Tucson Citizen from Tucson, Arizona • 2

Thursday September 12 1996 Tucson Citizen Page 2A HflTIBMfll BillEFS Compiled by KAREN SAUNDERS from wire-service reports Hortense swirls past Bahamas TI! The Associated Press NC residents on flood alert N- -1 The Associated Press I A I I i I i SAN JUAN Puerto Rico Hurricane Hortense battered Grand Turk in the southern Bahamas with 90 mph winds yesterday Hurricane-force winds range about 70 miles outward from the center of the storm today but damage reports were negligible in the Bahamas Forecasters believe a weather trough in the mid-Atlantic states will keep the hurricane safely offshore and eventually over cooler waters that could take some of the punch out of the storm off New England and Nova Scotia "It hit at all There was no rain said Marion Cartwright a telephone operator on Great Inagua near the Turk and Caicos Islands that saw high winds Wednesday but no damage other than downed power poles The Turks represented the third direct strike in two days for Hortense which pounded Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic much more seriously on Tuesday President Clinton declared Puerto Rico a disaster area Wednesday making federal aid available Rescuers today said they found another body in the Guayama area bringing to 13 the number of deaths in this US commonwealth from drownings flash floods and mudslides Authorities in the Dominican Republic found two bodies Wednesday Several other people on both islands were missing and presumed drowned sheets of blinding GOLDSBORO NC Instead of getting a break after the ravages of Hurricane Fran North Carolina is getting more rain and widespread flooding that has damaged homes submerged crops and even unearthed coffins The Neuse River was expected to crest 13 feet above its banks today just shy of a record set in 1929 Emergency crews monitored the swollen currents and told riverside residents here to prepare to flee Hie river rose yesterday to within 15 feet of Leonard auto parts store just hoping it doesn't come in Downes said got everything in the store on higher ground off the bottom Just down the street the river had engulfed a trailer park Water had risen at least a foot above the doors of most of the homes The flooding river also unearthed coffins in the nearby Elmwood Cemetery Several came floating to the surface Fran hit the North Carolina coast late last Thursday and moved inland with heavy rain that caused flooding in Virginia West Virginia Maryland and Washington Thirty-four deaths including 21 in North Carolina have been blamed on the storm A second round of rain has hit North Carolina since Monday and more rain was forecast for today The Associated Press Leonardo Melendez of Guayama Puerto Rico looks at a car burled under his front porch yesterday after Hurricane Hortense blew through the area Power and water supplies were out for more than a day across most of this island of 36 million people One of the bodies recovered Wednesday was that of a 25-year-old mother of four swept away by a raging torrent of water that swamped her home near Guayama 30 miles south of San Juan Her children and husband survived after taking refuge atop a bedroom closet Several of the dead in Puerto Rico were children including an 8-year-old girl swept by the water from her arms hit at all There was no rain Marion Cartwright a telephone operator onGreat Inagua near the Turk and Caicos Islands rain up to 23 inches in some inland towns pummeled Puerto Rico on Tuesday transforming highways into torrents that swept away cars Rivers and creeks burst their banks carrying away people and destroying more than 650 homes Slain dad searches for justice expansion we are pulling these two organizations Jackson said at a news conference at Operation PUSH headquarters The new organization the Rainbow PUSH Action Network will be based in Chicago and have a Washington DG bureau Jackson said The merger takes effect Sept 21 Jackson began Operation PUSH short for People United to Serve Humanity in 1971 with the strategy of using boycotts and protests to help blacks make inroads in the corporate world PUSH struggled financially with a series of short-term leaders after Jackson left in 1984 to found the Rainbow Coalition in Washington as a political organization while PUSH continued with its economic mission Jackson returned to lead PUSH last year Woman cleared in teen seduction case 4 PASADENA Calif A 51- year-old school fund-raiser accused of seducing a teen-age football player in her home wept as a judge dismissed criminal charges against her "I feel very blessed right Salle Dumm said yesterday after a jury deadlocked and Superior Court Judge Thomas Stoever declared a mistrial Stoever said he dismissed the charges because another jury would likely come up with the same result if the case was reined Dumm the former president of the non-profit Burbank Educational Foundation was charged with unlawful sex with a minor a felony and contributing to the delinquency of a minor a misdemeanor She faced up to three years in prison Dumm maintained that she had too much to drink on the night of July 14 1995 got sick and awoke to find the 17-year-old on top of her The teen testified that he drank three or four vodka and orange juice drinks massaged Dumm'! neck and touched her breasts while visiting her Later that evening he testified he found a note instructing him to go to the bedroom There he said he found Dumm naked telling him to "do this for your Prosecutors alleged that she offered a contribution to the football team in exchange for sex Man gets diploma 27 years after expulsion 1 KANSAS CITY Mo -Twenty-seven years ago Walter Phipps got mad kicked in a window at Oak Park High School and was expelled This year he went back earned his degree and paid the principal who charged him $150 for the window and tossed him out of school owed him so I paid Phipps 44 said thought it was about determination to get his diploma motivated his 20-year-old son who dropped out of high school a few years ago to do the same The father and son passed the equivalency test on the same day want him to