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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 1987)
VuZXZlliZil: Partly clouiy and cooler Tuesday. Hi ;;h near 45. Wind becoming east 5 to 10 mph. Increasing clouds Tuesday night. Low around 20. Partly cloudy and cool Wednesday. High around 40. NewsDijMt P?: j 2 Editorial . A Sports P.:.' 7 Entertainment Pa:;a 9 Classified Pag 9 11 J" February 3, 1987 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 86, No. 94 Police find family dead From Staff and Wire Reports Police removed five bodies from a southeast Lincoln house Monday even ing after an apparent suicide note received earlier Monday prompted authorities to search the house. The victims Stan Gushard, his wife Judy, two sons Dylan, 16, Brandon, 19, and daughter Vanessa, 12, of 4650 La Salle St. were found by police at 2 p.m. The father, prompted by financial problems, apparently shot his wife and children with a handgun before killing himself, Lancaster County Attorney Mike Heavican said. "It appears to be a multiple homicide-suicide situation involving all the members of a single family," Heavi can said. "The motive appeared to be financial. He appeared to be in finan - 0 C rl I- . 0 0-. 1 7at 's wo snowball . . . Harper-Schramm-Smith residents take time out to enjoy the unseasonably warm tempera tures with a game of volleyball. Record-matching temperatures in the 60s are expected to continue early this week. Working the night shift Mortuary assistants By Merry Hayes Staff Reporter It's not a gory job. It's not ajob many people could talk about, let alone do. It's a job that makes some people shiver and others recoil. But at least three UNL students do it. It's a job as a mortician's assistant. It includes answering mortuary phones and sometimes transferring a body from the site of death to the mortuary. Ross Faubel, a sophomore marketing major, has worked at Roper and Sons Inc. for four months. "I think a lot is what you thirk of it," Faubel said. "People say, 'I could never do that.' That's true. A lot of peoplejust couldn't handle it." Kent Disney, a junior broadcasting major, has worked at Lincoln Memorial Funeral Home for a month. "People say, 'How can you do that?' and 'That's weird,' " Disney said, "but then they start asking a million questions. "Everyone's curious about mortuaries cial trouble and that appears to be what was bothering him." Heavican said both parents were lawyers. Heavican could not give the exact time of the killings. "I'm sure it was sometime over the weekend, but I don't know when," he said. Heavican said police also found three notes at the house, apparently written by the father. "They generally indicate that he was the one who committed the homicides and they talk about a motive," Heavi can said. Heavican said some of the victims apparently were sleeping when they were killed. Some were shot in the head, he said. Heavican said the killings appar ff J- r r f- - r i ! 4 -t 0 ' , i ... and death. They're real curious, but they wouldn't want to have to do it." Steve Keedy, a junior business-administration major who has worked at Lincoln Memorial for two months, said people ask him questions, too especially about the bodies. The first night he was alone in the mortuary, the ele vator door opened and closed by itself. They ask him questions like "What do they look like?", "Do you have to touch them?" and "Do you have to embalm them?" All three said the job is not gory. Keedy said he spends more time driving to and from the death sites than picking up the bodies. All three mainly drive and answer phones. They do not embalm. fl L lJ r: G l k . ia a - n't J J.I n r ! - m! ently occurred quickly and with "no apparent sign of struggle." Deputy County Attorney Gary Lacey said the father was found with a hand gun in a downstairs den, lying on a couch. One of the sons was found in a canopy-covered bed in an upstairs bed room in the house, Lacey said. The girl was found in another upstairs bedroom and the mother lying face up on the floor of an upstairs bathroom, Lacey said. The other son was found in a down stairs bedroom, lying on a bed, he said. Corey Groshans, 16, a classmate of one of the sons at Lincoln Southeast High School, said the couple had mari tal problems, but appeared to have patched up their differences. He said See MURDERSUICIDE on 6 1 j a. . Paul VonderiageDaily Nebraskan Usually pickup points are nursing homes or hospitals. Disney said the not-so-average pickups are unexpected deaths such as car wrecks, fires, murders and suicides. He said in these cases, the police notify the one of the five Lincoln mortuaries on the "coro ner's call." This duty rotates monthly. The assistants said these calls can be difficult, but overall, the job's benefits outweigh the unpleasantness. They are paid minimum wage, receive free rent and utilities, and use of tfye company's typewriters, copy machines, washers and dryers. Keedy said other benefits are respon sibility and freedom. Faubel said, "I think it evens out what I get paid for and what