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Kersey,Kimberley,K.missing March 11,1987; Washington State
Topic Started: Aug 15 2006, 09:22 PM (1,673 Views)
oldies4mari2004
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http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/k/kersey_kimberley.html
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oldies4mari2004
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Kimberley Kay Kersey


Above: Kersey, circa 1987


Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance

Missing Since: March 11, 1987 from Clark County, Washington
Classification: Endangered Missing
Age: 17 years old
Height and Weight: 5'2, 105 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Blonde hair, blue eyes.


Details of Disappearance

Kersey was last seen in the Hearthwood area of Clark County, Washington on March 11, 1987, while on her way home from Mountain View High School, where she was a senior. After her disappearance, Kersey's books and papers were found in a field not far from her home. She has never been heard from again.
Authorities have two main suspects in Kersey's disappearance: Russell Francis Stenger, who is currently serving a life sentence for an unrelated crime, and an unidentified man who used to live two blocks from Kersey's home and who has a record for child molestation. The man has since left the state. Investigators continue to pursue leads in Kersey's case; they strongly suspect foul play precipitated her disappearance.

In August 2003, the skull of a person between mid-teens and early twenties was found in Cowlitz County, Washington. The race and sex of the skull has not yet been determined. It is being tested to see if it is Kersey's remains. Her case is unsolved.

Some reports give the year of Kersey's disappearance as 1990, or give her age as 18.



Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Clark County Sheriff's Department
360-699-2366



Source Information
The Doe Network
Kimberley Kersey Missing Since 1987
The Columbian



Updated 1 time since October 12, 2004.

Last updated January 9, 2005.

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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
[ *  *  * ]
http://www.zanzoona.com/kk/
(more info on the family website)

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 us.
Your tip can be totally anonymous.


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,
Guru Padma Donais
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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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)!
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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KERSEY, KIMBERLEY
Agency: Clark Co. S.O. (Clark County)
Sex: F Height: 5' 2" Weight: 105 Hair: Blond Eyes: Blue

Last seen: 3/11/1987 Age then: 19 Age now: 38
School girl . Foul play suspected. Books and papers found in a field not far from home in Hearthwood area of Clark Co.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/missing/miss...ounty&x=13&y=10
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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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.


Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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http://z13.invisionfree.com/PorchlightUSA/...opic=4429&st=0&
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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Local police struggle to solve many old cases
Article from:The Columbian (Vancouver, WA) Article date:February 20, 2003Author:GREGG HERRINGTON, Columbian More results for:KILLABY CAROLYN


