rhscare
08-05-2002, 04:13
A life of public accomplishment and acclaim ended in an explosion of private violence early Saturday when a woman friend shot former Public Safety Commissioner Glenn Godfrey to death at his Eagle River home and critically wounded Godfrey's wife, Patti.
Anchorage police said the shooter, Karen Brand, then turned the gun on herself, committing suicide with a single shot to the head.
Police said Brand was apparently distraught at the breakup of a romance with Godfrey and at Godfrey's reconciliation with his wife. The Godfreys, who were separated for a while, have been married for 35 years and were scheduled to leave this week on an extended European vacation.
Patti Godfrey, 52, remained in critical but stable condition at Alaska Regional Hospital late Saturday after surviving 12 hours of surgery to repair gunshot wounds to her arms, leg and stomach.
Godfrey, 53, retired as commissioner in June to become an executive with Koniag Inc., the Native regional corporation for the Kodiak area. Before his appointment as commissioner, Godfrey rose through the ranks to become head of the Alaska State Troopers, the first Native to hold the top job.
Patti and Glenn were high school sweethearts, said Carl Marrs, president of CIRI and a friend from the days when they all attended school in Kodiak. Godfrey spent Friday in Seward with family members, Marrs said.
"It's such a sad day for Alaska," Marrs said. "Glenn had such a future in front of him. He spent 32 years working public safety and put himself in many dangerous situations. Then to have this happen. He just had so much to live for."
Brand, 33, was vice president of the Alaska State Chamber of Commerce and ran the organization's office in Anchorage. Before that, she worked as a legislative aide through much of the 1990s, first for Rep. Carl Moses and, most recently, for Sen. Dave Donley.
Police said Brand shot the Godfreys just before 12:30 a.m. How she got into the home remained unclear Saturday, but Anchorage police investigators believe they can reconstruct some of the details of the shootings from evidence at the scene and from a call to 911 made by Patti Godfrey.
Brand shot Glenn Godfrey first as he stood in the downstairs living room, said officer John Daily, the crime scene supervisor. Godfrey died quickly, he said, shot once in the head and twice in the chest.
Brand then shot Patti Godfrey as she fled upstairs. Brand returned downstairs and shot herself, Daily said.
Patti Godfrey, critically injured, made a frantic call to 911 at 12:30 a.m. She called from an upstairs closet, said police spokesman Ron McGee.
Coherent but growing steadily weaker, she stayed on the phone with dispatchers for several minutes.
Concerned that they might be facing a hostage situation, the city's Crisis Intervention Response Team rushed to the scene, followed by a stream of police cars. In all, about 25 officers converged on the Eagle River Road house.
Investigators said they recovered eight casings. There was some question of whether more than one weapon was used. Police found a 44-caliber Magnum handgun near Brand's body.
They declined to identify the gun's owner. It remained unclear whether Brand had brought the gun with her or found it at the Godfrey home.
Originally, police said Brand entered the Godfrey home through an open window, then waited in a downstairs closet to ambush the couple when they got home. But later in the day, they retracted that scenario and said they were still trying to determine whether she arrived before or after the Godfreys returned home around 11 p.m. Friday.
Police said they found a car they believe belonged to Brand parked on a road above the house.
According to a statement issued by the Godfreys' four grown children, the couple had experienced recent marital problems but were working through them. They spent three weeks together on Afognak Island after Godfrey's retirement in June.
"No one could have expected such a horrific assault on our family, and we cannot speak to the motives of the person responsible for this shooting," the family said.
The planned European vacation was to celebrate the Godfreys' 35th wedding anniversary, the family said.
Saturday, several police cars and a mobile crime lab were parked in the driveway at the Godfreys' comfortable two-story wood home. Flowers growing from planters lined the deck; wild roses and fruit trees decorated the front yard.
Next-door neighbors Kurt and Deb Vause said they saw Patti and Glenn return home around 11. They watched from their deck as the couple stopped to check the mail, pulled into the garage and walked into the house. They never saw Brand.
The Vauses' son came home from work at 11:45 p.m. and sat with Kurt outside. About 45 minutes later, the men heard a shot, then more shots.
"There was a scream. Then there was a pause," Kurt Vause said.
As he and his son tried to figure out what was going on, they heard another group of shots followed by another pause.
There was one last shot, muffled, and then silence.
If their timing is correct, the shooting didn't begin until about 90 minutes after the Godfreys got home.
Saturday morning, Deb Vause cradled two little black dogs police found cowering in the Godfrey kitchen. The dogs were Patti Godfrey's "babies," especially since the couple's four grown children had moved out, Deb Vause said.
As word of the shootings spread Saturday, friends of Brand called the police scenario unimaginable. Nothing about her suggested she was capable of murderous rage or that she was despairing enough to consider ending her own life, said one friend after another.
"It's utterly inexplicable," said Schelly Cramer, a close friend. "There was no dark side to her."
"I want to see the body before I believe it," said friend Sharon Stockard, a Daily News copy editor.
Born and raised in Fairbanks, Brand had a degree in finance from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She was a person who could do anything, Stockard and other people said. She was a devoted horsewoman, a good cook and a hunter who once dressed out a caribou in an apartment bathtub, Stockard said. "She could go hunting during the day, then come home and get dressed for a ball and look like a million bucks."
"I called her this morning to see if she wanted to go ride today."
Friends described Brand as a tall, attractive blonde, caring and friendly, even tempered, bright, popular and seemingly happy, always there to help with other people's problems. In 1996, Brand married Greg Helms, a construction manager. Helms, also from Fairbanks, is 20 years older than Brand, the same age as Godfrey.