go through life regretting Phipps said Oak Park fixed the window long ago so it will use the $150 to help endow the North Kansas City School District Education Foundation LA subway funding is half of that sought 2 LOS ANGELES A congressional panel voted to give $70 million to the city's troubled subway project less than half the amount sought by President Clinton The decision yesterday by a joint House-Senate conference committee if approved by both houses of Congress could delay the construction of the West's biggest public works project said Frank Zarian chairman of the local Metropolitan Transportation Authority Hie decision follows a House report on the 53 transit projects seeking funding this year in which Los Metro Hail was the only one singled out for stinging criticism of construction mishaps Clinton had asked Congress for $159 million for the project during 1997 Jackson merges civil rights groups 3 CHICAGO The Rev Jesse Jackson said yesterday he will merge his two civil rights groups Rainbow Coalition and Operation PUSH to be more efficient such a connection between political empowerment and coalition-building and economic empowerment and Continued from 1A Inmate fits psychological profile By GABRIELLE FIMBRES Cnam Stall Wiser They told him he had been identified as a possible suspect in the Shaner case but they had no evidence Miller said They guaranteed the man that if he were involved and admitted it he would not be prosecuted They simply wanted to close the case The man denied involvement and agreed to take a polygraph test Miller said In February he underwent the test and again insisted he was not Involved in the slaying "The lie detector came back inconclusive but indicated that he showed Miller said in a telephone interview recently from his home in Boulder Miller spoke with FBI experts about the results One believed that the deception indicates the man was involved while the other disagreed So Miller now wants to speak to the man as a father desperately trying to solve his murder But FBI agents allow the meeting All Miller can do is hope the agents change their minds like to take a crack at he said Miller is unsure whether this man was involved would like to believe that he is involved and that way I could rest a Mdler said a long time I thought he was Now just unsure I guess I do think he was The man is serving a sentence for bank robbery When he completes that sentence he will be returned to Virginia to begin a 50-year sentence for rape and murder It is expected he will die in prison which offers some comfort to Miller least probably never getting Miller said One hundred miles from Jim Colorado home a murderer languishes in prison Miller a retired FBI agent is haunted by questions Could this be the man who stole his daughter from him 23 years ago? The man is not being identified by the Tucson Citizen because he has not been charged in the slaying of Leesa Jo Shaner 22 who was abducted from the Tucson International Airport parking lot in 1973 The man surfaced as a suspect in the Shaner case in 1983 when he was wanted for the murder of Hilda Roche 42 of Alexandria a Stationed at Fort Huachuca in 1973 the man was discharged a month after the Shaner abduction Hie woman's remains were found buried in a wash in a remote section of the fort The man nearly perfectly fit a psychological profile of the woman's killer that had been compiled in 1973 by behavioral psychologists at the FBI academy in Virginia The man a loner who had difficulty maintaining relationships was also wanted for three bank robberies in Las Vegas Nev He was finally located In Phoenix in April 1991 and is now locked up for his crimes Miller longs for a few minutes alone with the man He believes be could determine whether he is connected to his slaying On Dec 11 FBI agents from Tucson traveled to Florence Colo to talk with the 49-year-old man BUBfll BRIEFS Compiled by KAREN SAUNDERS from wire-service reports A reward of $10000 it offered lor Information leading to an arrest and Indictment in toe murder of Leesa Jo Shaner Anvona wfth Information should can toe FBI office to Tucson at S23-43QS Or wrfte to Jim MJter 1319 Alpine No 11 Boulder Cola 50334 $10000 of his savings hoping to persuade any witnesses to come forward Starting today a classified ad offering the reward is running in the Tucson Citizen and The Arizona Daily Star "Maybe the $10000 will jar Miller said convinced someone in Tucson still knows what happened" a gut feeling had all along But a mysterious greeting card received three years ago reinforced his belief The card bearing a Tucson postmark arrived on the 20th anniversary of abduction The card had been created at a stationery store on a computer The front of the card showed innocuous individual next to a guy in a great big bunny Miller said Hie caption read: to each other as and the two agents often arranged inconspicuous rendezvous in public Inside toe card was written: love to tell you all the things been up to but if I did have to kill you" The card was signed: you recognize me? Miller was stunned by the card and its arrival on the 20th anniversary of disappearance He insists no one he knows would have sent the card as a prank Miller sent the card to the behavioral sciences lab at FBI headquarters in Virginia where an agent analyzed it "I ie considered it to be sent from someone involved in the Miller said So Miller continues on hoping the offer of $10000 will finally put this case to rest But until then all the details of his murder continue to torture his mind What happened to 1973 She had eagerly awaited the re-i nion for months and young Leesa Shaner longed to see her husband Gary again It was 1973 and the Shane rs and their 2-year-old daughter Knsta had been bring In Okinawa here Gary Shaner was stationed in the Air Force The family had separated earlier that year when Leesa returned home to Tucson with her daughter She was expecting their second child and wanted to deliver the baby here When the son Brady was 6 weeks old Leesa received word that her husband was being discharged from the military and was on his way borne So