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Posted on 10/07/2007 10:23:40 AM PDT by janetjanet998
Edited on 10/07/2007 10:34:41 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary Saturday night when Tyler Peterson met up with a bunch of friends in a parking lot behind a Crandon bank.
They talked about hunting, what to do later that night. Typical stuff. That was it. It was 8:30 p.m.
But before the sun would rise, Peterson, a 20-year-old, off-duty Forest County sheriff's deputy and part-time City of Crandon police officer, would be suspected of storming into his ex-girlfriend's house and killing her and five other young people at a party, including two of his best childhood buddies.
Another teen was critically wounded.
Peterson would later end up dead, shot by the Crandon SWAT team.
"He must have just snapped," said a close friend who had known Peterson since they were in kindergarten and talked to him in the parking lot Saturday night. "He seemed fine (at 8:30 p.m.)."
Authorities in Crandon, about 180 miles north of Milwaukee, did not release details of the killings or the names of the victims Sunday, but the Journal Sentinel learned from interviews with families and friends that the following were killed:
• Jordanne Murray, 18, Peterson's former longtime sweetheart, who graduated from Crandon High School in 2006.
• Katrina McCorkle, an 18-year-old senior at Crandon High.
• Leanna Thomas, also an 18-year-old senior at Crandon.
• Bradley Schultz, 20, a 2005 graduate of Crandon and a student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee majoring in criminal justice.
• Aaron Smith, called "Chunk" by his friends, also a 2005 graduate of Crandon. His age was not available.
• Lindsey Stahl, 14, a freshman at Crandon.
Charlie Nietzel, 19, of the neighboring town of Pickerel was wounded. He was in critical condition late Sunday at St. Joseph's Hospital in Marshfield.
Because a local law enforcement officer was involved, the investigation is being handled by the state Department of Criminal Investigation. Officials would not disclose any information Sunday other than to say authorities responded to a report of shots fired at 2:47 a.m., and that six people and the killer were dead.
Three-term Crandon Mayor Gary Bradley expressed anger and frustration at the state's handling of the case, complaining about a lack of information for officials and families and the length of time being taken in removing the bodies from the home.
"Man, they paralyzed this town," he said.
Bradley confirmed that Peterson was shot and killed by the Crandon SWAT team Sunday afternoon, hours after the early morning shootings.
Although few in Crandon knew exactly what happened in Murray's home, in a town where the population barely pushes 2,000, seemingly everyone knew the victims or the shooter.
Fay Statezny has known the Petersons and the families of several of the other victims for 20 years or more. Statezny said Tyler Peterson was "a normal kid" who liked to hunt and fish and loved the outdoors.
He had grown up with Smith and Schultz, and they were all very close friends.
"We would all go mud-running and ice fishing," said Peterson's longtime friend from kindergarten, who didn't want his name published because of the sensitivity of the situation.
He said Peterson and Murray had been together for a long time and broke up earlier this year. He debunked rumors that Murray was dating someone else, sparking a jealous rage in Peterson.
Paul Pitts, a 17-year-old senior, said Peterson was the type of guy who was picked on by students when he was in high school.
Other friends and neighbors said Peterson, who was officially deputized in February, had recently completed special-forces-type training.
It made sense to Jenny Stahl that her 14-year-old daughter, Lindsey, should stay the night at Murray's house. After all, it was homecoming weekend; lots of kids were sleeping at friends' homes. It cut down on the late-night driving. It would be safer that way, they thought.
Lindsey Stahl and Murray both worked at an ice cream and hamburger stand called Eats and Treats in Crandon. They stopped at Stahl's home around 9 p.m. to pick up a change of clothes.
At 8 a.m. Sunday, Jenny Stahl got a knock on her door. Her neighbor told her of the slayings and took her to Praise Chapel Community Church, where she waited with the families of the other victims for word about their loved ones. Stahl hoped for the best.
"I thought maybe she wasn't there, maybe she got out," Stahl said in an interview in her driveway, where she stood with friends and neighbors hugging and drinking Pepsi.
