated them all the same. The funeral will be just like that, too, Antoinette said, smiling. Therell be all of her friends in the community there, but therell be a lot of fast people there. People were just people to her. If anyone raised any questions, shed tell them in a minute, Thats their life and their business.

Services tentatively have been been scheduled for Sept. 27. Gardners children also have set up a memorial fund at the Riverfront Park Square branch of Rainier Bank. When the pimps or prostitutes would come to her shop to have their hair done, Sarah Gardner would encourage them to better themselves, and offer her help if they wanted it. Shed tell the pimps theyd better not beat on the girls, Antoinette said, and then talk to the girls about thinking about their futures.

They loved her. I remember when a pimp came in and didnt know anyone here. One of his girls had a baby that died. So mother helped them with the funeral and made all the church arrangements for them. That was just the kind of thing she did.

Gardner ran for the Spokane City Council, and finished with 1,098 votes in Tuesdays primary election, well back in a crowded field of candidates. She bad talked about serving on the council for years, her children said, because she thought it would be a wonderful way to help people. She decided to run this year because she felt God had told her the time was right, Antoinette said. She wasn't disappointed because she didnt win, Antnony said. She was just beaming Tuesday night because she had done as well as she did.

She was talking about the next time, and getting started earlier, with more money and doing it right. They recalled with smiles her last-minute campaigning on election eve that took her to a couple of the gay taverns in the neighborhood, and to several of the tough places that are just holes in the wall. But thats just the way she was, Anthony said. She wasnt afraid of anyone or anything. Her lack of fear scared her children and her friends, though.

She was a very religious lady, Maxey said, and she said the Lord would take care of her. She just didnt have an ounce of fear in her system. 1 used to beg her to lock her door down there when Id come in for a late haircut appointment. But she wouldnt. She thought so well of people, she just didnt keep her guard up.

Maxey had an appointment for a haircut at 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon the day of her murder. We called just to confirm it right before I left, because I was running a little late, the Spokane attorney said, but there was no answer. We called the shop at least three times, and never got an an-swer So I didnt go out. Some time that evening, someone snuffed out the inspirational life that was Sarah Gardner.

The loss, Maxey says, is incalculable. We can hardly afford it, he said. Thats the best way to put it. It was a loss to the whole community, not just the black community, but the whole community. The world just isnt graced with that many beautiful people.

whereabouts. Because no blood was found at the scene, detectives were optimistic that Weflen would be released unharmed. BPA officials described the woman as very reliable and doubted that she would have simply walked away from her job. If she was abducted, authorities said, she might not have been able to offer much resistance. She is 5-foot-2 and weighs less than 100 pounds.

BPA spokesman Rob Swedo said the incident has prompted BPA officials to consider the safety of employees who drive alone in rural FALL WEED CONTROL LAWN FERTILIZING Based on 2000 Sq Ft 535-3591 2495 Normalu Says: The action at the Spokane Fair this year will be at the FLORAL BUILDING Check our booth there for special prices on Yamaha Clavinovas, Keyboards Pianos' DAVIS HOSCH MUSIC CO. A good place to buy your piano, organ or keyboard 150ft Monroe Ub-m) ooking Forward problem, too, but she wanted it to be something that would help those people, said her son, Anthony, and not make their lives any harder. The quickest way to get her upset would be to treat someone unfairly, especially a poor person. And the street people appreciated her and returned her kindness in the ways that they could. It didnt matter who I ran across, or what kind of situation it was, Antoinette said about her own experiences growing up around the hard neighborhood.

All 1 had to do was tell them I was Sarahs daughter, and I was OK. She was, observed a saddened Carl Maxey, about the best damn true Christian spirit that I have ever known. She was kind of Spokanes Mother Theresa. The Rev. Freeman Simmons, pastor of the Morning Star Baptist Church, had a different description.

I would love to refer to her as more of a missionary-type person, he said. She was active politically and socially, as well as spiritually. I think we have lost one of the communitys greatest leaders, said Simmons, a friend of Gardners for more than 25 years. Gardners body was found about 2 a.m. Thursday by her husband, Levi, in the small back room of her hair salon, Sarahs Beauty Shop, on East Sprague.

Gardner, 59, had been stabbed to death. Born in Nashville, she came to Spokane with Levi Gardner 36 years ago. He worked for the railroad on a route from Portland to Spokane. She liked Spokane better than Portland, so they made their home here. She quickly settled into neighborhood and church.

She opened her beauty salon and over the years made the business a success. Gardner also worked as a part-time cosmetology instructor at Spokane Community College, part of her interest in improving the quality of state vocational education programs. I think the students all liked her, said Margie Bratcher, the community college instructor who hired Gardner 17 years ago. It will be hard to replace her for what she offered." Gardner could have moved her salon away from the chaos of East Sprague, just as she could have moved her home to a different neighborhood. But, her children said, she chose to live and work where she thought she could do the most good.

She liked helping the community, Antoinette said, and she knew this particular community needed her help. She left a big Baptist church and came to a small church in this neighborhood (Mount Olive Baptist Church) because she thought the little church needed her more. Well miss her. She talked to the community in so many ways, said Gardners former pastor, the Rev. C.W.

Andrews Sr. of Calvary Baptist Church. Gardner attended church there for nearly 30 years before moving to Mount Olive. It was just such a shock to all of us, Andrews said. She was a lovely person and were just sorry.

We may never know why she was killed, but we just pray that justice will be brought to light. Gardner aspired to the City Council, but she was no soap box politician. Her charities and causes were endless, and she served them with her hands and heart. Her holidays were spent delivering food baskets to the poor, sick and elderly. She visited families in times of bereavement, encouraging them with her faith.

She did volunteer work as a beautician for the indigent in funeral homes. She knocked on doors collecting money for disease research. She volunteered to lead in the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and PTA. She was a tireless worker for the NAACP, for any of her churchs activities and for the elderly. In politics, she was active in the neighborhood and the precinct.

She was not only a personal friend, but a friend of the neighbor- Candidate (Continued from page 1) after the election. So, ahem, is he in trouble? No, not at all, she said with a laugh. Either Bouck or Barrett is welcome to the seat, she added. I was surprised there was such a poor turnout, Barrett said. He didnt even know he won until he read the newspaper Wednesday morning.

Actually, five voters wasnt a bad turnout in a district that has only 23 registered voters. That was just a percentage point below the county average of 23.5 percent in the primary. There was no big victory party, Bouck said. All three candidates live within a two-block stretch on Grouse Road, the main street in the subdivision the district serves. Two seats are open on the water district board this year, and the neighbors all talked about making sure there was someone to fill the openings.

The original plan was to have two candidates for each position. But Barrett got the numbers mixed up when he filed his candidates petition, and they discovered there were three contenders for position 1 but only Richard Bauman on the list for position 2. That necessitated Tuesdays primary. It was a low-key campaign, with no real Issues, and the winners promise more of the same for the general election. I may spend five bucks, Barrett said.

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