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Posted on 04/11/2009 4:28:44 PM PDT by Chet 99
Gathered in a circle of campus benches, seven friends spent the first afternoon of Gettysburg College's spring break searching for the right words to describe the two who were missing.
He is an honor-roll student whose witty sense of humor and eclectic taste in music drove him to head the campus radio station this year, the friends said.
She was an eternal optimist with a passion for activism who helped to establish a campus chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society.
At times, they still spoke of their friend Emily Silverstein in the present tense, as if her lifeless body had not been found the day before in the apartment of another friend, her ex-boyfriend.
No one can defend what police allege Kevin Schaeffer did, but the seven friends insisted the 21-year-old history major is a good person, who might have done a bad thing.
He is not a monster, they said.
"We're not in support of what could have happened," said Patrick Hughes, one of the seven. "But the fact is this was a friend. These are our friends."
Like all of the campus community, the friends said they were shocked to learn Thursday of Silverstein's violent death, which police say was at the hands of her ex-boyfriend.
"You can't put it together," said another friend, Lamin Oo, 23. "I didn't want to believe it."
Gettysburg Police found Silverstein fatally stabbed and strangled in a Carlisle Street apartment Thursday. Schaeffer, who lived in the apartment, was charged with criminalhomicide, aggravated assault, possession of an instrument of crime and tampering with physical evidence. He is being held at Adams County prison without bail.
The yearlong relationship between Silverstein and Schaeffer, which ended recently, had never been marred by domestic violence, friends said.
Some said they'd never even seen Schaeffer angry.
"In simple words, he's a good guy," said Hughes, a junior.
Silverstein's friends described her as an active member of Amnesty International and a resident of the campus Peace House -- where students interested in human rights and environmental issues can choose to live.
"It's kind of very ironic that this would happen," Hughes said.
Residents of the Peace House have started a memorial of candles, flowers and pictures for Silverstein on the front lawn at 249 Carlisle St., just down the road from where her body was discovered by police.
Friends described Silverstein as a vegetarian and a liberal. She was studying Arabic and had plans to study abroad in Morocco in the fall.
As for Schaeffer, the group said he, too, was actively involved in campus activities and had big plans. Having recently completed his senior thesis on the plight of Native Americans, Schaeffer's friends said he seemed drawn to that cause.
Hughes said Schaeffer had talked about joining the Peace Corps -- an indication, Hughes said, that Schaeffer was on an altruistic path.
A faculty adviser for the college radio station, Bret Crawford, said he knew Schaeffer as a quiet student who was responsible for managing the student staff.
"I'd be shocked that any of our students would potentially have done this. Kevin's no exception," Crawford said. "He seemed to be a good-natured and responsible student, so it's shocking."
I live in Gettysburg and this is a big story here. It was a crime of passion. Apparently she broke up with him, and he took it very badly. He punched the girl, then strangled her, and then stabbed her in the neck several times with a steak knife. The autopsy happened yesterday morning, and nobody’s saying officially that he raped the girl too, but that’s the scuttlebutt.
Don’t say things like that.
While I agree they were both misguided utopian liberals who might not have been able to rub a brain cell together between them, nobody deserves it.
And you don’t know about their parents. You cannot assume that apart from the continued tuition payment, they were enablers. For all you know, the parents might have disagreed and thought the “kids” would outgrow the foolishness.
Just sayin.
Gettysburg College is a high-priced ($50,000 per year!) liberal institution overrun by greenies. My wife and I check out books there from its excellent library occasionally, and the whole place is teeming with those naive, “save the planet” types we all know and love so much.
SDS??? The bum did a real winner. Now if he would only get the death penalty we would be rid of two pieces of garbage.
Well, what doesn't make sense to me about that scenario is that she was at HIS PLACE, at 3am, after the breakup.
Perhaps it was just a traditional Leninist-Trostkyite problem, solved in the traditional way.
I hear you. But I’m likely right. I understand the need to let a kid find his way...but if it’s wrong, then it’s up to the parents to correct it. But then again, if the parent believes this tripe, as I’m almost sure is the case here, then the parent deserves the result.
Well, it’s always those strange type of relationships where the girl thinks they can still be “friends” after dumping the guy. I just know what the locals are saying who live in the area down on Carlisle street where the murder happened.
Anybody who would pay 50,000 dollars a year is crazy IMHO. Especially if it is not an Ivy league school...Yes I know we hate Ivy league universities here, but if my kids get into Harvard, I can’t say I would be pissed....I probably would not tell the FREEPERS though. lol.
Everyone I know who served in the Peace Corps is a kumbaya crackpot. They are uniformly committed to transnational tyranny, oblivious to the causes of both poverty and prosperity. They are the worst sort of PC cranks. Don’t know if they were nutty going in, but they are sure nutty afterwards.
I know. From all accounts, it is a very expensive, very liberal college. It is unlikely the parents didn’t know, but...I am just trying to give them the benefit of the doubt in this time, which must be awful.
I understand that “you reap what you sow”, but I think we could go easy on that right now.
Thanks for the civil response.
Just because he slit a girl’s throat and strangled her doesn’t mean he’s a bag guy. Only a mind warped by a degenerate liberal professor could utter a statement like that. The perpetrator was a lowlife scumbag who couldn’t handle rejection.
You’re welcome, and you could well be right about the parents - we both have no clue.
I, and no doubt like you, are sick of so many parents shirking what may be their most important job, which is instilling American values in their kids...for if their is no America, no other values will matter.
Agreed.
Here's another story which reveals that her parents were "activists."
Slain college student was ready to tackle the world
The victim
The perp
Yesterday there was an article on this that included info on her parents. They are stone cold libs, “anti-imperialists” (whatever that is) and protesters. They chose to live in a community with similar values.
Can’t speak about the boyfriend’s parents, but the girl’s parents sounded like they were behind all the foolishness the daughter was into.
Evil people? Hated the country? You've got to be kidding right?
These are stupid kids doing what stupid college kids do - the whole liberal save-the-world-from-evil-America thing, not slamming knives into each other.
10 years later most of them are married with two kids, a mortgage, and finally enough money to retire their student loans. Their biggest concern with the government is minimizing their taxes. In short, they now know better.
Sure some stay mired in their college liberalism but most get it out of their systems in college.
This is only for the full-time day undergrads. Those of us who went nights were too busy working during the day.
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