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DO YOU KNOW THE WHEREABOUTS OF Kimberley KERSEY? If you have any information about the disappearance or whereabouts of Kimberley Kersey, please contact Kevin Harper of the Clark County Sheriff's Department. If you are afraid to contact the police, please contact
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PRESS
RELEASE
I
have worked in the field of criminology for many years. As a psychic,
detectives have called upon me to help investigate various violent
murders and missing persons cases, many of which were solved with
my professional assistance.
I worked on Kimberly Kersey's case, which has not been solved. It is my unequivocal professional position that Kimberly Kersey's disappearance and probable murder was perpetrated by someone whom Kimberly knew directly. It was abundantly clear to me that, as I stood looking at the evidence, the crime scene alleged to be the location of Kimberly Kersey's abduction was deplorably staged, and investigators agreed with this assessment. Though I feel that Russell Stenger's death today leaves the planet a cleaner place, it is also my unequivocal professional position that Stenger was not a viable suspect in Kimberly Kersey's disappearance -- Stenger did not know Kimberly Kersey, nor did she know of him. Instead, I offer that there are alternate viable suspects that still need to be pursued with due diligence. It is a fundamental flaw in this case for anyone to claim that the investigation into Kimberly Kersey's disappearance should be closed because of Stenger's death. That would be a grievous wrong. People visit my website regularly looking for information on the Kimberly Kersey case, and I have focused on trying to solve her disappearance for many years. Sometimes these cases take a very long time. It is my greatest hope that the Clark County Sheriff's Department will renew the investigation with vigor and will apply the appropriate resources to solve this haunting crime. Kimberly Kersey's murderer is still at large. No parent, no law enforcement officer, no one with a conscience should rest knowing that someone's daughter could become another victim by the unchecked hand of Kimberly Kersey's killer. Sincerely, Guru Padma Donais
(added 3-15-08)
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Today I was meditating and reflecting on the disappearance of Kim Kersey. How old would she be now? I tried to imagine by looking at her photo what she might look like now. It was not hard to imagine; as I meditated, I thought of all she missed. And all her family missed. All the old clichés came into my head and I thought bull pucky. I broke from the meditation and started washing some dishes at the sink. I was looking out the window and thought about how Kim's mother Kay must have felt when the window to her heart saw Kim's abduction. Kay was standing at the kitchen window and had a flash of imagery -- she knew her child was in trouble. Kay has passed on now or so the story goes. I just believe Kay will not rest until Kim's case is solved. Perhaps her child's disappearance caused her to be sick. Perhaps Kay worried about everyone she loved being taken from her. I sat back down and began to watch the sun through the trees and Kim Kersey flashed in my mind's eye. What would she have had in life had she not "gone missing"? Her first pair of flashy red shoes, manicures with pretty pink shades -- or would she wear Chevy blue with the zodiac? Would she have been a vegetarian or a gourmet cook? Would she wear glasses or contacts? How much fun would she have had at her graduation from high school? Would she have bought a new car or would her brother and family spend countless hours helping her trick it out? Would she have married or joined a theater company? I could see her as a Carole Lombard or Lauren Bacall type. How much she missed! Birthdays, Christmases, Easter, tap dancing. Did she ever show herself to her mom before her mom passed away? The lonely unanswered dead walk and visit until their cases are solved. Did she ever cause car trouble for the one who took her? Could they ever feel the draft in very warm weather of her life taunting? Did she cause the person to drink or did they already drink, did they use drugs? What would her cotillion day have been like? How many times had she tried to communicate with people who love her? Would she have had a large wedding or eloped? Would she have had children or would she have just traveled the world? Kim's life would have been full of beauty and health. For months I have had a feeling the person(s) who took her and were involved in her disappearance would feel how close I am to encroaching on their lives in the spirit world and in the physical. It would be good for someone to come forward. Not many people know that the cases I have worked on and solved the murderers die a very untimely and "Justified death" It's as if fate just says ‘You messed up, now your time has come.' Many times the people they trust are the ones that do them in. It's best if you come forward and turn yourself in. Time is short for you. It won't end well if you don't come clean. Very
truly yours,
(added 8-9-05)
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PORTLAND -- A. Kay Botsford, a secretary who lived in Vancouver for two years in the early 1990s, died in Portland Wednesday, March 6, 1996, of lung cancer. She was 50. A service will begin at 3 p.m. Sunday at Memorial Gardens Funeral Chapel, with a private burial in Evergreen Memorial Gardens Cemetery. Mrs. Botsford was born April 9, 1945, in Payette, Idaho. Survivors include her husband, Dale, at home; her mother, Velda Dunbrasky of Clackamas; a daughter, Krysten K. Wiedeman of Portland and a daughter, Kimberly Kay Kersey, who disappeared near Mountain View High School in 1990 and has not been seen since; one son, Marc E. Kersey of Vancouver; one brother, Ron Dunbrasky of Clackamas; and three grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be made to the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Seattle. * * * * * * * * * PLEASE NOTE: Kimberley Kersey disappeared in 1987 (not 1990, as stated above)! (article added 2-24-04)
