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Years later, families of missing wait for answers By Shaun Hittle sdhittle@ljworld.com
People disappear every day. They’re victims of foul play. They go to a remote location and commit suicide. They have psychotic episodes and wander off, confused and disoriented. They leave their families, escaping from some undesirable circumstance, searching for a new life. Gone.
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INSIDE
Alerts go out, and missingpersons posters get printed. And those people left behind? They wait. For good news, bad news, any news. For the friends Alemu and family of former Kansas University student Yelekal “Kal” Alemu, 23, of Lawrence, the waiting stretched over three weeks, ending with news Friday
that Alemu’s body was discovered in a wooded area in rural Douglas County. Police said they do not suspect foul play, though a cause of death has not been announced. Alemu disappeared May 12, and his abandoned Toyota Yaris was discovered later that day, after friends and family became concerned when Alemu didn’t show up for a family gathering. For the Alemu family, the bad news came. For others, the waiting continues.
16 years, no answers Overbrook man Everett Crist, 91, remembers it was a Tuesday. He and his son, Elvin E. Crist, then 40, finished work at the family landscaping business in Lawrence on Dec. 11, 1996. “He told me he’d see me in the morning,” Everett said. “I haven’t seen him since.” It’s been nearly 16 years since Elvin vanished. He didn’t have a criminal record, didn’t abuse drugs or alcohol, and didn’t
have any reason to kill himself, said his younger brother, Arlin Crist. “Just a regular guy,” Arlin said. Elvin is one of 37 active missing-persons cases in Kansas, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NamUs, operated by the U.S. Department of Justice. Since Elvin’s disappearance, the family has speculated and Please see MISSING, page 7A
Koch influence present in school lawsuit
Library kicks off summer with bashes, ‘staches
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Judges to hear financing case this week
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By Scott Rothschild srothschild@ljworld.com
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Not many people in the history of Western civilization have seen this through a telescope.” — Rick Heschmeyer, president of The Astronomy Associates of Lawrence, talking about the transit of Venus, when Venus passes the sun’s path, appearing as a small, black dot against the sun’s backdrop, which will occur Tuesday. Page 3A
ABOVE: MARIN MASSA, OF LAWRENCE, LEFT, and Karen Allen, Lawrence Public Library teen services librarian, blow bubbles as Massa’s son Logan Huffman, 4, right, attempts to pop them in the air Saturday outside the library. The three were participating in the Summer in the City 2012 kickoff party for the library’s summer reading program. LEFT: Jay Norman, 4, gets excited about his new books he and his sister picked up during the children’s book sale, also Saturday at the library. Two of his choices were books about Pokémon and astronauts. TOP: Lorelei Dunn, 2, held by her father, Will Dunn, of Lawrence, wears her new mustache she received during activities at the library. The event featured lawn games and food to go along with faux facial hair.
COMING MONDAY We’ll introduce you to a local volunteer who uses her photography skills to help ensure animals up for adoption look their best.
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INDEX Arts&Entertainment 1C-8C Books 4C Classified 1D-7D Deaths 2A Events listings 10A, 2B Garden 8C Horoscope 7D Movies 4A Opinion 9A Puzzles 5C, 7D Sports 1B-10B Television 4A, 2B, 7D Vol.154/No.155 62 pages
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TOPEKA — Koch-funded groups recently helped push through historic tax cuts in Kansas. This week, they will battle against public schools seeking more funding. Fifty-four school districts are taking the state to court to try to recover funding that was cut by state officials during the recession. The trial, which starts Monday before a threejudge panel in the Shawnee County Courthouse, could take a month. The school districts have argued COURTS that the state has underfunded schools by more than $1 billion. The state of Kansas has hired three people to argue against that assertion and provide information to the court in the lawsuit. One of those is Art Hall, executive director of the Center for Applied Economics at the Kansas University School of Business. Hall has submitted a written report to the court on what he says are the adverse economic consequences of providing an additional $1.2 billion in funding to public schools. Hall argues that such an increase to schools would cause “structural deficits” in other parts of the budget. And if taxes Please see SCHOOL, page 2A
Health leaders concerned about pregnant smokers By Karrey Britt kbritt@ljworld.com
Lack of affordable healthy foods, abuse of alcohol and lack of physical activity were among the top health concerns that 1,500 Douglas County residents expressed during a six-month community health assessment that included online surveys and in-person interviews. Smoking was not on the list. “I thought it was interesting that nobody talked about smoking or tobacco use, but we know that it is a big driver of poor health,” said Dan Partridge, director of the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department. “When you look at the data, it looks like we have a lot of work to do when it comes to women who smoke during pregnancy.” According to a new 38-page Community Health Assessment report, 13 percent of the
TIPS TO HELP SMOKERS QUIT Help Pregnant Smokers Aynsley Anderson, Quit — helppregnantscommunity education mokersquit.org. coordinator at Lawrence ! The American Lung Memorial Hospital, ofAssociation — lung.org. fered these resources for ! The American Heart people who want to quit HEALTH Association — heart.org. smoking: ! Kansas Tobacco Anderson teaches Quitline. It is free, and a counsmoking cessation classes and selor works with participants can provide them anywhere, through emails, online chats or such as a workplace or church, phone calls. Call 800-784-8669 for free as long as there are five or visit Quitnow.net/Kansas. participants. Her next class at ! Centers for Disease Control LMH, 325 Maine, will be from 6 and Prevention — smokefree.gov. p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Aug. 14, and ! American Cancer Society advance registration is required. — cancer.org. Contact Anderson at 505-3066 ! The National Partnership to or aynsley.anderson@lmh.org. live births in Douglas County in 2010 were to women who smoked during pregnancy. That’s up from 2006 when 11 percent smoked. It’s also high-
Healthy People 2020 objective of less than 1.4 percent. “We are tenfold more than that, and that’s concerning,” Partridge said. Miranda Steele, spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said pregnancy smoking rates are likely higher for two reasons: First, the statistics are self-reported, so women may not disclose the information to their doctors; second, particularly among younger women, occasional smoking may be overlooked when asked by their physician if they are a smoker, er than the national average of resulting in misclassification. In Douglas County, the per10 percent. Not only is the Douglas Coun- cent of women smoking during ty rate going up, but it’s also Please see SMOKERS, page 2A a long way from reaching the