Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 49

Sunday September 8 2002 1 Star-Telegram wwwdfwcomnews 1 5B good thing about having a day of caring is that it gives you a better focus of what we can do about what happened last Sept Anita Foster spokeswoman for the Chisholm Trail Chapter of the American Red Cross Story on IB 3 released after questioning in Texas slayings Iffjffl Authorities are continuing to search for suspects in the shooting deaths of four women in the Rio Grande Valley i By KAREN BROOKS i STAR TELEGRAM BORDER BUREAU Three men questioned in the ambush slayings of four South Texas women have been released without charges Hidalgo County officials said One of the men a 21-year-old known as El Negro had been a prime suspect in the deaths of the women who were shot last week in front of their mobile home after leaving a Donna lounge Two other women survived after more than 50 bullets from semiautomatic pistols and assault rifles were fired at their vehicle up on information provided by the 21-year-old man and other persons questioned regarding the events of the night prior to the Hidalgo County Sheriff Capt Roy Quintanilha said in a written statement released Saturday The bodies of three of the women were returned Friday to Mexico for family burials with the help of the Mexican Consulate in McAllen The women were Maria De La Luz Balzadua of Matamoros Lourdes Yesenia Torres of Monterrey and Denise Lares Sanchez of Vera Cruz Police had not yet contacted the family of the fourth victim and were withholding her identity The women were all in their eailys 20s authorities said The six women had left the bar Lounge in Donna about midnight on Thursday authorities said They had pulled up in front of their home when a sport utility vehicle drove up and someone opened fire leaving behind more than 50 bullet casings One survivor who was shielded from the bullets inside the car fled after the attack and hid nearby until dawn before calling police The other sur- following up on information provided by the 21-year-old manl and other persons questioned regarding the events of the night prior to the Hidalgo County Sheriff Capt Roy Quintanilha vivor who was wounded in the attack remained in a Harlingen hospital Saturday in stable condition Police said the wounded woman whose name is not being released gave police a photograph of that was taken at Lounge Police had said the men were angry that the women had refused to go home with them from the bar which is on Texas 183 between Brownsville and McAllen They would not elaborate on how the woman knew the man Police continued Saturday to question people who were in the bar that night Tins report contains material from The Associated Press Karen Brooks (956)728-1007 kbrooksstar-telegram com Authorities have impounded a stolen white 1985 Chevrolet Blazer identified by a witness as the vehicle the suspects were driving during the shooting The Blazer which was found abandoned along a road east of Las Milpas had been reported stolen to the Mission Police Department three days before the shootings authorities said are following STATE THE ASSOCIATED PRESSLM OTERO High water from Tropical Storm Fay presents a challenge for a couple near San Luis Pass southwest of Galveston on Saturday South Texas drenched by remnants of tropical storm HOUSTON Polluted bayou is added to Superfund cleanup list A polluted bayou that flows into the Houston Ship Channel and is home to a wide range of wildlife has been added to the list of fed- eral Superfund hazardous waste yJ sites requiring cleanup The Environmental Protection Agency has also proposed adding a former barge-cleaning and -servicing facility in Freeport to the Superfund National Priorities List Patrick Bayou a small waterway surrounded by petrochemical plants that empties into the channel near Deer Park was added to the list last week along with part of one of its tributaries and some wetlands The declaration 4 completes a process begun last year and frees up federal money to begin clearing the area the Houston Chronicle reported Saturday The pollution in the bayou came from at least three major sources including industrial wastewater effluent from municipal wastewater-treatment plants and storm-water runoff from plants and nearby residences according to the FPA Several chemicals have been detected in sediment taken from the bayou and the area In the early 1990s Houston documented high to moderate levels of pesticides aromatic hydrocarbons polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and mercury in the sediment And pollution at the Gulf-co Marine Maintenance site a threat to nearby drinking-water wells and downstream sensitive environments and has impacted fisheries downstream of the the EPA said The 40-acre site was active from 1971 until 1998 Hazardous wastewater collected there after barges were washed and was stored in surface impoundments storage tanks and a floating barge locks were changed before the university could claim its property UT center spokesman David Bates said in Houston Chronicle On Wednesday Arlene Staffer an attorney for the UT center delivered a letter to Porter demanding that the property be returned and that center officials be allowed to post signs at the Kid-Care building advising patients of the new location The property includes examination tables a scale a patient-privacy partition office furniture and computers with monitors Bates said UT center officials believe that some of the computers may contain backup copies of patient files which under the law must be in a custody Porter declined to comment Friday saying attorneys have advised her to stop doing interviews She has previously said that UT center officials stole the program from her BEAUMONT Man charged with capital murder in death A 23-year-old man is facing a capital murder charge after