2A
Wednesday, July 24,1996
CAMPUS/AREA UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Triple homicide leaves community in shock
Murders occur in upscale Salina neighborhood
The Associated Press
SALINA — Carol Abercrombie had planned to head back home to Tennessee with her grandson Monday after an extended visit here with her widowed mother.
Instead, shocked relatives are left to make funeral plans for all three while police look for clues in a triple homicide that has left this central Kansas community searching for answers.
Why would anyone want to kill Abercrombie, 56, of Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., her grandson, Christopher Abercrombie, 5, of Greenville, N.C., and Abercrombie's 80-year-old mother, Dorothy Dolores McKim?
"You expect it in Wichita," said Gerald Cook, president of the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce. "You don't expect it in Salina."
Least of all in the upscale neighborhood where McKim had lived with her husband, a retired electronics store owner and well-known amateur radio buff who died in February at the age of 80. The parents of Kansas Gov. Bill Graves live across the street, and two Salina city commissioners live nearby, one of them right next door to the McKim house.
Helen Graves, the governor's mother, said it was shocking for a crime of this nature to occur in Salina.
"We feel pretty crime-free," she said. "It just makes you wonder about the way of the world
todav."
Nearly 20 investigators with the Salina Police Department, Saline County Sheriff's Office and Kansas Bureau of Investigation were working on the case Monday, trying to find clues and appealing for help from anyone who might have noticed anything unusual in the area.
"As of this time, we do not have any suspects," Salina Police Chief Jim Hill said. "We desperately need help from the public."
"We can only speculate on a motive," the chief said.
Police were checking out every possible lead.
Hill would not comment when asked if the women were sexually assaulted, nor would he disclose an apparent cause of the victims' deaths, other than to say a weapon, which he would not describe, was involved. He said the weapon was not found at the house.
The chief said there was no sign of forced entry into the house, which wasn't equipped with a security system.
But he said the house was ransacked, with drawers opened and furniture knocked over, although there was no sign of an extended struggle where the bodies were found.
McKim's body was found in one bedroom, those of her daughter and the boy in another. All were dressed in night clothes, but Hill would not say whether they were in their beds.
Officials did not know if anything was stolen from the house, but Hill said handbags belonging to the two women were found in a car that was stolen from the McKim garage.
The car was found later Sunday in an apartment parking lot.
Officials believe the three were killed between 7 p.m. Saturday, when they were last seen by friends at the McKim house, and 9:15 a.m. Sunday, when another daughter of McKim, Kathy Melander of Assaria, began to call.
Police found the bodies at 12:43 p.m. after a concerned Melander came to the house.
She didn't enter after noticing her mother's car was missing and saw that doors from the garage to the house and back yard were open. Instead, she went next door to call police.
She said they had all planned to attend a Sunday matinee performance of Charlotte's Web at the Salina Community Theatre, and she had been calling all morning to make final plans for the outing.
"I knew that if they were going to go anywhere and not be back they would have called," she said.
Abercrombie and her grandson, who had been staying with her while his parents got settled at their new home in North Carolina, arrived in Salina July 10. They were to leave Monday.
Abercrombie was a librarian at a Christian School in Chattanooga, and she and her husband, Everett, a Cargill employee who was traveling in North Carolina during the weekend, were about to leave on a trip to Ireland and Scotland.
Christopher's parents, John and Leah Abercrombie, arrived in North Carolina just a few weeks ago. His father, a recent graduate of East Tennessee Medical School, was beginning the first year of an emergency medicine residency at East Carolina University School of Medicine, and his mother is a nurse at Pitt County Memorial Hospital.
The Associated Press
Family's tragedy becomes another family's blessing
He was their only child.
OLATHE — Aaron Drake anu Luke Harbur had little in common, but their lives will always be linked in the minds of those who know them.
Their story is a story of two Olathe families: One desperately searching for a liver to keep their child alive; the other demonstrating courage and compassion in the face of their son's tragic death.
In June, 8-year-old Aaron Drake died unexpectedly while on a family camping trip to the Ozarks. Through his death, 11-month-old Luke Harbur was allowed to live, the recipient of Aaron's liver.
The Harburs' ordeal began several months ago when their newborn child was diagnosed with liver problems. An operation to fix the problem failed. The Harburs were told their infant would eventually need a transplant.
Kim and Nate Harbur lived in fear that a liver donor would not be found in time.
"We were scared and depressed," Nate Harbur said. "We wondered how long we would have him."
The Drakes' tragedy began on a family camping trip to the Ozarks. It ended when Aaron was pronounced dead after being removed from a life-support system — the victim of an attack caused by a fatal allergic reaction.
Kris Drake said the attack happened within a couple of minutes. Aaron suffered from asthma and allergies for most of his life but had never been in a life-threatening situation before.
For the Drakes, the loss of Aaron — their middle child — was devastating. They decided to donate their child's organs so that others could avoid the heartache they were experiencing.
like Aaron's spirit had already left his body and that he was already in heaven with Jesus."
"I think it was a very easy decision for us because we are Christians," Kris Drake said. "We felt
A few hundred miles away in then Olathe home, the Harburs were fighting through one of the most difficult and depressing periods since learning of Luke's need for a liver transplant.
"The day we found out about Aaron was probably the lowest I had felt since we realized Luke would need a transplant," Nate Harbur said.
Nate Harbur said his family had just found out that another baby who needed a liver had been brought into Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., that day, and that she was in worse health than Luke.
"We had been first on the list for a liver transplant at Children's, but now the little girl was first, and we were moved back to second," he said.
The Harburs gathered family and friends around them and hoped that a miracle would happen.
About the same time the Drakes were contemplating donating Aaron's organs, a member of their church contacted them at the hospital in Springfield, Mo., where Aaron was taken following the attack.
Kris Drake said that the church member told them about Luke's condition and that there were some people in the church who were praying for him.
"I wasn't aware of Luke's condition and we didn't know the Harburs at all," she said. "But their situation really interested us."
The Harburs also had received a telephone call from one of their friends in Olathe who also knew the Drakes. The friend detailed the Drakes' tragedy and said it was possible they were going to donate Aaron's organs.
The Harburs were faced with dozens of questions, including whether Aaron's organs would be a match and whether Aaron's liver could be donated specifically to Luke.
Aaron's organs did match, and the Drakes were allowed to designate Luke as the recipient. As for the little girl also awaiting a transplant, another liver donor had been located for her earlier in the day.
Meanwhile, the Drakes had gathered their entire family at Aaron's bedside in Springfield. They discussed every option with the doctors treating Aaron. After several hours, they decided Aaron's organs should be donated.
Within hours, Aaron's organs had not only become part of Luke's life, but others throughout the Midwest had received Aaron's heart, kidneys, lungs and eyes.
Nate Harbur remembers the moment they told him his son's transplant operation had been a success:
"I just had an overwhelming and compelling love for this family that gave our son this gift of life," he said, choking back tears. "In their greatest time of tragedy — the loss of their child — they were able to think about helping someone else."
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