Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 1

9 'wwwm Fort Worth Star-Telegram MISTY MAYBE There's 30 per cent chance of show-era Thursday to go with a hlgli hi tho 60s and a low at night In tho mid 30s Windy too 50 Paget In 4 Sections NINETY-FOURTH YEAR NO 21 THURSDAY FEBRUARY 21 1974 PRICE TEN CENTS Kidnap Victim Killed Two Days Before Discovery I A "i Pa c- A i YOUTH BREAKS LOCK AND PRIDE gator said it appeared that the girl could have been killed on Wednesday just hours before her body was found Gwozdz in a news conference after the autopsy told reporters Miss Walker had been dead 2 to Vk days but indicated the figure was an approximation He said the culvert where she had been found was cold and made closer determination difficult Also at that conference Lt Oliver Ball said a strand of the girl's hair was found on a barbed wire fence adjacent to the culvert but said Gwozdz could not be certain if the girl was dead or alive when taken into the culvert Gwozdz said bruises were found on Miss Walker's head and upper body but indicated most were on her lower body Ball said bis officers had "searched every inch of that culvert and we found some evidence there We found one of her rings about 12 feet from where she was lying" He would not say what other evidence had been found "Now the work begins" Ball said "Before wc were looking for the girl" Ball said his men had talked with some 100 friends relatives and other persons familiar with the girl and Turn to Girl's on Page 2 Related Stories: 2 and 3A By JOHN MAKEIG The partially-clad body of 17-year-old Carla Walker a Western Hills high school student who was abducted early Sunday was found about 6:33 pm Wednesday in a culvert near Bcnbrook Lake County Medical Examiner Dr Feliks Gwozdz said late Wednesday the girl was raped and strangled to death sometime Monday Positive identification of the girl's body was made by her parents Mr and Mrs Leigh-ton Walker at the morgue at All Saints Hospital The parents first identified some jewelry that was found school assembly at 2:30 pm and started touring the Ben-brook Lake area Authorities did not remove the body from the large culvert immediately but waited until the Fort Worth crime lab had combed the entire area inch by inch in a search for clues The body was taken to the morgue about 9:30 pm where tho autopsy was performed Homicide detective Oliver Ball said the girl's blue party dress had been torn Earlier Wednesday night at the morgue the mystery surrounding the abduction and murder of the girl heightened when a county medical investi on the girl's body and then viewed the body itself Fort Worth policemen and Thompson who had been assigned to search culverts and pastures around Lake Ben-brook found the body in the culvert beneath Holiday Park Drive about a mile east of US 377 Almost immediately 20 city Tarrant County and Ben-brook police units and the city police helicopter descended onto the remote wooded scene The area was quickly sealed off Six Western Hills High School girls arrived on the scene shortly after the discovery They said they left a Jerry Lewis and Sammie George are friendly competitors Wayne Hurt says Each operates a hardware store in White Settlement and that invites some banter Mutual friends kid one about buying stuff better or cheaper at the other's store A local youth came up with an innocent CARLA WALKER SCHOOLMATES REACT Girl's Death Stirs Shock and Fear put-down however that none of the town teasers had been able to match "This kid broke into Jerry's and got arrested" Burt says "Word got around he didn't have too much help at home and all he did was break the lock He didn't take anything from the store "So they brought this kid down to see Jerry and he said 'Son I want to try to help you What did I have in my store that you "And he said 'Nothing If I'd needed anything I'd have gone up to Sammie George's' SUITS HIM TO A TEE Phil Miller tells about a golfer who wouldn't play without his lucky tee "It was hand-whittled from oak by his granddad" Miller says "As the golfer grew older the memories made the tee seem too valuable to lose so he quit playing golf altogether" His golfing companions couldn't understand his attitude "Get some other tees to play with" suggested one "and keep your lucky tee in your pocket" "No that wouldn't do" the golfer said "My game is bad unless I use the oak tee" The golfer appreciated the offer but the risk factor was too great It's easy to lose a tee no matter how many are watching Finally Miller says in a burst of inspiration the golfer's buddy came up with the solution: "Just tie a yellow ribbon on the old oak tee" fc PRACTICING AND PREACHING A third-grade teacher in the Mansfield school district sent word to a girl student's parents that she was doing unsatisfactory work in English There's a printed form for such missives and the teacher fills in blanks for name of student course and reason for the unsatisfactory work The teacher in be a i 1 elementary-teacher style handwriting wrote this reason: "Carlessness" Photos by SKEETER HAGLER SEARCHING Fort Worth police Sgt Lake Benbrook area culvert where the body of Car-Max Church far left confers with homicide detec- la Walker was found Wednesday night The 17-year-tive Oliver Ball while other investigators search the old kidnap victim had died two days before that uncertainty and now this "I wasn't close to her and yet it's terrible" She looked at her friend who like her was a sophomore at Western Hills High School where Carla had attended classes "There was a general feeling that Carla was alive" the first one said "There was that hope When you find out that she's dead it hits you hard When you don't know it's even worse" "I WONDER what Rodney's going to do?" she asked to no one in particular referring to Carla's boyfriend One youth another 16-year-Turn to Death on Page 2 Offer Stands For Reward In Kidnap Bcnbrook Mayor Wayne Wilson said Wednesday the $900 reward offered in the kidnaping of Carla Walker would stand "We're going to change the reward from 'the safe return' (of the girl) to the arrest and indictment of the person or persons responsible for what happened to Carla Walker" Wilson said Wilson set up the reward fund Monday at Bcnbrook State Bank after five persons called the girl's parents Mr and Mrs Leighlon