Bjorklund
Continued from Page 1
until Barney’s statement to police.
Her body was found buried in a shal
low grave in a field southeast of Lin
coln.
Harms’ name was mentioned for
the first time in the hearings during
afternoon testimony Wednesday.
During questioning by Assistant
County Attorney John Colbom, Lin
coln Police Detective Sgt. James
Spanel recalled the investigation of
Bjorklund’s garage where a stolen
1977 Chevrolet pickup truck was re
covered. Colbom asked if it was in
volved in the death of Harms. Spanel
said it had not been.
In morning testimony, Lincoln
Police Officers Brian Jackson and
Dennis Duckworth detailed the cir
cumstances of Bjorklund’s arrest and
the items seized from his vehicle and
residence at 610 S. 52nd St.
A search of Bjorklund’s car after
the arrest yielded an unloaded 9 mm
semi-automatic pistol, a clip Ml of
bullets, a police scanner, a lead pipe,
$23 cash and some pills.
Duckworth said items seized Dec.
2 from the South 52nd Street house
included several newspaper articles
about robberies, articles about the
Mafia, a coat with a container of tear
gas in one pocket, two address books,
a small amount of marijuana and
ammunition.
On Dec. 8, police returned to the
address with a search warrant,
Duckworth said, and took from
Bjorklund’s garage a shovel with dirt
on it and a plastic wheel with duct
tape.
Duckworth said he was driving by
the house on an unrelated call Dec. 11
and saw a desk, telephone book and
posters he had earlier seen inside the
house near a garbage can outside the
house.
The hearing will resume today at 9
a.m.
Seaior Reporter Alto Pkdpi coatrlbuted
to thb itory.
Text of BJorfclund letter:
Editor’s note:
TMs Is the text of s letter from Roger
Bjorklund to Sten end PatHsrme, parents
of slain UNL student Candice Harms. The
handwritten letter, dated Dec. 24, 1992,
was transcribsd by ths Lincoln Police
ronalnerl IhIa eidilewii*
uepanmini •na receivea inio fVKlWiC0
Wednesday In pre-trial suppression hear
ings In BJorfdund’s first-degree murder
csss. These era Bjorklund’s words. The
letter has not bean edited for content or
clarity.
Dear Mr. & Mrs. Harms,
It is Christmas Eve, 1992. This is
really the first day that I have had pen
and paper to write a letter worthy of
being written. Until this time I only had
a pencil which made for hard reading,
Ing in my
leChrist
I feel God’s
imperssion to write you, I know I am
wntina against the wishes of my law
yers but to me this is bigger than
lawyers or courts. I will tell you a little
about myself. I was born in Lincoln in
1962,1 was adopted six days after my
birth to Seventh Day Adventist par
ents. I was raised as a Christian, yet I
was not born again. I moved from
home when I was sixteen to escape
my father’s rath. It was not until I was
twenty-three that I felt God in my life,
I was baptized a Seventh Day Adventist
as was my wife. I worked for the
church in the publishing area. When I
felt God’s call to preach I began to
attend Union College, and was stu
dent pastor of a church in Falls City,
Nebraska. I thought I was saved, look
ing back I was not. It was not long time
Satan was in control, that is when I met
the man I am in jail with. My life at that
point went all the way down the tubes.
I split with my wife twice, and gave up
any attempts to be a Christian. I am
happy that God has saved my mar
riage. But that is not why I am writing,
I am writing first of all to let you know
that your Christian attitude has had a
geat effect on me. I have chosen by
od's grace to take a hold of Jesus
nail scarred hands, and to accept his
forgiveness when I die, I want to die, a
resident of heaven, and I pray the
same for my family.
I am prepared by the grace of God
to accept the full weight of the law in
my life. I am not interested in any
deals, any plea bargains, life is of
much more value than that I have told
the police the one hundred per cent
truth without asking for any sort of
deal. The truth has not been put forth
in the media, but that is okay because
whatever I get I deserve. I am not
going kicking and screaming, I am
going as God guide me. If I could take
the other man’s penalty I would do that
also. From what I have, seen and
heard of you, Iwould be happy to have
you on my jury, I can see you are fair
loving people. I hope to meet you in
heaven. I will do my best to get the one
hundred per cent truth out to the pub
lic, they and you deserve that, I am so
thankful God who gives, I hope some
day you can forgive me. I need your
prayers. I want so much for your fives
to be whole. They never can be until
you sit at the feet of Jesus. Your child
was taken from you, and that is not
fair, oh how I wish I could change
places with her. God knows this is my
true heart feeling. Ido not deserve one
bit of pity, or sympathy. And I have not
asked for it what I have asked for is
Christians to forgive and pray for me.