Friends would not discuss whether the couple were having problems, but Helms' father, Roy Helms, said there was no inkling of trouble between Brand and his son. "We have no idea what the hell happened," Helms said.
-Anchorage Daily News
Anchorage police said the shooter, Karen Brand, then turned the gun on herself, committing suicide with a single shot to the head.
Police said Brand was apparently distraught at the breakup of a romance with Godfrey and at Godfrey's reconciliation with his wife. The Godfreys, who were separated for a while, have been married for 35 years and were scheduled to leave this week on an extended European vacation.
Patti Godfrey, 52, remained in critical but stable condition at Alaska Regional Hospital late Saturday after surviving 12 hours of surgery to repair gunshot wounds to her arms, leg and stomach.
Godfrey, 53, retired as commissioner in June to become an executive with Koniag Inc., the Native regional corporation for the Kodiak area. Before his appointment as commissioner, Godfrey rose through the ranks to become head of the Alaska State Troopers, the first Native to hold the top job.
Patti and Glenn were high school sweethearts, said Carl Marrs, president of CIRI and a friend from the days when they all attended school in Kodiak. Godfrey spent Friday in Seward with family members, Marrs said.
"It's such a sad day for Alaska," Marrs said. "Glenn had such a future in front of him. He spent 32 years working public safety and put himself in many dangerous situations. Then to have this happen. He just had so much to live for."
Brand, 33, was vice president of the Alaska State Chamber of Commerce and ran the organization's office in Anchorage. Before that, she worked as a legislative aide through much of the 1990s, first for Rep. Carl Moses and, most recently, for Sen. Dave Donley.
Police said Brand shot the Godfreys just before 12:30 a.m. How she got into the home remained unclear Saturday, but Anchorage police investigators believe they can reconstruct some of the details of the shootings from evidence at the scene and from a call to 911 made by Patti Godfrey.
Brand shot Glenn Godfrey first as he stood in the downstairs living room, said officer John Daily, the crime scene supervisor. Godfrey died quickly, he said, shot once in the head and twice in the chest.
Brand then shot Patti Godfrey as she fled upstairs. Brand returned downstairs and shot herself, Daily said.
Patti Godfrey, critically injured, made a frantic call to 911 at 12:30 a.m. She called from an upstairs closet, said police spokesman Ron McGee.
Coherent but growing steadily weaker, she stayed on the phone with dispatchers for several minutes.
Concerned that they might be facing a hostage situation, the city's Crisis Intervention Response Team rushed to the scene, followed by a stream of police cars. In all, about 25 officers converged on the Eagle River Road house.
Investigators said they recovered eight casings. There was some question of whether more than one weapon was used. Police found a 44-caliber Magnum handgun near Brand's body.
They declined to identify the gun's owner. It remained unclear whether Brand had brought the gun with her or found it at the Godfrey home.
Originally, police said Brand entered the Godfrey home through an open window, then waited in a downstairs closet to ambush the couple when they got home. But later in the day, they retracted that scenario and said they were still trying to determine whether she arrived before or after the Godfreys returned home around 11 p.m. Friday.
Police said they found a car they believe belonged to Brand parked on a road above the house.
According to a statement issued by the Godfreys' four grown children, the couple had experienced recent marital problems but were working through them. They spent three weeks together on Afognak Island after Godfrey's retirement in June.
"No one could have expected such a horrific assault on our family, and we cannot speak to the motives of the person responsible for this shooting," the family said.
The planned European vacation was to celebrate the Godfreys' 35th wedding anniversary, the family said.
Saturday, several police cars and a mobile crime lab were parked in the driveway at the Godfreys' comfortable two-story wood home. Flowers growing from planters lined the deck; wild roses and fruit trees decorated the front yard.
Next-door neighbors Kurt and Deb Vause said they saw Patti and Glenn return home around 11. They watched from their deck as the couple stopped to check the mail, pulled into the garage and walked into the house. They never saw Brand.
The Vauses' son came home from work at 11:45 p.m. and sat with Kurt outside. About 45 minutes later, the men heard a shot, then more shots.
"There was a scream. Then there was a pause," Kurt Vause said.
As he and his son tried to figure out what was going on, they heard another group of shots followed by another pause.
There was one last shot, muffled, and then silence.
If their timing is correct, the shooting didn't begin until about 90 minutes after the Godfreys got home.
Saturday morning, Deb Vause cradled two little black dogs police found cowering in the Godfrey kitchen. The dogs were Patti Godfrey's "babies," especially since the couple's four grown children had moved out, Deb Vause said.
As word of the shootings spread Saturday, friends of Brand called the police scenario unimaginable. Nothing about her suggested she was capable of murderous rage or that she was despairing enough to consider ending her own life, said one friend after another.
"It's utterly inexplicable," said Schelly Cramer, a close friend. "There was no dark side to her."
"I want to see the body before I believe it," said friend Sharon Stockard, a Daily News copy editor.
Born and raised in Fairbanks, Brand had a degree in finance from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She was a person who could do anything, Stockard and other people said. She was a devoted horsewoman, a good cook and a hunter who once dressed out a caribou in an apartment bathtub, Stockard said. "She could go hunting during the day, then come home and get dressed for a ball and look like a million bucks."
"I called her this morning to see if she wanted to go ride today."
Friends described Brand as a tall, attractive blonde, caring and friendly, even tempered, bright, popular and seemingly happy, always there to help with other people's problems. In 1996, Brand married Greg Helms, a construction manager. Helms, also from Fairbanks, is 20 years older than Brand, the same age as Godfrey.
Friends would not discuss whether the couple were having problems, but Helms' father, Roy Helms, said there was no inkling of trouble between Brand and his son. "We have no idea what the hell happened," Helms said.
-Anchorage Daily News