October 26, 1993
University of Nebraska
^SPORTS
A rivalry spilling
into the stands?
Colorado coach Bill
McCartney addresses the
behavior of Buffalo and
Comhusker fans.
Riga 5
Tuesday
55/30
Breezy and cool
today, sun this
afternoon.
Wednesday, fair.
Vol. 93 No. 46
Emotion packs first day of Bjorklund trial
By Alan Phelps
and Steve Smith
Senior Reporters
Roger Bjorklund killed an al
ready wounded Candice
Harms because he thought it
was the humane thing to do, Lancaster
County Attorney Gary Lacey said
Monday.
Lacey, speaking to jurors on the
first day of Bjorklund's first-degree
murder trial, said Bjorklund fired three
rounds into Harms' head afier she had
been sexually assaulted twice, shot
once and strangled.
But Chief Public Defender Scott
Helvie argued the state’s evidence
against Bjorklund was circumstantial
and Bjorklund’s statements to police
were coerced. He said Scott Barney,
another man charged in the murder,
killed Harms.
The mood was emotional in the
courtroom from prosecutors’ open
ing statements to witnesses’ testimo
ny.
At least two jurors were brought to
the verge of tears during later testimo
ny from Stan and Pat Harms, Candice
Harms’ parents, and Todd Sears, her
boyfriend.
Bjorklund faces charges of first
degree murder and use of a firearm in
commission of a felony in the murder
of Harms, an 18-year-old University
of Nebraska-Lincoln student.
Lacey said the state would try to
prove the following:
Bjorklund and Barney had dis
cussed abducting and sexually as
saulting a woman for two weeks prior
to Harms' disappearance. At about 6
p.m. on Sept. 22, they began driving
around Lincoln, “stalking, looking, de
siring to find a woman in this commu
nity who they could abduct and have
their way with,” Lacey said.
The pair drove near the university
looking for a victim. At one point, they
spotted a woman standing on a porch,
but Barney decided nabbing her might
cause too much of a disturbance.
Just before they were about to give
up about midnight, Barney and
See TRIAL on 3
Bjorklund trial update
► During opening statements,
prosecutors said Bjorklund sexually
assaulted Harms while reciting lines
from the movie "Cape Fear/
► Prosecuting attorneys said that after
the murder Bjorklund and Barney
"went home, almost as if nothing had
happened/
► Defense attorneys said the state's
evidence against Bjorklund was
circumstantial, and Barney actually
_Killed Harms.
JayCaMtronAN
Roommates Don Damon (toft) and Brad Johnson have a longer commute than most UNL students. Tha two
moved to e farmhouse 20 miles south of Lincoln.
Greener acres
Students trade city’s hustle, bustle for rural seclusion
By Alan Phelps
Smtior Htoorttr _
Drive south far enough, and you might
hear electric guitar cords floating
over the miles of milo.
That probably means Brad Johnson and
Don Denton’s landlord is away and the
guitar-wielding duo is cranking up the am
plifiers.
“We jam a lot and don’t have to disturb
any neighbors,” said Denton, a former Lin
coln resident who now lives amongst crick
ets and cornfields.
Tired of city life, the two students decid
ed in July to move 20 miles away from the
hustle and bustle of Lincoln.
The paint is peeling, (lies zoom about the
living room, and cable television is only a
dream. But the rent is only $300 a month,
and the roommates enjoy the solitude — far
different from the pad near 26th and Vine
streets that Johnson and Denton used to
share with three other people.
Johnson, a criminal justice and psychol
ogy major at the University of Nebraska
Lincoln, proudly pointed at the faded wall
paper and plaster flaking off his wall.
“Some people in New York City pay
good money to have walls that look like
that,” he said. “We got it for free.”
“It’s good to be out here where it’s se
cluded," said Denton, who studies drafting
at Southeast Community College. “This is
definitely cheaper.”
The roommates, friends since they went
to school together in Oakland, said it wasn’t
easy locating dream homes.
“We looked for them, but they’re really
hard to find,” Johnson said.