I do." Disney and Keedy live in an apart ment at Lincoln Memorial. They alter nate working hours Monday through Friday, 5 p.m. to 7 a.m., and all weekend. He said sometimes their sleep is disturbed by a call, but that's part of the job. Faubel said he works and lives at Roper and Sons two weeknights from 5:30 to 7 a.m. and every other weekend 1 5 I , as Out aimoimces "bnadlget prioritie By Michael Hooper Senior Reporter Calling for tight budgeting be cause of limited resources, Gov. Kay Orr on Monday presented her 1987 88 budget recommendations to the Nebraska Legislature. In her State of the State address, Orr said that although she has heard the budget requests of all state agencies, not everyone will agree with her priorities. Throughout her review of the budget requests, Orr said, she "had to rely on the admonition: 'just say no. " Orr proposed the continued fund ing of the Lied Center for Perform ing Arts and the Animal Science and Clinical Facility on East Cam pus, and cutting in nursing and intercollegiate athletics budgftt., at NU. The university should work . . to revitalize the state.' Orr She also proposed eliminating the so-called advocacy agencies. Without including saliuy increases, Orr's budget recommendations for 1987-88 fall $81.6 million short of state agencies' requests of $928 million. Orr's proposal also is $12.9 mil lion short of meeting the universi ty's 1987-88 budget request of $177.6 million. Orr estimated that the state tax system will generate the $S9S mil lion necessary to fund her 1 987-55 budget without a tax increase. Orr's budget for the next fiscal year is about $862 million. For 1988-89 Orr is recommending a budget of about $876 million. She estimates a 3 per cent cash reserve for the first year an honest night's work from 5:30 p.m. Friday to 7 a.m. Monday. Two of the four assistants there work at a time. In the beginning the job can be frightening, the assistants said. 'Everyone's cur ious about mortu aries and death. They're real cur ious, but they wouldn't want to have to do it.' Kent Disney Faubel said before his first call he thought, "What's it going to be like? Is it going to be gory?" He said he told the funeral director that he was a "little bit hesitant" about touching a dead person, and the director told him that a dead person would never hurt him. and a 6.6 percent reserve for the second year. For fiscal year 1988, Orr has pro posed that $100,000 be cut from the College of Nursing and $1 16,645 be cut from intercollegiate athletics. Ultimately, the NU Board of Regents decide where specific cuts will be made. But Larry Bare, director of the Department of Administrative Ser vices said that Orr feels the univer sity has one too many nursing programs. One-third of the advway a.n cies' budgets would be rut each year, Orr said. Rliminatinj? f.h frtdiaiv Commission, the Commission1 on the Htitm d Women and the Mexi can American- Commission over tlie next three y.ars will allow-' tW wmmissirtnR'' timo iw find'- otherr :y,urcs of funding she ssM "jteduefions' in exlstlnirorams are; rtocossutV in order'' vs Trt'et:ojrr eAmmitw'ntH tb(n?oin! Htkfiment''t priV-irauis,. t' prwide ' fer!'s?.?ar j.vir'ivats for's'tsti f jj '.vf ; w .y rt ovo fofVafi !on tfh tf'M Sre1 AH P aviws;" 'ftrvsTTld.'- Ot'r !(d -lt j'tfJIt II ;T. f)l;ll I " flu1 '.." .iiiUii' dqi i.UuiiKni, fito' Isl.;.-'-if.v ?-.i4- I'l'!.'4! H ttkt!fc fl r'cftH-ll'f9 lnl th r".xi iu ni vA uill rfdure sfale ai,iMv$njttinsfort'he comiug year by 'million. In hn Wenniril 'budget, 'Orr indiK milium forvnivPsiiy re$??zh sTtd tfchsiiciil uxiiikiitK to enhance Nebraska's economy. The $1.1 million would be distrib uted by the NU administration. "The university should work closely with state government and the private sector to fashion new partnerships designed to revitalize this state," Orr said. Orr also included $500,000 for the first yvar and $750,000 for the second year for biotechnology and food pro cessing at UNL She also proposed to appropriate $150,000 for the first year and $250,000 for the second year to the Small Business Devel opment Center at UNO. "That's so simple," Faubel said. "But it's true. It's not going to jump out at me." Keedy said his first call was "pretty scary" because he didn't know what to expect, but after the first time he got used to it. Disney said the first night he was 'alone in the mortuary the elevator opened and closed by itself. He found out later that it does that all the time. "That can get you. That can make you jump," he said. "No matter how used to it you get, you're still aware you're in a mortuary." The assistants said the job can become routine, but it is always difficult when they are confronted with the death of a young person. "What throws you is a suicide or an infant. That bothers me," Keedy said. Disney said, "Picking up someone who is old and has lived a long life is one thing, but picking up somelx)dy young, that's different." Faubel said, "After being around death and dying, I know I would never commit suicide because life is so precious."