shortly after 9 30 on May 29 1973 the tall attractive blonde set off for Tucson International Airport in her brown -and-white AMC Javelin Jon Miller tried to persuade Leesa to let him go along for the ride But Leesa wanted to meet her husband alone to share a few minutes before returning to the Miller's Fjt Side home far a family celebration But the reunion never took place leesa was abducted from the airport parking kit apparently dragged from ber father's car Police and FT-l agents tracked down hundreds of leads but could find no sign of Leesa never be traced Miller believes his daughter found herself in the middle of a drug deal at the airport parking lot And he fears his daughter told her abductors her father was an FBI agent He believes they may have felt they had to kill ber after that Another theory was that Leesa was spotted on her way to the airport and was followed abducted and raped before she was killed Robbery was ruled out as a mo- tire Leesa's wedding rings were found on her finger and her purse containing cash was found in the back seat Also ft id on the car was a partial palm print but it was never matched The man was reluctant to talk on the FBI line so Miller gave him his home phone number He asked him to give him enough time to rush home and call him there The call never came The call to the FBI office was traced to a pay phone in a low-rent district in Detroit but investigators were never able to connect that information with any potential suspects The call haunts Miller who believes it was a valid tip He believes one of the killers may have told a buddy about the slaying Woman recalls tocktont Another lead that Miller believes was valid involved information from an elderly Tucson woman The night of the abduction the woman was sitting on the porch of her home near Old Nogales Highway and Hughes Access Road Shortly before 1030 a few minutes after the abduction the woman said she heard a sedan pull up near her home and a woman got out She was chared down and dragged back to toe car The daughter called police but the womaq could remember few details For six years Miller urged FBI agents to hare the woman hypnotized to determine if there were other details she recalled said Finally in 1979 the woman was hypnotized Under hypnosis she was able to grre a better description of the two fare males who chased the woman as wed as a description of the hue male behind toe a heeL She recalled that the woman cred out "Mother help as she ws di ag gd bat to the car Tfm woman was able to describe the car end pre a partial bfenre plae number Bo the car could parents became so desperate they even called on psychics to no avail Months passed and the family held out hope that she was being held captive and would someday come home to her childrea But Leesa's children never saw their mother again Her remains were found nearly four months after her abduction in a shallow grave in a remote section of Fort Huachuca 70 miles southeast of Tucson No cause of death could be determined A haunting ca8 Whoever kidnapped Leesa drove past guarded entrance so investigators focused on men stationed at the base But more than 16000 soldiers dependents and civilian employees were assigned TO the base -an impossible number to investigate Stdl hundreds of men from the base were checked out Some bad moved a far aw ay as Hong Kong and London but were tracked down Despite the work of dozens of investigators no arrests were made Perhaps the best lead that eluded invesngBtrjrs a few weeks after the disappearance on July 6 1973 when Jim Mller received a telephone call at the FBI office here A nervmis man told -Her that he knew lulled Lies Kaner Mlkr said leged high-seas murder a sailor said yesterday his ship was within sight of land when officers set adrift two Romanian stowaways Juamto Ilagan a Filipino engine-room worker aboard toe Maersk Dubai earlier told an extradition hearing that the two stowaways pleaded for thetr lives before Taiwanese officers forced them onto a makeshift raft in the Atlantic Ocean A Canadian court is trying to determine if there is enough evidence to send Capt Cheng Shou and six other officers to stand trial Romania or Tails an They are accused of murdering toe two stowaways in March and tossing another overboard two month later apparently to avoid fines for transporting stowaways to Catwban shores Defense lawyers for seven Taiwanese officer accused of forcing the men into the frigid seas maintain toe stowaways could still be alive Three other FJipmo crew members were cared tor contempt of court fr refusing to testify 31 new cases of dengue fever found 1VHXAHERMOSA Mexico Health authorities in the Gulf state of Tabasco recorded 31 new cases of dengue fever last week including one of potentially fatal hemorrhagic dengue the news agency Notimex said yesterday The hemorrhagic victim from the town of Macuspana reportedly was out of danger the government news agency said State health ministry spokesman Jose Francisco Campos said several other suspected cases of the illness were under investigation Incidence of the mosquito bom dines usually increases during the rainy season Symptoms include chills fevers and severe pain in bones and joints Regular dengue rarely fatal- Sailor: Stowaways cast off near land 2 HALIFAX Ni Scotia Testifying in a care of al Grown children Pva in Oregon After Leesa 'i body was found Gary Shaner and his children returned to Portland here his family bred Gary Shaner became a highway patrolman and later worked for Mountain Bell He remarried after he left Tucson parents divorced and her mother Elizabeth left Tucson MJler blames the divorce in part mi the slaying And children grew up without their mother Knsta 25 has traveled and worked in France and Brady 23 joined toe military and was stationed in Korea Roth now live in Portland was so proud of them" Miller said "And they've turned out so welt Their father did well by them" Milter is hoping the reward offering can put this care to rest before he dies Tve already gotten my obituary he said sevi if it been solved by the tune of my death worry about if I ll take care of.