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AGENCY SEEKS TO REMOVE LANDFILL FROM HAZARD LIST (The Columbian) An old landfill will be removed from the state's hazardous sites list under a proposal from the Washington Department of Ecology. The Circle C Landfill, at 31313 Paradise Park Road and parallel to Interstate 5, operated as a mixed-waste non-municipal landfill north of Ridgefield during the 1970s and '80s. Circle C Corp. originally built the landfill without a bottom liner, allowing fetid liquid to percolate through the garbage and off the site. The company retrofitted the landfill with a leachate collection system and groundwater monitoring wells in 1985, but it closed the landfill six years later when it could not comply with more-stringent solid-waste regulations. The site was covered with soil in October 1991. Leachate continues to be collected and trucked to a wastewater treatment plant in Vancouver, and the Clark County Health Department will continue to monitor the site until 2011. TO COMMENT Message from Guru Padma: I know someone who is reading this page knows what happened to Kim Kersey. Please contact me. If you want to remain anonymous please use this form. (article added 2-20-04)
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COMMENTS FROM GURU PADMA DONAIS Clark County Sheriff's Office put a great deal of effort into the Kim Kersey case. Countless hours were spent by the detectives who worked on the case and still today work on it. Every once in a while one of them and I will run into each other and inevitably it is said from the heart not a day goes by that I don't think of her. We all have our suspicions and the weight of them should fall heavy on the karma of the person(s) who committed the crime. I know her killer will be uncovered. Goodness always overcomes evil. This killer is no longer public enough to be evil. He is losing his grasp on those who once feared him. Someone will come forward and expose this vermin for what he really is: a no-count, useless leech on society. Update: October 6, 2003 The article below appeared in the Vancouver Columbian newspaper on October 6, 2003. The public needs to put pressure on the police to investigate further. In saying there is not enough money to go to Walla Walla to question a suspect, it is an insult to the police who originally worked so hard on this case as well as to the family of the victim.
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| Is Woman's Killer Key to Missing Teen? Monday, October 6, 2003 By GREGG HERRINGTON, Columbian staff writer WALLA WALLA -- Russell Francis Stenger is serving a life term for abducting, raping and murdering a 23-year-old Cascade Park wife and mother 16 years ago Tuesday. Though he agreed to that sentence, he thinks he'll get out of prison someday. So he has hatched a plan for bankrolling his life on the outside. Stenger is divorcing his wife of 19 years and trying to squeeze money out of her. She lives in fear he will be released, even though authorities say Stenger will spend the rest of his life behind bars for the Oct. 7, 1987, murder of Dail Lea Schroeder. While his domestic and legal saga play out, Stenger also remains on the short list of suspects in another haunting local mystery: the disappearance earlier that same year of Kimberley Kersey, 18, as she walked home from Mountain View High School. Today, as then, Stenger admits to killing Schroeder. She was just two blocks from her home, nearing the end of a late-night walk along well-lighted McGillivray Boulevard. Stenger forced the screaming woman into his car. But Stenger said he knows nothing about the fate of Kersey, who disappeared on March 11, 1987. Like Schroeder, Kersey was young, blonde, pretty and lived in east Vancouver. The girl's schoolbooks were discovered along a wooded trail, but her body has never been found. The Kersey mystery "is probably the No. 1 missing persons case that comes up in everybody's mind around here," said Clark County Sheriff's Sgt. Pat St. John. Stenger, now 44 and more than 30 pounds heavier than the 170 he weighed in 1987, consented to talk about his life and legal efforts. A guard at the Washington State Penitentiary watched from the other side of a plate glass window as Stenger entered a room the size of a walk-in closet and sat at a small, bare table. He wore his own multi-colored sweatshirt, tan prison-issue pants, shoes and a smile. He was well-groomed, soft-spoken and chuckled lightly on several occasions, sounding and looking like a friendly neighbor, a bus driver or a barber. In fact, having completed the prison barbering course, Stenger said he could cut hair when he gets out. Gets out? Stenger agreed to his life-without-parole sentence as part of a plea bargain. Clark County Prosecutor Art Curtis had withdrawn from the Schroeder case because, years earlier, when Curtis was a public defender, his office had defended Stenger. C.C. Bridgewater, then-Cowlitz County prosecutor, handled the case. He decided not to seek the death penalty out of fear that the connection between Stenger and Curtis might be used successfully in an appeal. Despite the plea bargain agreement to life without parole, Stenger figures he might be released at some point. He's looking for legal loopholes or court precedents that might help his cause. What Stenger did that night in 1987 rocked the community. The disappearance of Schroeder sparked an intensive police investigation and considerable public anxiety in and around Cascade Park. After all, Schroeder wasn't someone who hung around with a dangerous crowd or agreed to go home with strangers. She was a young mother with a nice family. She took walks, often at night, along McGillivray Boulevard in the development that advertised itself as "A Nice Place to Live." Arrest and confession On the night of the Schroeder murder, Stenger drove his older-model, battered, white sedan onto McGillivray near Southeast 161st Avenue. About 11:15 p.m., he spotted Schroeder and followed her. At Blairmont Drive, Stenger