he ran over and killed a Beaumont police officer who was responding to a domestic-disturbance caff police said Conrad Ger-nale 34 was one of several officers sent to a north Beaumont home where the suspect had assaulted his girlfriend and her father with a baseball bat late Friday evening police said As Gernale arrived at the home the suspect fled The officer ran after the man who got into an older model Suburban After starting the car the suspect it at officer said officer Carman Apple spokeswoman for the Beaumont Police Department The suspect then drove the vehicle into a parked ambulance slightly injuring three paramedics Gernale a 12-year-veteran of the department was pronounced dead at the scene Survivors include his wife and three children younger than 5 The suspect whose name is not being released was being held in the Jefferson County Jail on $515000 bail He is charged with capital murder aggravated assault and sexual assault The tropical storm faded early but its remains have moved on to soak the Texas Hill Country VICTORIA ADVOCATEELMER CAVENDER VIA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A tornado in Fay's aftermath has been blamed for stacking vehicles and damaging mobile homes near Boling on Saturday By JOHN MORITZ STAR TELEGRAM AUSTIN BUREAU FREEPORT Tropical Storm Fay fizzled out early Saturday but not before saturating this gulfside town and sending about 100 people whose homes were flooded scurrying for higher ground tell people that if they built the Empire State Building down here buy flood insurance even if I lived on the top said Winston Rossow a nonde-nominational pastor who was cleaning out his rain-soaked single-story house Saturday Rossow had packed up his family to spend Friday night in a Sugar Land motel His house was among dozens in Freeport that filled knee-high with water that night as Fay took aim at the Texas Gulf Coast before losing its fury and being downgraded to a tropical depression Next door mother Ruby was taking inventory of the belongings and keepsakes in the house her husband built 40 years ago in the aftermath of one of the most devastating storms Hurricane Carla me tell Ruby Rossow said one was nothing compare to Fay came ashore early Saturday southwest of Houston with heavy rains and winds approaching 60 mph The storm had stalled offshore all day Friday and some had feared it would intensify into a minimal hurricane It thoughts were we would see much more said Tesa Duffcy coordinator for the Galveston County Office of Emergency Management very pleased that it went Although some homes and streets were flooded and power outages were scattered across southeast Texas no deaths or serious injuries were reported The remnant of lay moving west after coining ashore brought high winds and heavy rains to the Texas Hill Country and was predicted to bring 5 to 10 inches of rain near San Antonio It spawned tornadoes in Wharton County southwest of Houston A tornado in Boling destroyed a mobile home and severely damaged got here was a rattlesnake on the Barbara Thomas said just say we entered very The storm dumped 5 to 12 inches of ram on the coastal communities near Galveston then continued westward The Hill Country which was drenched in July by rains that swamped the Guadalupe River and flooded dozens of houses along its banks was bracing for as much as a foot of rain from Fay Moreland the weather service forecaster said remnants would probably linger in the state through at least Monday before finally drying out In Freeport several residents spent Saturday surveying their roofs or taking chain saws to the dozens of trees felled by the high winds Seven-year Freeport resident Chris Baker had the double duty of wrestling a fallen tree and restoring the water main ruptured by the toppled roots near his sidewalk say that if not one thing said Baker whose home was spared from damage when the water crested just below his front porch me 11ns report coni mis material from Hie Associated Press i John 15127 476 4294 jmontzPstar telegram com i three others and a tornado in Hunger-ford damaged a mobile home and a truck said Matt Moreland a forecaster with the National Weather HoustonGalveston office Another tornado was reported in Fort Bend County In Whaiton about 61 miles southwest of Houston Janies Mitchell and his wife Joyce stood in their living room Saturday using buckets to bail water from their flooded living room be upset because said James Mitchell 67 a barber At Surfside Beach a tiny enclave on a Gulf barrier island near I reeport Steve Thomas and his girlfriend Denise Rooney who both live in Fuless waded in water up to their thighs to survey the damaged inflicted on the summer house of parents Back on dry land the couple reported good news a little roof damage and the ductwork is piobably destroyed but everything else seems to have held said Thomas a music teacher in the Grapevinc-Colleyville school district Y'ho drove to the coast late Friday His mother Barbara Thomas said she was grateful that the house which was built on stilts survived the storm They had bought it in November worst thing we found when we UT health center says it might sue charity The University of Texas I Iealth Science Center at Houston is threatening to sue a nationally known charity if it hand over medical equipment and furnishings left in the building after the two parted-ways The dispute erupted after the UT center decided to end participation in a mobile health-clinic program and to eliminate Kid-Care founder Carol salaried administrative position The center says it needed to cut costs The program was moved from building to a facility in Spring Branch where UT center officials sdid the need for the services was greater Shortly after Porter was notified of the change Aug 29 the Kid-Care Art Chapman 'II ASAI lAI(( I Art Chapman is taking the day off.