Walker offering money Students and faculty members at Western Hills High School where Miss Walker was a senior pledged most of the money in the fund Wilson who was at the scene when the girl's body was found Wednesday has been with the Walker family most of the time since Carla's disappearance By MICHAEL BUCIIHOLZ To talk of the death of a young girl in a bowling alley somehow seemed inappropriate It's noisy in a bowling alley and the murder of a schoolmate whether or not you knew her is something to speak of in hushed tones Hushed tones in a bowling alley are impossible It was in a bowling alley that some of Carla Walker's schoolmates learned that her body had been found Wednesday night near Lake Ben-brook The same bowling alley where Carla and her boyfriend were attacked and she was dragged into a car Other schoolmates heard the news in the quietness of the West Branch Public Library Most of them expressed shock sorrow outrage and fear Shock that the thoughts they hadn't wanted to think bad come true Sorrow for a young girl and for her parents whose vigil had ended on such a tragic note OUTRAGE THAT such a thing could have happened and outrage anger and hate for the person who made it happen And fear that the incident would change their lives fear that if it happened to a schoolmate it could happen to tJiem Two friends who had known Carla since the sixth grade at Leonard Middle School were studying at the library They had driven there together with their car doors locked One of the girls both 1G quickly put her pen to her mouth and then just as quickly dropped it on the book-strewn table "I can't believe that" she said "I can't believe that her parents had to go through all isitor at Walker Home Grief homicide detective and the identity was almost certain I joined my wife to be with the Walkers" said the Benbrook mayor "I found Rodney here at the Walker home so broken up he couldn't talk with school friends from Western Hills High who came by to see him "He had hoped until the last minute Carla would be found alive" Several miles away at the dark brick home at 4613 Selkirk where Rodney's mother Mrs Gloria Lawdermilk recently moved Rodney's family including a sister Ethel McCoy gathered in grief "He stayed here two nights" said Ethel McCoy "But most of his time he has spent with Carla's folks "When we first heard this Turn to Family on Page 2 Holiday) (V25 ParkfJ NZy BENBROOK INSIDE INDEX By MARTHA HAND Grief rode the wind Wednesday night as it whipped around the brick house where Rodney McCoy closeted himself with the parents of Carla Walker Mr and Mrs Leighton Walker left their home once during the evening to go to a Fort Worth hospital to identify Carla But McCoy who was in his car with Carla when she was dragged screaming early Sunday by an abductor stayed upstairs at the Walker home Bcnbrook Mayor Wayne Wilson who stayed at the home with McCoy said: "He collapsed and broke up after being told the body found today in the culvert fit the description of Carla her dress and her rings" He said Mr and Mrs Walker hadn't 'iven up hope for their daughter's safety until told of the tragedy "Neither bad Rodney" said Mayor Wilson "All three of them kept hoping for the best He has lecn a comfort to them these four days" Wilson said he went to the scene before the body was moved from the culvert and sent his wife to the Walker home at TO3 Williams "As soon ns I talked with a Map by DON COOK RODY FOUND The asterisk marks the approximate location where the body of Carla Williams was found Wednesday evening The black circle indicates the approximate location of the parking lot where she was kidnaped Page Jumble 8A Markets 78B Oil 9U Sports 1-5D TV Log 6D Weather Map 3C Women's World 1-3B Page Amusements 67B Bridge 3B Classified Ads 10-19D Comics 70 Crossword 101) Death Notices 10D Editorial 6C Dallas Bishop Assumes Presidency of TCC Indochina and return of POWs still held in Indochina The new president will serve a two-year term Others assuming office on the final day of the fifth annual assembly were The Rev Darnell Thomas of Texarkana Mrs Beatty of Corpus Chris-ti vice presidents Jack Pur-year of Austin treasurer Carl Edward Bock of Austin Mrs Gilbert Carvajal of San Antonio Manuel Gonzales of San Antonio Mrs Joe Leach ot Fort Worth and Mrs Gerald McAllister of San Antonio directors Dr Frank Mabce Turn to Dallas on Page It calls for release of all prisoners now held in violation of the Paris Peace Agreements The TCC also urges in the resolution that all US aid to both North and South Vietnamese people be handed out "only through and at the request of a freely elected National Council of Reconciliation and Concord which is a peace-making body stipulated in the Paris peace accord" Bishop soul he would like to sec an accounting of the nearly 1300 Americans missing-in-action return of bwlies of those who died in for involvement of member churches with their environment including Texas' new constitution welfare reform medical ethics public and private school financing and family life Bishop Tschoepe in an interview said he is "especially proud of the great rapport within the assembly" and that he wants the TCC to continue to fearlessly take on all issues The resolution on Indochina was presented by the Texas Religious Societies of Friends one of the 16 denominations within the TCC TOUR EUROPE BY CHAIR AT S-T TRAVEL SHOW Learn how to pack for and learn about Europe All in one big travel show at 7 pm Thursday in Will Rogers Auditorium The Star-Telegram show co-sponnred by American Ex-tsr Travel features a color film of Europe and the KlUTs sponsored by American Airlines The KIWl's will show how to pack lightly fur traveling It'll free mid opm lo everyone By MARTHA HAM) Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tschoepe of Dallas assumed presidency of the Texas Conference of Churches Wednesday shortly after the assembly shattered precedent in three separate actions The three were: a resolution on peace and reconciliation in Indochina a "position paper" aimed at a i American attitudes toward the aged and solving the problems of men and women in their autumn years a report calling AVI JEST A MINUTE Memory is what makes you dial part of a phone number right before having to stop and look it up JUr-Ttltoram Pnot BISHOP THOMAS TSC1IOEPE.