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Unthinkable Horror Visits A Small Town

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 16, 2007

CRANDON, Wis. - Around 11 o'clock Thursday morning, a crew from the city's water and sewer utility came to Lakeside Cemetery to create Aaron Smith's resting place.

A day later, they returned with their John Deere backhoe to dig the graves of Jordanne Murray and Bradley Schultz.

'It's the last thing you can do for them,' said Kevin Montgomery, one of the crew members, and a nephew of mine.

Seven days. Seven funerals. Five burials in Lakeside, two more in nearby cemeteries.

And no good reasons.

Tyler Peterson will be buried last, this Thursday. His early morning act on Oct. 7 created this horror. He shot seven people who used to be his friends; one survived.

About 10 hours later, Peterson - a 20-year-old sheriff's deputy - apparently took his own life.

No community, big or small or otherwise, deserves this. Seven young people died, and moving on will be easier said than done.

A few vans and trucks from Milwaukee and Green Bay television stations, with their gaudy graphics and look-at-us branding slogans blaring at all who see them, lingered here Friday, when services for Smith began the week of funerals.

The people of the Crandon area are sick of outsiders watching their movements, asking for their comments and seeking their help in explaining what probably cannot be explained.

The signs around town - there are more than a few, on Flowers From The Heart, Main Street Inn, Dave's Supermarket, The Forest Republican and other businesses - offer support to the victims and their families: 'Our Hearts Go Out To You.' 'Forever and Always.' 'Spirit of the Living God Fall on Us.'

But there are a few other signs, intended to protect the locals. 'No Media,' they say. 'Please respect our customers.'

It is a clear sign: Leave us alone.

Visitation for Aaron Smith, 20, was Thursday night at the Weber-Hill Funeral Home, and was unlike anything this city had ever seen.

For more than four hours, hundreds of mourners flowed out the door, across the funeral home's lawn, and across West Jefferson Street.

Longtime Crandon families - Statzeny, Cracraft, Bonack, DeHart, Kincaid, Bradley and more - stood in the slow-moving line to pay respects.

Husbands hugged wives, classmates hugged classmates, cops hugged kids.

In a small town, victims are less likely to be strangers. If you live here and don't know any of kids who died when Tyler Peterson opened fire, you probably know their parents.

I haven't lived in Forest County full-time since August 1975, but I was a close childhood pal of Gary Thomas, the father of 17-year-old LiAnna Thomas, one of Peterson's victims. She'll be buried Wednesday in the Crandon Town Cemetery, between Crandon and Mole Lake.

Gary and I were neighbors when our family moved to Crandon in 1968. We rode bikes together, played hoops, played catch and did a lot of talking.

Another childhood pal was Forest County Sheriff Keith Van Cleve. I remember him as a member of the Crandon Yankees Little League team, when I played for the Crandon Cardinals.

His identical twin brother, Kenny, is also a member of the sheriff's department. Kenny was on the Cardinals, and a pretty good third baseman, as I recall. Our coach was Gary Bradley, now the city's mayor.

Keith and I chatted a bit outside the funeral home on Thursday. First time I'd seen him in probably 30 years.

I told him I'd been thinking about him this week, and wondered what all of the visiting police and sheriff's departments were doing in town. My unofficial count was 16 departments, including an Appleton squad car.

Crowd control, Keith explained, and to keep the media in place.

The shootings happened about three blocks from the apartment building that houses my mother and 13 other senior citizens.

The Lakeland Baptist Church, where Mom is a longtime member, hosted visitation and services Sunday for Jordanne Murray, the former girlfriend of Tyler Peterson.

Yes, news travels fast in a small town.

Even my 85-year-old mom, who rarely leaves the apartment building, knew details of the unfolding tragedy when she left a message for me around 12:30 p.m. that Sunday.

She knew that Jordanne was dead, and that a sheriff's deputy was involved.

But she seems to know good news, too.

She told me later in the week that one of her great-grandsons was invited to the party where the shots were fired.

He didn't go.

Dan Flannery is the executive editor of The Post-Crescent in Appleton, Wis., and a native of Crandon. This column appeared in The Post-Crescent on Sunday.

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