Amarillo Globe-News, Hemphill County TX, town of Canadian
Web posted Tuesday, June 8, 1999

CANADIAN REELS FROM FIRST VIOLENT DEATHS IN 19 YEARS
by Kevin Welch, Globe-News Staff Writer

Canadian - Within two weeks, violent deaths have struck the old and the young in this small town.
Shock and anger among residents are the reactions to Sunday's apparent strangulation of 77 year old Imogene French and the May 25 death involving blunt force trauma of 2 year old Brendan Brown.
"People are irate," said Nancy Ezzell, editor and publisher of the Canadian Record newspaper. "They want to draw and quarter whoever did that to a sweet lady who wouldn't hurt a fly. It's a blot on the community for these two things to have happened."
They mark the first violent deaths of Canadian residents since Hemphill County Sheriff's Deputy Corky Guthrie was shot in the line of duty in 1980, Sheriff Dean Butcher said.
After a 911 call to the Hemphill County Sheriff's Department about 11:50 a.m. Sunday, French was discovered dead in a storeroom at the Oasis Truck Stop, where she worked.
"When a local rancher entered the store, a customer told him there was no one there to pay for some bubble gum," Butcher said.
The rancher, whom Butcher declined to identify, was unsuccessful in locating French and made the emergency call. A deputy found a locked storeroom door, then looked through an outside window of the storeroom and saw French's body, Butcher said.
Preliminary autopsy results cite the cause of French's death as strangulation.
"We think the killer used his hands and a vacuum cleaner cord," Butcher said.
The French family is offering a $10,000 reward for the arrest and indictment of the person or people responsible.
"We would like anybody who might think of something they might have seen to help get this person arrested," said Ken French, son of the victim.
Money was taken from the store's cash register, and Imogene French's coin purse was missing, Butcher said.
"What bowls me over is I can't believe somebody would do this to a 77 year old, helpless lady," Ken French said. "If somebody wanted money, she would have given it out of her purse. They didn't have to go to that extreme."
Texas Rangers, the Gray County Sheriff's Department and the FBI are aiding in the investigation of French's death. They suspect someone other that the perpetrator was in the Oasis when the crime was committed between 11:15am and 11:50am, Butcher said.
"The cash register receipts are marked with the time and they stopped at 11:15," Butcher said. "There's a good chance somebody was in there when the crime was happening in the storeroom. We want to talk to anybody that did not find a clerk and left that store - any information on a vehicle they might have seen."
Witnesses can contact the Hemphill County Sheriff's Department at 806-323-5324.
Preliminary autopsy results showed Brendan Brown suffered blunt force trauma to the stomach and internal bleeding, Justice of Peace Frankie Hill said. No other information is being released in the case, pending completion of the investigation.
The 2 year old was found in a bed by his mother Caryn Brown, 19, in a home where she was staying.
The deaths shocked residents of this town of about 3500 people.
"I'm kind of blown away that this could happen to a baby and a little old lady we all see and know," resident Tracey Wyche said. "That's not Canadian. I mean, people just aren't murdered here."
The sheriff agreed.
"She (French) was a terrific person who met you with a smile," Butcher said. "These deaths have had a devastating impact on the community - to have such trauma."