She waited eight hours. At 4 p.m., authorities announced the names of the dead. Lindsey was on the list.
The 14-year-old's half brother, Ryan Coulter, 12, said his sister was smart and interested in issues ranging from global warming to animal rights.
"She probably would have changed the world, you know," he said.
Jenny Stahl grew up in Kenosha and moved her family to Crandon because she thought the small community would be a safer place for her children to grow up.
Elsie Murray, Jordanne's grandmother, said the family was not able Sunday to talk about what happened.
Friends said Jordanne lived in the lower level of the house and her father, Paul Murray, lived in the upper level.
Kelly Flanery, 15, a sophomore at Crandon High, knew all of the victims and said that in addition to working at the ice cream shop, Jordanne Murray worked at Subway in Crandon.
She "was like the nicest person. She was friends with everyone," said Flanery. "I didn't believe it at first. It didn't like sink in, it really hasn't."
Schultz grew up in Crandon but moved to Cudahy two years ago to attend UW-Milwaukee, where he was a junior, said his uncle Steve Bocek, who lives in Oak Creek. Schultz worked part-time at a Racine electrical supply company to pay for school.
The middle of three boys, Schultz often drove to Crandon on weekends to visit his mother, who is blind with retinitis pigmentosa, and younger brother.
"He was just always a nice kid, always polite. He just wanted to come down here to go to school so he could further his education," said Bocek, who last saw his nephew three weeks ago when Schultz visited to swim in Bocek's backyard pool.
Schultz, who had a girlfriend in the Milwaukee area, had played basketball and baseball at Crandon High School.
"He was such a good kid; who would ever expect this?" his uncle said.
McCorkle and Jordanne Murray had been "friends forever," said a former boyfriend of McCorkle's. McCorkle loved to play softball and was thinking about where to attend college, he said. And she was very tight with her family.
"Her family meant everything to her," he said.
Friends said Smith, or "Chunk," as friends called him, was into football and loved to fish.
"He was one of them guys that everybody gets along with," said a childhood friend who also grew up with Peterson and Schultz.
Smith's sister said her family was grieving and couldn't talk.
Thomas' grandfather, Roy Thomas, said his granddaughter has a twin sister, Lindsay. "She was a sweet little girl," he said tearfully before hanging up the phone.
As streets were barricaded near the shooting scene, the soul of Crandon seemed to shake with grief.
"This is affecting everybody in this small community," said Tom Vollmar, a Forest County supervisor who has lived in Crandon for 57 years. "There's no family that hasn't been touched in one way or another."
Schools Superintendent Richard Peters said the victims and Peterson were all "people who we have known or patted on the back or encouraged at one point in time."
Crandon High School's crisis team gathered twice Sunday. Counselors fanned out to area churches to help families and friends of the victims who had gathered there.
School is canceled today.
Praise Chapel Community Church Pastor Bill Farr was called by the Forest County Sheriff's Department at 6:30 a.m. Sunday and asked to open the church for victims' families and other members of the community. About 200 people showed up during the day. He said it took so long for authorities to release the names because state investigators were handling the case.
More than a dozen hours later, Farr was still at the church.
"This is going to take a long time for a community like this to get over," said Farr, who has lived in Crandon for many years.
Standing next to his pickup truck in the church parking lot Sunday night, Farr began to cry as he held hands and prayed with three other church members.
"We just really need everyone's prayers right now," he said.
But....she DOES pray for President Bush every night.
Leni
I think the news conference only consisted of saying there will be a news conference sometime tommorrow.
My comment was not intended to be about the shooting but instead about the other comments about the shooting.
On reflection I should have remained silent. Sorry if it came off insensitive.
Turned FOX off. I will listen here and the TVs off til ater this week.
You blew it FOX.
You just 'met' one of the FR LEO haters who think that ALL cops are eeeeevil. Until they need one, that is, and then they want them right now! They must have got busted for breaking the law and from then on they hate cops!
