man, who was a couple of years older than Chris but had been in the marching band with him at Washington High School, described Chris as a “wussy.”
“Not the most masculine individual I ever saw,” he said with obvious contempt.
Chris wasn’t lucky with girls, he said, but he tried desperately to pretend otherwise. After Chris graduated from high school, he started spending a lot of time in Greenville, the young man said, and word on the street was that he had started using drugs, both marijuana and cocaine.
As for Angela, the young man said that if she didn’t like her stepfather, she didn’t make it known. She sometimes complained about her mother, he said, but usually only when her mother wouldn’t let her do something that she wanted to do.
The young man supplied the officers with the names of Chris’s closest friends who, he said, should be able to tell them a lot more.
A funeral service for Lieth Von Stein was held at four o’clock at Paul Funeral Home in Washington while a thunderstorm raged outside. The chapel was packed with Bonnie’s relatives, Lieth’s coworkers, neighbors, and friends of the family. Lieth’s body was not present. It had been cremated, the ashes to be buried in Winston-Salem later, following a second service. Bonnie, wearing a black bedroom gown, was brought to the service from the hospital in a dark blue Lincoln Continental sent by the funeral home. Angela and Chris rode with her. She walked into the chapel helped by her son and a mortuary employee.
The service was conducted by the Reverend Charles Pollock, pastor of Washington’s First United Methodist Church. He had never heard of the Von Steins before he was called by a representative of the funeral home, but Bonnie had requested a Methodist minister, and he was the most prominent in town. He had gone to the hospital earlier to talk with Bonnie, but he hadn’t been certain what to say or ask. He had difficulty preparing a eulogy, not only because he did not know Lieth and had found it difficult to ask Bonnie questions about a husband who had been murdered beside her, but also because he had heard that Lieth considered himself an atheist. In the end, he kept the service short, saying only a few words about Lieth and being careful not to emphasize the awful tragedy that had occurred. Instead, he spoke of how all people have needs, especially when faced with the mystery of death. And from the Bible he read Philippians 4:19: “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
No police officer attended the funeral. As the service was beginning, the two detectives investigating the murder were at the office of Bonnie’s attending physician, Zack Waters, Jr., questioning him about the seriousness of her wounds. The stab wound was serious, Dr. Waters assured them, but he could not determine the depth of it without opening the chest again and measuring it, and he was not about to do that. Bonnie was responding well to treatment, and he planned to release her from the hospital on Monday, just a week after she had been attacked. It was his understanding that she intended to move to Winston-Salem but would remain in Washington for a few days after her release. He had recommended that she not return to her house on Lawson Road for emotional reasons. She had told him that she would be staying at the Holiday Inn with her family. It was clear that Dr. Waters considered his patient to be a victim, and the possibility that she might have submitted willingly to such injuries probably never crossed his mind.
Asked if he objected to the police taking a blood sample from Bonnie, Dr. Waters said that he didn’t object, but he would not order it. It would have to be voluntary on her part.
On the day following the funeral, Hope and Young returned to Beaufort County Hospital to talk again with Bonnie. She had been moved from intensive care to room 268, and she was doing well enough that she was able
“Not the most masculine individual I ever saw,” he said with obvious contempt.
Chris wasn’t lucky with girls, he said, but he tried desperately to pretend otherwise. After Chris graduated from high school, he started spending a lot of time in Greenville, the young man said, and word on the street was that he had started using drugs, both marijuana and cocaine.
As for Angela, the young man said that if she didn’t like her stepfather, she didn’t make it known. She sometimes complained about her mother, he said, but usually only when her mother wouldn’t let her do something that she wanted to do.
The young man supplied the officers with the names of Chris’s closest friends who, he said, should be able to tell them a lot more.
A funeral service for Lieth Von Stein was held at four o’clock at Paul Funeral Home in Washington while a thunderstorm raged outside. The chapel was packed with Bonnie’s relatives, Lieth’s coworkers, neighbors, and friends of the family. Lieth’s body was not present. It had been cremated, the ashes to be buried in Winston-Salem later, following a second service. Bonnie, wearing a black bedroom gown, was brought to the service from the hospital in a dark blue Lincoln Continental sent by the funeral home. Angela and Chris rode with her. She walked into the chapel helped by her son and a mortuary employee.
The service was conducted by the Reverend Charles Pollock, pastor of Washington’s First United Methodist Church. He had never heard of the Von Steins before he was called by a representative of the funeral home, but Bonnie had requested a Methodist minister, and he was the most prominent in town. He had gone to the hospital earlier to talk with Bonnie, but he hadn’t been certain what to say or ask. He had difficulty preparing a eulogy, not only because he did not know Lieth and had found it difficult to ask Bonnie questions about a husband who had been murdered beside her, but also because he had heard that Lieth considered himself an atheist. In the end, he kept the service short, saying only a few words about Lieth and being careful not to emphasize the awful tragedy that had occurred. Instead, he spoke of how all people have needs, especially when faced with the mystery of death. And from the Bible he read Philippians 4:19: “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
No police officer attended the funeral. As the service was beginning, the two detectives investigating the murder were at the office of Bonnie’s attending physician, Zack Waters, Jr., questioning him about the seriousness of her wounds. The stab wound was serious, Dr. Waters assured them, but he could not determine the depth of it without opening the chest again and measuring it, and he was not about to do that. Bonnie was responding well to treatment, and he planned to release her from the hospital on Monday, just a week after she had been attacked. It was his understanding that she intended to move to Winston-Salem but would remain in Washington for a few days after her release. He had recommended that she not return to her house on Lawson Road for emotional reasons. She had told him that she would be staying at the Holiday Inn with her family. It was clear that Dr. Waters considered his patient to be a victim, and the possibility that she might have submitted willingly to such injuries probably never crossed his mind.
Asked if he objected to the police taking a blood sample from Bonnie, Dr. Waters said that he didn’t object, but he would not order it. It would have to be voluntary on her part.
On the day following the funeral, Hope and Young returned to Beaufort County Hospital to talk again with Bonnie. She had been moved from intensive care to room 268, and she was doing well enough that she was able
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