Tuesday, May 12, 1987

The Orange County Register

Al 3

Chapter 9
The Toll on the Families
n Pocatello, Idaho, Darwin and Lois Hall still wait. Several times, the retired couple have been set to make the trip to California to attend the trial. They've had to change their plans when the trial was postponed. The Halls believe they should not have to center their lives on the trial of the man accused of killing their only son, Mark. "I don't think four years sounds like a reasonable delay," Mrs. Hall says. In Coventry, Conn., typewriter repairman Clayton Church waits too, but with some dread. He no longer thinks about the murder of his son, Eric, as much as he used to, but still, he says, the trial "is like a cloud hanging over your head, hanging over you all the time." He already has journeyed to California to testify at Randy Kraft's preliminary hearing. He says he found it a frustrating experience. "They're asking you so many questions some of em don't make sense." He remembers that not long after his son's murder, his wife's blood pressure shot up, and she had to seek care for stress-related health problems. "The doctor told her that when he heard about it, he expected we'd be coming in," Church says. Mark Hall's friend and coworker, Phillip Holmer, went on to become a locksmith. Keith Crotwell's friend Michael Ditmar is a father now. In Carson, even though Wanda Shepperd and Rick Keith dated for only a few months, it took a long time for her to get over his murder. It was her first experience with death. A couple of years later, she got married, and now is the mother of three children. She keeps a few pictures and letters from the handsome young Marine corporal she met at a beach party. "It's the only thing in my past that I kept," she says. Terry Cambrel's girlfriend got married and moved away.

Judy Nelson has three other children. Ken, 24, works in the aerospace industry. Beth, 20, works for a computer company. Steve, 18, works in his father's Mexican restaurant. Judy Nelson worried about the effect of Geoffrey's murder on her other children. But in the end, they were her support. "They helped me immensely," she said. "Steve would come in and tell me what Geoffrey would say: 'Mom, don't worry.' " Beth went to the jewelry store, her mother said, and paid off the engagement ring Geoffrey had on layaway. Today, she wears that ring. The long wait for the trial torments the family. Every postponement, Judy Nelson says, brings back the pain. She says she will testify about a piece of clothing when the case comes to trial. But her faith in the justice system has faded: "I've accepted that it won't be over." But she finds solace outside the courtroom. Geoffrey Nelson's grave is in a green, peaceful spot. Judy Nelson doesn't go there often. On Easter Sunday 1986, though, she went to breakfast with her two sons and daughter, and afterward, as her sons drove away in another car, she and Beth decided on the spur of the moment to visit the grave. When they got to Geoffrey's grave. Ken and Steve were there, too, to their surprise. Beth sat right down on his grave, cross-legged, her mother recalls, and they laughed and savored their memories of him. "That's the wav Geoff would have wanted it," Judy Nelson says. "Mom, don't worry," she can still hear Geoffrey say. And although she admits the journey on this road is far from over, she does her best to heed his advice.

Jerry Gambrel visits the grave of his twin brother Terry, who was found dead In Randy Kraft's car May 14, 1983 Through her husband, she declined to be interviewed for this story. Jerry Gambrel lives in the house where he and Terry grew up. He says he still thinks about his twin brother, "once every five minutes." "When we were growing up, we weren't the brotherly type, the touchy type," he says, "except for tackling each other." But Jerry said Terry's death moved him to realize the depth of their bond. "I couldn't even open up and admit I loved him until he wasn't around," Jerry says. Being a devout Christian, Jerry says, he prays for Randy Kraft. Patricia Moore waits with patience for the trial to begin. "We've waited this long. I would like for them to make sure of the facts and everything ... so that they know that this person is really the person they wanted." calls, "His friends would come up and tell me that he always had a smile. They'd always cry on his shoulder." The shock of Geoffrey Nelson's murder hit the family with brutal power. Geoffrey's brother Steve, then 13, was so stunned with grief that he jumped on his bike and left without saying a word, his mother recalls. It was the first time she had seen her husband. Dale Nelson, cry. Geoffrey's grandmother learned the grisly details of his death by reading the newspaper. After that, the woman who had raised six children while working in real estate deteriorated physically. She died a year later. Judy Nelson blames her death on Geoffrey's murder. "She loved Geoff very much. ... She just went down. It destroyed her. "

Still feeling the shock

In the years since her son Geoffrey's death, Judy Nelson says, her family has struggled to smile, to keep on living and loving. At his funeral, Mrs. Nelson re-

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Orange County Register.

LEGAL NOTICE NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT THE GARDEN GROVE CITY COUNCIL will hold PUBLIC HEARING in the COUNCIL CHAMBER of the COMMUNITY MEETING CENTER, 11300 Stanford Avenue, Garden Grove, California, on the date indicated * below to receive and consider all evidence and reports relative to the application described below:

HOME EQUITY LOANS:

* MONDAY, 7:30 p.m., May 18, 1987

Consideration of an Urgency Ordinance declaring a moratorium pursuant to authority of Government Code Section 65858 on the issuance of specified land use entitlements and building permits for construction of new structures in the Garden Grove Boulevard/Brookhurst Stfeet Revitalization Study Area.

A J O ta i uon louamo stuot S T U O rM U O O M f C IM I M I ) 1 U 0 TM l *

ALL INTERESTED PARTIES are invited to attend said HEARING and express opinions or submit evidence for or against the proposal as outlined above. FURTHER information on the above application may be obtained or viewed at the office of DEVELOPMENT SERVICES, telephone: 638-6831 BY ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF GARDEN GROVE. ; DATED: April 30, 1987
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As good iis this offer sounds, For a limited time, C.iilifbrnia it gets e\'en better. Because First Bank is offering a real b a i ^ n : home equity loans and our interest rates on boUi fixed and variable home equity equity-based lines of cnedit with loans iu e iunong the lowest in no points to pay die stiite. None. Zip. Nada. We'ie also offering a fast lb lind out how low, call iinswer on your loan request your neiirest California First Well give you our decision just l )rarK h for a rate quote. But do one business day after you turn in it s(x)n. Fhis special offer ends your completed application. | p j June 30.

CAROLYN MORRIS, CMC City Clerk Publish: May 12, 1987

CAUFORNIA FIRST BANK

McmhtrEniC. (alifomia First Bank has Inani Ins lo scivi- vou. slaliwidf. In Orange Counly, vou'll lind iis in: CosUi M<'s;i. ( press, l>ana l'oinl. Fullertoii.rf^S Huniingtiin Bfaih.liviiif. laguna Hills, \iwixiii lUaiii,San( .iememc. ^ m l San Juan Capistrano.Sanu Ana.-St-al lUai Ii. Stanti m. Iuslin and VV'cstminster.