See FARM on 2
Police seek
3 suspects
in beating
By Jeff Zeleny
Senior Editor__
The University of Nebraska athletic de
partment helped in the investigation of
the assault of a UNL international stu
dent, Police Chief Ken Cauble said Monday
night.
The athletic department “helped contact
people who may have had information regard
ing the incident,” Cauble said. He said the
department cooperated throughout the investi
gation. „ _ _ . . ^ ^ _i
Cauble would not say why the athletic de
partment was involved in the investigation, nor
would he specify which area of the department
was cooperating.
i nree suspects, including one university or
Nebraska-Lincoln student, are being sought on
third-degree assault charges in connection with
the Oct. 17 beating ofBoon-ChungOng, a UNL
student from Malaysia.
Further information about the suspects and
the assault will be released by university offi
cials Tuesday afternoon, Cauble said.
No arrests have been made in the case,
Cauble said, but the suspects have been identi
fied. UNL police have been unable to locate the
two nonstudents, Cauble said. One suspect
lives in Omaha and the other in Lincoln, he said.
Tin; three suspects wiH be cited on misde
meanor charges stemming from the assault.
The charges carry a maximum of one year in
prison or a $ 1,000 fine or both.
According to police reports, Ong was found
semi-conscious near Broyhill Fountain. He was
treated and released from Lincoln General Hos
pital.
Witnesses told police a group of black men
were crowded around Ong on Broyhill Plaza.
Two or three of the men were assaulting Ong,
witnesses said. Ong fell to the ground and was
kicked in the head several times, witnesses
said.
Cauble said members of the Afrikan Peo
ple’s Union provided valuable information in
the investigation. APU members have said a
group of 10 men that caused a disturbance at
Rapfest, an event held the night of the beating
in the Nebraska Union, also might have been
involved in the assault.
See ASSAULT on 2
Former Lincolnite gathers area’s believable ghost stories
Editor's note: This story is the sec
ond in a Halloween week series about
Lincoln ghost stories.
By Matthew Waite
Staff Reporter
Stories about the Nebraska Cap
itol Building’s ghosts aren’t list
ed in any history books, but that
doesn’t mean the ghosts aren’t there.
“Guide to the Ghosts of Lincoln ”
a book by Alan Boye, chronicles the
tales of ghosts and other things that go
bump in the night in the Lincoln area.
Locations range from the fiflh floor of
Pound Residence Hall to Antelope
Park.
Bo ye, a journalism professor at
Lyndon State College in St. Johnsbury,
Vt., said he started collecting ghost
stories for the
HAimwEEN
book 10 years ago.
Boye placed a se
ries of ads in Lin
coln area papers
asking for people
to send him ghost
stories. He re
ceived between
tyu ana zuu sio
ries, he said.
After narrowing the field to 30 or
40 stories, Boye said he did follow-up
research. The best 12 stories were
written for the book.
But even research didn’t convince
Boye ghosts existed.
rTm somewhat skeptical myself,”
Boye said. “But the reason these sto
ries mack it into the book is because
they were so believable.”
Boye said one of the stories in the
book came from his own experiences.
The story, titled “Just Go East on
‘O’ Street,” took place at an old farm
house outside of Lincoln on Highway
34. Boye and an archeological crew
of which he was a member moved into
the house, which was near some old
Indian mounds they were to excavate.
The owner told crew members the
previous tenants disappeared without
a trace. When the crew members
moved into the house, they found the
former tenants’ breakfast still on the
table.
While in the house, the crew heard
noises in the night of footsteps, furni
ture being moved and dishes being
smashed. Also, the water pipes were
unscrewed, flooding the basement.
According to the story, crew mem
bers saw the apparition at night and
actually lived with it for several weeks.
“It was very interesting," Boye
said. “I halfway hoped it would con
tinue.”
Boye said he was excited by the
eerie and frightening sensation the
haunting caused.
“But you tell yourself that this
can’t be happening.”
Boye said historical tics, such as a
tragic death at the location, made the
story realistic.
The believability of a ghost story
depends on its intensity, he said.
To make the stories real, Boye said
he used many different sources to get
corroborating information.
He said he used old newspaper
accounts, interviews with those in
See BOYE on 2