, I
Teen murder lacks
motive, suspects
SUSPECT from page 1
Gary Lacey said.
Pickinpaugh was a ward of the
state, and had lived with Robert and
Marilyn Beggs in a group home at
2155 S. 52*“ St for 14 months before
his murder.
“He was a pretty good student,”
Robert Beggs said. “But apparently
there were a lot of things we didn’t
know.”
Ten to 15 police officers and
detectives spent Friday collecting
evidence from the crime scene and
interviewing people who knew
Pickinpaugh in an effort to find the
killer, Casady said.
The investigation continued
throughout the weekend, but by
Sunday afternoon police had no offi
cial suspects.
Pickinpaugh was a student at
Lincoln Southeast High School,
Lacey said. Pickinpaugh’s mother
and two brothers, one younger and
one older, live in Lincoln, and his
father lives in Hastings.
At the group home where eight
other teen-agers lived with
Pickinpaugh, Beggs said there were
“all kinds of degrees of sadness and
remorse.”
Pickinpaugh was a practical
joker, Beggs said, but he got along
with about everyone in the group
home.
In 1995, a teen-ager who lived at
the same group home was found
deadjust a few blocks north of where
Pickinpaugh was found critically
injured.
Michael Schmader was 17 when
he was found buried in a shallow
grave near 48th Street and Antelope
Creek.
Pickinpaugh’s body was taken to
BryanLGH Medical Center West for
an autopsy Friday morning, but
Lacey would not release the cause of
death.
“We feel the investigation will be
aided by not releasing the cause (of
death) in this case,” Lacey said.
Police believe the murder,
Lincoln’s first this year, happened
between 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. in the
shopping center parking lot.
• Lacey said the unidentified
McDonald’s customer who found
Pickinpaugh was walking to his car
in the west end of the lot when he saw
a green Chevrolet Cavalier with the
«
He was
a pretty good
student.
But apparently
there were
a lot of things
we didn’t know ”
i Robert Beggs
Pickinpaugh’s foster parent
door open.
“The customer saw the individual
(lying there) and thought it was
unusual,” Casady said. “Then he
took a closer look and saw that some
thing bad had happened.”
The customer went back inside
McDonald’s where an employee
called police, Casady said.
There were other cars parked a
few feet away from the Cavalier in
the last row of parking of the well-lit
shopping center when Pickinpaugh
was found, Casady said.
Except for the restaurant, most
stores had already closed that night.
The Cavalier belonged to a friend
of Pickinpaugh’s, Lacey said.
Pickinpaugh had lots of friends,
Lacey said, many of whom called
police to offer information about him
i and his whereabouts that night.
Lacey would not discuss
specifics of any evidence police
seized, or of the crime scene where
the slender boy with bleached hair
was killed.
At Southeast High School, coun
seling was available Friday to help
students cope with the murder.
Anyone with information about
the crime should contact police or
call Crime Stoppers at (402) 475
3600.
Although police had not estab
lished a motive for the murder, Lacey
said that there was no reason to
believe this was a random killing or a
threat to public safety.
“I don’t feel afraid* myself, to go
anywhere in the city,” Lacey said.
“Aud there is no reason to fear this
area.”
dailyneb.com
“ Failures of Feminism”
Bay Buchanan
Wednesday, February 24th 8:00 p.m.,
Nebraska Union
•Co-host of CNBC Talk Show *United States Treasurer
“Equal Time” During the Reagan
Administration
Sponsored by:
•Young America’s Foundation
•UNL Students for Life
gUMCAMgjgJ
•UNL College Republicans
•University Program Council
Housing to allow non-honors
students to stay an extra year
Neihardt Residence Hall students now can stay until summer2001
By Bernard Vogelsang
Staff writer
University Housing will allow
non-honors students now living in
Neihardt Residence Center to stay
there for an extra year, until the sum
mer of 2001.
University Housing modified the
new housing policy for Neihardt
after the Residence Hall Association
recommended in a resolution that the
25 non-honors students be allowed
to stay there until graduation.
Doug Zatechka, director of
University Housing, said the modifi
cation was made to honor the RHA
resolution.
“This decision extends the time
non-honors students can stay in
Neihardt as much as possible,” he
said.
RHA passed the resolution three
weeks ago as a reaction to the origi
nal University Housing policy that
non-honors students should have to
move out of Neihardt before the fall
of2000.
RHA President Shane Perkins
said he was pleased Zatechka and
Patrice Berger, director of UNL’s
Honors Program, took the RHA res
olution seriously and found an alter
native to the original plan.
The three Neihardt senators
voted against the RHA resolution
three weeks ago.
Neihardt President Jocelyn
Walsh said, however, she is proud die
RHA resolution helped make
University Housing change its mind
on a previous decision.
“This proves RHA is effective,”
she said.
Non-honors students now living
in Neihardt can stay there even
longer than the summer of 2001 if
space exists, Zatechka wrote in a let
ter to Perkins.
In other business, the RHA
Senate approved the spring semester
budget by acclamation Sunday
night.
The senate also decided to sup
port the Fourth Annual Cancun in the
Abel-Sandoz Dining Hall with $600.
The dinner event will be held March
25.
Walsh proposed to amend the
request by Sandoz from $800 to
$400 because only $1,500 is left on
the RHA budget for social events in
the spring semester.
But RHA Election
Commissioner Kristy Jacobberger
said a small amount left for social
events shouldn’t be a reason to sup
port Sandoz with less money.
“If you are going to have a mind
set like this, every hall is going to
turn in their requests for money in
week one,” she said.
After studying^ Sandoz’ budget
for the event, Harper Hall President
Joe Scharfbillig proposed to support
Sandoz with $600.
“This amount takes the situation
on our budget into account and won’t
hurt Sandoz.”
n More than 150,000 Americans have served
A as Peace Corps Volunteers,
helping others to help themselves
in more than 80 developing countries
around the world.
^ You've thought about it!
D Now experience the adventure &
P fullfiliment of a lifetime!
I I-1
I INFORMATION TABLE:
I 9 am - 3 pm
[S February 22nd-24th
PI Student Union
pj February 25th
\ FILM SHOW:
4 pm
Wednesday, February 24th
Student Union
b 1— ---1
For more information call:
p 800/424-8580 (press #1)
{
N www.peacecorps.gov
□ um m msn □ nrm ■ □ nyjm ■