The Columbian

02-20-2003

The No. 1 suspect in one of Clark County's most haunting missing-persons cases is sitting in a state prison cell in Walla Walla, but detectives haven't been able to get over there and see if he'll confess to killing Kimberley Kersey.
And if Russell Francis Stenger, who's serving a life sentence for another case, didn't kill Kersey in March 1987, police have a suspect No. 2 in mind: a former neighbor with a prior conviction for child molestation.
Pursuing these loose ends is a matter of finding the manpower, time and money, say police, whose priorities get changed almost daily with every fresh crime that comes along.
The unsolved disappearance of Kersey, a Mountain View High School senior, is just one of dozens of "open" missing-persons cases on the books at local police agencies.
Like most, it becomes less and less likely to get attention as time goes by, public interest wanes, memories fade and potential witnesses and suspects die or move.
The Kersey case is one of 31 in Clark County since 1980 that were included in an exhaustive statewide study of missing persons by The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Others cover an array of circumstances, from Carolyn Killaby, a murder victim whose remains have never been found, to Aric Austin, an infant thought to have been taken in a family custody dispute, to Gregory Dokos, who might have taken off to follow the Grateful Dead band around the country.
But Kersey's disappearance "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. "By all appearances she was an innocent victim who disappeared on her way home from school."
Missing-persons cases "that you suspect are homicides tend to haunt you," said Detective Dave Trimble, head of the county's major crimes unit.
"Her case is probably the worst" in that regard, he said. "There was so little to go on."
Two suspects
There are two suspects, however.
Stenger, in the state penitentiary for the October 1987 rape and murder of Dail Schroeder, a Cascade Park wife and mother, is the leading suspect.
"It's one of those things we intend to follow up on," said Detective Kevin Harper, who inherited the case when St. John shifted from detectives to patrol. "There are a lot of people who are convinced Stenger is the primary suspect."
The flood of missing-persons cases is never-ending and time-consuming, Harper said Wednesday.
He produced a foot-high stack of paperwork on just one low-profile case from last year that has taken dozens of manhours and produced little. A woman disappeared while driving from Boise, Idaho, to Vancouver after some kind of altercation with her boyfriend. She was last known to have been in the Columbia River Gorge, where she placed a phone call to a relative.
Now, Harper said, the boyfriend "is living in the Washington, D.C., area, bouncing from low-paying job to low-paying job. We're still working the case and keeping track of him," but there's not much to go on.
In the Kersey case, Trimble said, one or two detectives eventually will be sent to Walla Walla to talk to Stenger again about the missing girl.
When police asked Stenger about it years ago, Trimble said, Stenger was under the erroneous impression that he had a chance to avoid a life term in the Schroeder murder and therefore might have held back incriminating information.
But now, Trimble hopes, Stenger might be more willing to talk.
"It's one of those things we have planned on for some time," Trimble said. "It's difficult to do, but we have to get it done. A lot depends on our workload."
Tip 15 years late
If Stenger turns out to be a dead end, a man who lived within two blocks of Kersey's family, near Southeast 136th Avenue and 18th Street, is another possibility, said Harper.
That tip is an example of the hurdles facing police in probing missing-persons cases. It was not until 1998, 15 years after Kersey disappeared, that the children of the man came to detectives and said they suspect their father, a convicted child molester. He had subsequently moved out of state.
"We think we know where he's living now," said Harper. "We have plans to pursue it. It's nice if you have the people and the time to work these cases, but you don't always have that luxury."
Down the hall from Harper's office, Trimble looks out his window toward the west Vancouver rail yard and ponders the daunting task of keeping up with missing-persons cases, most not as prominent as Kimberly Kersey's.
"It's a worldwide problem, really," he said.
"Think of all the transients. I see them walking by from the train yards. They're 'missing' from somewhere."
Gregg Herrington covers state and local issues and may be reached at 360-759-8025, or via e-mail at gregg.herrington@columbian.com.

GREGG HERRINGTON, Columbian staff writer


Copyright 2003 The Columbian Publishing Co.

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-71926948.html
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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tatertot
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http://katu.com/news/local/detectives-seek-new-leads-in-clark-co-cold-case-kimberly-kersey-missing-vancouver-mountain-view-high-school

Detectives seek new leads in Clark Co. cold case: 'She remains missing to this day'
by KATU Staff Monday, March 12th 2018

VANCOUVER, Wash. – More than three decades ago, a student at Mountain View High School went missing as she was heading home for school.

To mark the 31st anniversary of her disappearance, family members of Kimberly Kersey are asking for help in bringing closure to her case.

The Clark County Sheriff’s Office said Kersey was last seen leaving her high school on the afternoon of March 11, 1987. Her disappearance had a huge impact on the Vancouver community and was devastating for her family.

Kersey’s story was printed in local papers and aired on newscasts, however, investigators are hoping that social media can give them new leads in this cold case.

“I was 13 years old when she went missing, and she remains missing to this day,” Kimberly’s sister, Kristen, said in a Facebook post Monday. “I just want people to know that if they have any information regarding this case – anything. If it was a minute detail or a passing, to contact the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.”

If you have any helpful tips, contact Detective Lindsay Schultz at Lindsay.Schultz@clark.wa.gov or (360) 397-2028.
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