A Murder Mystery in MY Neighborhood??

And I THOUGHT I lived in a nice little area of Racine......hmm.



The following happened 2 blocks down the road on the same street that I live on, yesterday.

I saw the people who lived in that duplex a few times over the last few years.

How sad that people arent safe in their own homes...in what one considers a safe neighborhood.

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Bodies of 2 women found bound in Racine

Victims are mother, daughter

By SHEILA B. LALWANI and JENNIE TUNKIEICZslalwani@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Oct. 11, 2004

Racine - The bodies of two women were found Monday bound and shot inside a duplex on the city's south side.

Racine Double Homicide



Police await detectives after being called to a duplex in the 1700 block of Blaine Ave. in Racine on Monday. Police said they were looking into a possible link between the killings and a man in a car crash nearby.

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Video: TMJ4 News





Sgt. Bill Macemon, public information officer for the Racine Police Department, said police in Milwaukee took a man into custody Monday afternoon who may have fled from a car crash near the homicide scene in the 1700 block of Blaine Ave. on Racine's south side.

Macemon said Monday night that police had not linked the man directly to the homicide, but investigators are looking into the possibility of a link as one of several theories in the case.

Police did not release the victims' names, but neighbors identified the two as Nancy Mason, a mother of at least five children, and her eldest daughter. Macemon was told the daughter was 19 years old.



The initial rescue call indicated that the victims were found bound. A rescue report said someone in the family found the back door open, entered the home and found the two women dead. That person also found that the muzzle of the family's dog had been covered by duct tape, Macemon said.



Police did not identify a motive in the deaths.

A neighbor said one of the children told a neighbor that her sister had a gunshot wound to the arm.

The Racine County Sheriff's Department picked up the children's father from the Southern Wisconsin Center in Union Grove, where he worked, and brought him to the scene. He was not under arrest.

A 35-year-old man who lives across the street from the family was keeping the family's two youngest children in his home during the investigation. The man said the two children, both students at Knapp Elementary School, had walked into the home and had seen the bodies of their mother and sister. The man did not know if the children were the ones who called police. He said the children's eldest brother was also with them at the time.



"They walked in and had to see all that," the man said.

The man said he knew little about the family, although he had talked to them occasionally and was familiar with all of the family's children.

"They were the last family in the world you would think something like that would happen to. They stayed to themselves," he said.

April Paap, a neighbor, waited and watched from her porch. She said she had little contact with the family but remembered them because "they were always together."

A neighbor who asked to remain anonymous said it would be hard to believe if the deaths were related to a burglary.

"They didn't have anything," he said.

Neighbors said the family was very close and very quiet.

"They were harmless and good people. I've never seen them do anything wrong," said Carnell Barbee, 48, who lives a few houses down and across the street from the family. "All they did was enjoy living. They were a very close family."

Barbee said he also knew the family to be very religious.

Pauline Jackson, 60, who lives on Republic Ave., said the family was friendly, but they kept to themselves.

"They seemed like good people who wouldn't hurt anybody," Jackson said.

Jackson said the family was usually seen as a group.

"They all stayed together. If they went to the grocery store, they all went. No one was left behind," Jackson said.

Earlier in the day, a car struck a garage in the 3300 block of Republic Ave., just down the street from the duplex.

A young mother who lives across the street from the family said she was home all day and outside for much of the time. The only commotion she heard was the accident, from which the driver fled, she said.

She was shaken by the death of two of her neighbors.

"This is a good neighborhood. We all have kids here," said the woman, who didn't want her name used.

A man who works for Becker Investments of Kenosha, which owns the duplex, said the family was working to improve its situation. The mother had been home-schooling the children, he said, but he believed the youngest children were now all in public schools.

The family was behind on rent, but the rental company was trying to work with them, he said.

"They were trying to change their lives around. They were working on it, and we were trying to help them," he said.



According to state court records, the mother of the children had been charged several times with reckless endangerment of a child. Those charges were later dropped.



The incident Monday was in the same neighborhood as a 2002 double homicide in the 3700 block of Republic Ave. In that incident, a couple - Herman Petersen, 72, and wife Carol, 69 - were stabbed to death in their home after a burglary.



Kelly Wells of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

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I hope that the authorities find those responsible for this tragic event. I walked past the house earlier today and saw all the yellow police tape....was kind of errie to say the least. Those poor kids.........