I would be happy at anytime, to give
you an account of what happened if
that would help you. As I prepare for
need to continue their healing. Thank
you for reading this, it is from my heart,
I hope to meet you and your family in
God's kingdom.
Sincerely,
Roger Bjorklund
Heat
Continued from Page 1
Sexton, in turn, called university
workers and was told that no air
conditioned rooms were available for
the class.
“There’s nothing I can find for
them at all,” Sexton said. “It would be
better to have the class outside."
Right now Sexton sees no hope to
help beat the heat.
“I don’t know what we’re going to
do,” she said. “I guess just pray that it
gets cooler.”
Nelson
Continued from Page 1
trict are better with Sen. Engels,” the
governor said.
Engel said although he was not a
seasoned politician, he would be ready
to start work immediately in the next
legislative session, which begins in
January.
“I am not familiar with the legisla
tive process, and I am not familiar
with all the bills that are before the
legislature,” Engel said. “But I am
very fortunate that I have the next four
months to engage in the learning pro
cess.”
That process will have to start right
away, the new state senator said.
“I plan on intensifying my learn
ing,” he said. “You have to be a
student to be a teacher. Throughout
my life, I’ve been a student in differ
ent categories, and I’m definitely a
student now.”
Engel, flanked by his children and
grandchildren at the podium, de
scribed himself as a “conservative
democrat.”
“In Nebraska, that’s kind of com
monplace,” Engel said.
Engel said hie planned to run for
election in 1994.
Academic
Continued from Page 1
career in Lincoln.
“We've attracted some good stu
dent-athletes here, and we have a lot
of players each year who have 3.4-3.5
GPA’s ” he said. “We’ve put a lot of
attention into our academic support
programs.
Nebraska swimmer Justin Switzer
was one of four Huskers, along with
football’s Mike Stigge, women's bas
ketball player Karen Jennings and
gymnast Sumner Darling, to be named
academic All-Americans last year.
Switzer said Nebraska’s strong
academic reputation for its athletes
was what attracted him to Lincoln.
“The other schools I looked at
really never mentioned academics,”
said the senior from Beaumont, Tex
as. “With Nebraska, I didn’t hear
about athletics until after I had heard
all there was to know about academ
ics and their support programs.”
Switzer, who is international busi
ness and finance major with a 3.98
GPA, said Nebraska’s academic rep
utation was catching up to its athletic
fame.
Bob Carpenter, campus architect,
said that four buildings — Military
and Naval Science, Richards Half,
Bancroft Hall and Brace Laboratory
— had only partial air-conditioning.
Students with classes and teachers
with offices in these buildings would
have to tough out the heat, he said.
Rich McDermott, UNL director of
facilities management, said his de
partment had fielded calls about tem
perature problems even in air-condi
tioned rooms.
Normally during August, the ser
vice center received about 250 calls
:omplaining about the heat and this
year has been no different, McDermott
said.
The service center can send out
temperature-control workers to try to
repair broken air-conditioning sys
tems.
“We attempt to fix them, but some
times the solution means an entire
revamping ofa system,” he said. “That
could get very expensive.”
For students and teachers who must
suffer in rooms without air-condition
ing, McDermott only can provide fans.
“Sometimes we can’t do a lot for
them,” he said.
Professors should hold their class
es at other locations, said a meteorol
ogist at the National Weather Service.
“Don’t stay in a closed room. Tell
the prof to take the class outside,” the
spokesman said. ‘That’s not good for
you.”
University officials said that dur
ing prime-time — the late morning
and early afternoon hours, extra class
room space was almost non-existent.
Unfortunately, those were the hours
when the temperature was the high
est, the meteorologist said. Such not
weather could be a hindrance to learn
ing, he said.
“I don’t know how you’re going to
learn when you’re suffering from the
heat like that,” the spokesman said.
Zariski agreed, saying that the heat
weakened his lecture.
“I had a little trouble concentrating
on what I was saying,” he said.
At Zariski’s class on Wednesday,
students were greeted by two standing
fans that stirred air through parts of
the room. But the fans were too noisy,
Zariski said.
He moved his class to a small
lecture room on the fifth floor of
Oldfather Hall, where 40 students
crowded to hear to a lecture on Euro
pean politics.
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