Rape-murder of girl in '92 still haunting
OIL CITY -- She should have been safe.
Shauna Howe, 11, often had walked down the church-lined street, past Victorian-style homes along the Allegheny River.
On Oct. 27, 1992, Shauna was walking back from a Girl Scout Halloween party. She was abducted from a corner near her home.
Her body was found 2 1/2 days later in a creek beneath an abandoned railroad trestle about 10 miles from town. She was still wearing her Halloween costume -- a bodysuit she wore to portray a ballerina.
Three suspects were arrested last week and charged in the rape and murder of Shauna.
Many residents still wonder how a rape-murder could have happened in this Venango County town, where people leave their doors open and everyone knows everyone.
"You just never forgot about it -- for something so brutal to happen to a small child and have it go unsolved," said Jeanne Nairn, a former cafeteria worker at Shauna's elementary school who helped organize a vigil on the anniversary of Shauna's death. "I've heard people say that this is such a quiet, small town and has so much to offer. You ask: 'How could this happen in a small town?' "
The answers are far from comforting. The three men arrested are all from Oil City.
James O'Brien, 32, and his brother, Timothy O'Brien, 37 were arrested July 2. Eldred Ted Walker, 45, was arrested the next day.
James O'Brien is serving 4 1/2 to 20 years for an attempted kidnapping in 1995. Timothy O'Brien is serving a 33-month to five-year sentence; he was labeled a sexually violent predator after his conviction last year on charges of assaulting a girl and a boy.
Through DNA evidence and a statement that Walker allegedly made to authorities two years ago, state police claim the men are linked to Shauna's abduction.
James O'Brien gave investigators a saliva sample in 2002. Authorities said the sample matches a genetic profile from semen found on Shauna's body suit.
Walker allegedly told state police that he and the O'Briens had talked about "grabbing someone off the street just days prior to (Howe's) abduction" in 1992. Walker also told authorities that he knew Shauna. He said he talked with her and hugged her before Timothy O'Brien pulled her toward a car, state police said. The brothers then allegedly took her to Walker's home.
Investigators said they believe she was held captive for most of the time she was missing because searchers didn't find her body at the swimming hole a day earlier.
Paul Yessler, a public defender representing Timothy O'Brien, has declined to comment on the case. James O'Brien and Walker have requested public defenders, who have not been appointed yet.
In published reports, Walker has denied involvement in the rape-murder, saying his admission was coerced by state police investigators. Walker has no listed phone number.
The arrests have brought some solace to Oil City. But the town has lost some of its innocence.
"There's a loss of trust, but 12 years ago was a different time," said Susan Price, 54, who was trying Thursday to keep an eye on her 5-year-old grandson and 3-year-old granddaughter at Famoore's Restaurant, a homey eatery with wood paneling and overturned coffee cups and pink-paper placemats.
"I think they thought it wouldn't happen here. But you can't make life into a box. You are at risk no matter what. We don't live in the Vatican," said Price, who moved from Pittsburgh 30 years ago.
Halloween is observed only during daylight hours, and some parents still shepherd their children to and from bus stops. Shopping carts carrying children are seldom left unwatched -- let alone unattended -- and parents are careful not to let children wander too close to doors.
"I don't think it will be the same as far as the kids. It is just society all over. You can't let them leave your side at all, or someone will pick them up or do something crazy," said Don Culp, 59, a sexton at Second Presbyterian Church, which sits on the corner where Shauna was abducted.
Culp said he wonders what would have happened had he decided to step outside for a cigarette Oct. 27, 1992.
Some residents, though, said it may have been a matter of time before big-city problems had spread to Oil City, the birthplace of the nation's petroleum industry.
The oil industry is all but gone -- Pennzoil left for Houston in the 1960s, and Quaker State moved to Dallas in 1995, eliminating thousands of local jobs.
In the past three decades, Oil City has shrunk from about 15,000 residents to 11,500. Renters have replaced homeowners.
Shauna's own family has moved outside Camp LeJeune, N.C. Her mother, Lucy Mae Brown, does not have a listed number. She will return for the men's trials, though.