When a LEO breaks the law, I will be the first to say they should pay for their crime, just like the rest of us do if we break the law! Some of these folks should ride along with a cop for one night to see what they go through. They would never complain again!
Such a sad story.
I am still ticked. I can not believe that crud. Hello it has been the top news story all day. They couldnt cover the conference??? That is really ridiculous. Fox totally dropped the ball.
Here in Milwaukee WTMJ AM 620 radio has been wall to wall Packers since 10:00 AM for a Packer/Bears game that starts at 7:15 pm CDT!
Nobody is answering the phones at WTMJ radio and the web sites, TV and newspapers of the Journal corporation all are only slavishly regurgitating only AP News feeds them.
WTMJ radio has even suspended their top of the hour news casts in deference to “All Packers All The Time” coverage.
WTMJ TV dropped their evening local news and started their “wall to wall” Packers coverage at 5:00 pm CDT for a game that starts at nominally at 7:15 pm CDT.
OK sheeple, just watch your sports and shut up, we have decided to go all sports this afternoon and there is nothing you can do about it.
AMAZING!
But you know that don't you.
We'll find out what the blood alcohol levels were later on ~ but these were recent highschool graduates and they might be real low ~ or non-existent.
You should always refer back to the the preceding paragraph to figure out what a current post is getting at. If you did you'd have noticed that I was defending the social status and income levels of the cops in that community ~ not the existence of Indians, per se.
Besides, this is just one of several comparable events up in that neck of the woods that I've had to pay attention to over the last few years ~ usually involving someone, white or Indian, shooting up cousins on the reservation or living just off the reservation.
It's the water!
You just ‘met’ one of the FR LEO haters who think that ALL cops are eeeeevil.
That’s what I thought, that’s why I focused on what we all want from our system of justice a process that reveals the truth. Probably better than all the other professions (doctors, lawyers, etc.) law enforcement officers want adhere to standards.
No hard news from local authorizes for at least 10 hours. “Gag order” issued by mayor.
The Mayor should be removed from office.
We don’t have have CCW here in WI but I’ll assure you that every house “Up North” has many firearms available. This is deer and waterfowl country and every home is well stocked with some kind of firepower.
Putting out a public APB with the shooter’s description would have quickly garnered the desired result.
Of course the local officials knew that and chose not to inform the public with relevant details.
OK well thank you again for all of your support. I appreciate it so much, and I will update you tomorrow after the press conference or when I know more. I need to go and find something to do to take my mind off as much as I can for a short while. Thanks for the welcome to the site too. Night ya’ll.
Welcome to FR.
"'...the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.’
‘Odd,’ said Arthur, ‘I thought you said it was a democracy.’
‘I did,’ said Ford, ‘It is.'
‘So,’ said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, ‘why don’t the people get rid of the lizards?’
‘It honestly doesn’t occur to them,’ said Ford. ‘They’ve all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.’
‘You mean they actually vote for the lizards?’
‘Oh yes,’ said Ford with a shrug, ‘of course.’
‘But,’ said Arthur, going for the big one again, ‘why?’
‘Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,’ said Ford, ‘the wrong lizard might get in’”
I'm in California. That's our lizard...
POP
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drugs ... money....meth
Why would anyone need a cop?
The desired result?
Or perhaps the UNdesired result?
Who is the perp?
Is he "connected"? Related to some "town father" type "person of influence"?
There is often tremendous pressure to sweep "bad news" under the rug in small communities. I say this as someone who lives in a small community, and has lived and worked in small communities for approx. thirty years, and has seen an awful lot of awful stuff -- an awful lot of which never made it to the newspapers.
(The "cone of silence" is quite effective in terms of "keeping it out of the news" but it's less than useless when it comes to keeping it off the grapevine. When you work with a variety of gov't and police officials, and chat with bankers and other in-the-loop folks, you tend to hear things that will basically wreck your faith in "the inherent goodness of your fellow man.")
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