The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • 1

Mrirat wwwcharlottecom SUNDAY MAY 2 1999 METRO EDITION $150 3 race fans killed 8 hurt by flying tire debris Speedway cancels Indy event after tragedy in stands By RON GREEN Jr Staff Writer Three spectators were killed and at least eight injured Saturday night when a tire and debris from a race car flew into the fourth-turn bleachers at Motor Speedway during an Indy Racing League race HA Wheeler president of the speedway confirmed the deaths after canceling the Visionaire 500 The names of the dead were not immediately available as authorities were contacting family members The fatalities were the first ever for spectators at the speedway The accident occurred on lap 61 of the 208-lap race when Stan car hit the wall in the fourth turn triggering a three-car wreck Speedway officials said late Saturday they were uncertain if the tire and debris that flew into the stands came off car race was halted on lap 80 as emergency efforts continued It was canceled at approximately 9:45 pm It will not be rescheduled made the decision out of respect for those who lost their life up there We think it was the only thing to Wheeler said a memory that will live with us for a long Barry Hawthorne vice president of patient care at NorthEast Medical Center in Concord said the three dead were brought to the hospital NorthEast spokeswoman Carol Lovin said Nathaniel Blosser 19 of Hickory and David Duncan 27 of Newton were released late Saturday night and Chad Duncan 22 of Conover brother was still being treated but was expected to be released Sunday Kirstin Bass spokeswoman for Caro-lmas Medical Center said two people one adult and one child were airlifted from the speedway to the hospital The adult was in fair condition and the child was critical early Sunday morning Three others were taken to University Hospital and were in stable condition she said Wheeler said the tire flew approximately 15 rows into the bleachers Fans are not permitted to sit in the seven Please see SPEEDWAY page 18A PATRICK SCHNEIDERStaff IRL driver Stan Wattles' car hit the wall in the fourth turn on lap 61 of the Visionaire 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway Saturday night triggering a three-car wreck Colo legacy may be a push to reach out to ostracized teens PERSPECTIVE: Kids speak out about violence 10 TUESDAY: How to tell when a child is in trouble IE By DIANE SUCHETKA and TONYA JAMESON Staff Writers David is blond blue-eyed 16 and handsome And he knows what rage feels like His school life is good now he says But just a couple of years ago in junior high it Back when his hair was long and he was thin and his glasses were not Kids at his school in Charlotte would push him around taunt him Once a guy with his arm in a plaster cast slammed it into his face He did it for a reason was David explains was But there was only so much David could take had dreams of busting people up so bad breaking their noses knocking teeth out of them just to see their faces their looks of he says made me feel better because I had so much built-up anger inside Now that two teen-agers angry over being cast out and laughed at and picked on have killed 13 people and themselves America is finally paying attention to the horrid adolescent tradition of belittling those who are different Will it stop now? Is that the lesson of Littleton? Almost immediately after the April 20 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado there was movement in that direction The day after the shooting a 15-year-old Nashville Tenn high school student and her classmates came up with a pledge to stop taunting those who are different Thanks to computers the oath has made its way across the country Thousands of students have signed it promising to be more caring and sensitive and to encourage others to do the same On Friday President Clinton invited educators gunmakers entertainment industry representatives Internet providers and others to Please see DIFFERENT page 22A Associated Press photos Yugoslav Minister of Foreign Affairs Zivadin Jovanovlc President Slobodan Milosevic Jesse Jackson and US Rep Ron Blagojevich join in prayer Saturday Milosevic agreed to release the American soldiers after meeting with Jackson for two hours Saturday MIX) missile hits civilian bus deaths in dozens dergoing a medical examination at an allied base according to officials at NATO military headquarters' in Brussels Belgium The plane was the second NATO has acknowledged losing in action over Yugoslavia since the air campaign started March 24 A US F-117 stealth fighter went face meeting with President Clinton to resolve the conflict US officials said the release would have no effect on air campaign end of the conflict will come when they stop persecuting innocent people in Vice President A1 Gore said in Louisville Ky NATO acknowledged early today that a missile struck a civilian bus crossing a bridge in Yugoslavia shortly before the agreement was announced Witnesses and media reports said dozens of people were killed NATO officials also said a US F-16 fighter jet went down over western Serbia early today The pilot was rescued by allied forces they said The unidentified pilot was un Observer News Services BELGRADE Yugoslavia Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic said Saturday he would free three captive Americans today following a lobbying effort by Jesse Jackson who urged NATO to reciprocate with a of peace from The civil-rights activist also said he would be carrying a letter from Milosevic offering a face-to- See RELEASE page 20A After 25 years in law enforcement Sgt Rick Sanders has retired Sanders is known for his stamina and concentration He frequently put in 18-hour days when working a homicide Master of murder inquiries will teach others to listen By LEIGH DYER Staff Writer At the heart of every homicide is a dead body My job is to get down on to the ground with it and slip underneath the skin and inhabit the skull and make its last seconds live and live again I know detachment is the key but the truth is that I give up a section of my soul to every corpse and I die a little death at the beginning of every case Jan 27 1999 3: 11 am the best of this graduating class at area high schools Treasures found buried among Biltmore books By PAIGE WILLIAMS Staff Writer Asheville Curators knew they would never learn all of Biltmore secrets With 250 rooms the largest residence in the United States the 1895 showplace is simply too elaborate and large But they never expected one of greatest treasures to lie in a room they have known so well for so long: the library Their stunning new discovery? Of all things the books As archivists catalog George Washington 23000-volume collection for the first time they are astonished to learn it may amount to one of the finest private collections in the country So far the revelations include valuable first editions by important American and British authors such as Hawthorne Melville and Dickens as well as rare volumes on pet interests particularly history horticulture architecture and art you put it all says Biltmore archivist Hal Keiner is a very very important collection of books which was not only put together but was never broken up and sold again which is what happened to many The Biltmore staff has not realized the significance until now because the Please see LIBRARY page 12A WEATHER: Sunny and windy this afternoon High: 72 Low: 48 Charlotte-Mecklenburg police department But the veteran homicide sergeant forget the killers or their victims start a new career teaching other investigators how to listen like he does the kind of listener who makes killers tell him what they did and then thank him The ability to elicit confessions from murderers has brought national recognition and nights filled with remembered horrors for Homicide Sgt Rick Sanders types these words into his laptop computer while his house is quiet and dark Tapping the keys he tries not to wake his wife Lisa or his twins who will be 4 next month spent 25 years in law enforcement 17 of them absorbing the words and deeds of murderers And though ending his work as most respected homicide investigator the victims still haunt him On Friday the 47-year-old Sanders retired from the Tins newspa per is printed in part on recycled paper and is recyclable Content Cl 990 Tho Choriott ObMrvor See SANDERSpage 8A more Estate archivist Hal Keiner 1 4 is- -v.