made his move. Schroeder didn't go willingly. Three different neighbors called 911 to report screams. "The woman was screaming, 'Oh my God, help me'," one neighbor said at the time. But by the time neighbors got outside, the woman was gone. Stenger took Schroeder to a spot near state Highway 14 just west of Cape Horn in the Columbia River Gorge and raped her, then drove to another spot, raped her again and shot her in the head and left her body. During a nearly two-hour prison interview Sept. 25, Stenger talked hopefully and matter-of-factly about his life and his legal efforts. He expressed no remorse for killing Schroeder -- or for any part of his life of crime, starting with a joy ride in a "borrowed" car at age 8. He said he has been in jail, in prison or on probation almost continuously since he was 17. Asked for more details about that night on McGillivray Boulevard, he responded, "I'm not going there." He cut off other questions about that night but remained soft-spoken, pleasant and willing to continue the interview. Authorities and legal experts say Stenger will almost certainly never be released from prison. But Stenger maintains hope. He already has filed several unsuccessful appeals. "Hopefully I'll get out one day. I don't give up hope. Even right now, I still believe." Sheriff Garry Lucas doesn't give up hope, either -- hope of solving the Kersey mystery. Lucas said last week the girl's disappearance is "an active investigation. "We continue to work that case, and we will continue to work it until we bring some sort of resolution to it." Stenger, he said, "is certainly a person of interest." Some are more direct. Clark County detective Rick Buckner, who interviewed Stenger in prison two years ago, said, "Personally, I am convinced Stenger did it." Former Undersheriff Bob Songer, who now lives in Goldendale, said, "If I recall right, (Stenger) was doing maintenance or yard work in the same apartment complex" where Kersey lived, next to Cascade Middle School. "He was a pretty good suspect," Songer said. "He took a polygraph test and, as I recall, didn't do very well on it." Stenger said he had nothing to do with Kersey's disappearance. "I would have confessed back then if I had done it," he said, adding that he did confess to Schroeder's murder "and to some armed robberies (police) didn't even know about." Immunity offered Sgt. Dave Trimble, head of the sheriff's major crimes unit, said Stenger has always been among three or four key suspects in the Kersey case. Trimble said that after Stenger was sentenced for killing Schroeder, he was offered immunity in the Kersey case if he would confess. "We had an agreement between us, the prosecutor and the Kersey family, so it would bring closure for them," Trimble said last week. "He was already facing life without parole, so pleading to Kersey wouldn't have changed his situation much." But Stenger said he knew nothing about Kersey's fate. "It's hard to tell what he's thinking," Trimble said. "He still seems to be of the impression (that he eventually will get out of prison for the Schroeder murder) ... "Were he to admit involvement in Kersey's disappearance, it might have a bearing on getting out." Wants money from wife From his cell at Washington's maximum-security prison, Stenger continues studying cases around the country, searching for precedents that he hopes might lead to his release some day. That's why he wants a bigger nest egg than he can get from his $55-a-month job in the prison kitchen. "Hopefully I'll get out one day and want to have, you know, something to start out with," he said. In July, Stenger filed for divorce from Sharlene, his wife of 19 years. A Clark County native, she married Stenger when he was incarcerated on a previous conviction. She now lives north of Seattle. In the divorce petition, Stenger is asking for payment from her of $500 a month. In a subsequent letter to her, he threatened to tell the world about her abortions in the early 1970s and other alleged illegal acts if she didn't pay him $60,000. In another letter, to her attorney, he asked for $10,000. The documents are part of the public record, on file with Walla Walla County. Sharlene Stenger, a 1969 Evergreen High School graduate and eight years older than Stenger, said she is afraid of him. In a phone interview, she conceded her life has had its rough spots and that she had two abortions years before meeting Stenger, but she had no intention of paying him off. Last month at the request of her attorney, a Walla Walla County Superior Court judge issued a restraining order barring Stenger from initiating any communication with his wife except through her attorney. "I want Clark County to know he is trying to get out," she said. "He's spending hours in the prison library looking for legal loopholes. ... He can charm the socks off people." They met in 1983 when Stenger was in the Clark County Jail. She had just been divorced. He saw it in the newspaper and wrote her. "I wanted a pen pal," he said. In July 1984, when he was in state custody at Shelton, they were married. "I thought I was going to help this man," Sharlene Stenger said. "I'm a nurse. I take care of people. "When he was tracking normal, he was a nice man. ... He can be genuinely very charming." Sought mother's attention Stenger wouldn't revisit the Schroeder murder in detail, but he did speculate on why he did it. "It's kind of weird," he said of his crimes over the years. "I wanted to escape to my mother, to get her attention." His parents were divorced when he was 2, and life at home was not pleasant, Stenger said. When he and his siblings were in trouble was "the only time I actually seen my mother get involved in her children's lives." His mother died in 1996. Stenger said he got the news from a prison chaplain and felt no sorrow. In contrast to his own family life, here's something Stenger said should be in this story: Dail Schroeder's children "ought to know their mother really loved them," he said. He knows that, he said, because they are "what she talked about most" as he drove her to the remote hillside that night. |
