The victims of Janet Danahey, RIP
YuccaMtnGlowworm
Their Last Day
2-24-02By TOM STEADMAN, Staff Writer
News & RecordGREENSBORO -- Valentine's Day was sunny and promising. But most
days were promising for the young women who lived in Apartment K at Campus
Walk. Sisters Donna and Rachel Llewellyn, and their friend Beth Harris, would
be busy as usual on Thursday, Feb. 14. Donna, 24, was off to her job as a
financial aid counselor at Greensboro College, where she had graduated with
honors in 1999, and where her longtime boyfriend, Ryan Bek, 25, helped keep the
college's computer system running. Rachel, a 21-year-old nursing student at
UNCG, had to get to class. And Harris, a 20-year-old music-education major,
would spend most of her day delivering singing Valentines as part of an annual
choral department fund-raiser at UNCG. It was in many ways an ordinary day for
four extraordinary young people. It would be their last. Hours later, after
gifts of the day had been exchanged and tender moments shared, they would
become the victims of the most deadly arson in the city's history. Police have
charged 23-year-old Janet Danahey, a UNCG graduate who lived nearby on Spring
Garden Street, with arson and four counts of first-degree murder. They said
that about 2 a.m., Danahey set the Campus Walk Apartments on fire. The
Llewellyn sisters, Harris and Bek, asleep at the time in Apartment K on the
third floor, apparently tried to flee by using the wooden staircase in the
center of the complex. The other residents in the 12-unit building at Howard
and Spring Garden streets all escaped. Danahey had no connection with any of
the victims, said Ryan Holton, Rachel Llewellyn's boyfriend, who was in the
apartment that night until 10, when he left to go to his place. "We didn't know
her," said Holton, 24, a nursing student at N.C. A&T. He is still coming to
grips with the loss of the woman he planned to marry after his graduation in
May. "They say the good die young," said Jim Crisson, a Greensboro College
psychology professor and one of Donna Llewellyn's favorite teachers. "In this
case, it seems to be true." Thursday meant an 8 a.m. nursing class, so Rachel
Llewellyn wouldn't be able to run her customary three miles that morning. And
roommate Beth Harris' car was broken down, so Rachel gave her a ride to campus
in Llewellyn's old gray station wagon. Normally, Rachel liked to ride her
bicycle the one mile to and from campus. Donna Llewellyn also had to be at work
at 8 in the financial aid office at Greensboro College. Right around the corner
in the college's sprawling Main Building, Ryan Bek was putting some jazz on the
CD player and settling into a busy day in the campus computer-support office.
Bek, a cheerful, ponytailed techie with a zest for cooking and a knack for
solving the most vexing of computer snags with a smile, had brought Donna red
carnations for Valentine's Day. Already, they were looking forward to their
daily lunch date somewhere off-campus. Both of them were vegetarians, and Bek,
formerly a cook at a fine restaurant in Charlotte, was not one for dining-hall
fare. Donna Llewellyn, quiet and academic in contrast to Bek's outgoing
personality, was just as well-known on campus. After all, 90 percent of the
students at the school, where costs run to about $20,000 a year, are on some
form of financial aid. Friends say that Donna's shy demeanor hid a fierce work
ethic and unmatched determination. "She could have been an astronaut," said
Paul Leslie, a sociology professor and dean of the faculty. "She had so many
academic skills; she could have been anything she wanted." She frequently
baby-sat Leslie's 8-year-old son, Sammy, and house-sat for him on several
occasions. "She was like family," he said. When Donna couldn't baby-sit, she
would call in her best friend -- her sister, Rachel -- as a substitute, Leslie
said. Donna Llewellyn arrived on campus as a freshman in 1995 and quickly
established herself as a top student. By the time she graduated with a double
major in psychology and sociology, she had been inducted into three honor
societies and earned respect and affection all across campus. She had also met
Bek, and their relationship developed into something deep and exclusive. Lunch
Thursday would be like lunch every day -- spent together. But first, Bek would
pay a midmorning visit to the Irving Park home of college President Craven
Williams to install some software on Williams' home computer. It was a favor
that Bek paid frequently to anyone who needed computer help at the college,
from the president down to the newest confused freshman. Everyone on campus had
been the recipient of his to-the-rescue e-mail, always with the "rbek" return
address. "He'd come with that smile," Williams said. "And when he left, he'd
say, 'Have a nice day.' I don't know how he does it." Bek was through
installing Williams' software by noon and back on campus in plenty of time to
meet Donna Llewellyn in the hallway in front of their offices. Then they headed
off to lunch. At UNCG, less than a mile from the Greensboro College campus,
Rachel Llewellyn was meeting boyfriend Ryan Holton for lunch at Cup A Joe
coffee shop, their favorite spot on Tate Street. Holton, in classes all day at
A&T, was hungry for his usual pimento-cheese sandwich, and Rachel went for the
new burrito on the menu. They made plans to get together that evening after
classes. The couple had met a few years ago at UNCG, where he also had been a
student. He and some friends were on a tour of Tower Village, campus housing
suites. Rachel was touring, too. "I was making stupid jokes, and she was
laughing," he said. "I could tell by her eyes she was very sincere. I said,
'I've got to meet this person.' Two weeks later, I did. From then on, we were
always together. We just clicked." At Greensboro's Page High School, Rachel
Llewellyn was a popular student, a class officer and an athlete. But once in
college, she limited her athletics to workouts and daily runs. Last fall, she
ran a half-marathon at Virginia Beach. But nursing and her boyfriend were now
her focus. Holton and Rachel Llewellyn shared a deep Christian faith. She
attended weekly Bible study at UNCG, and the couple were regulars at Daystar
Baptist Church on U.S. Highway 220 North. Holton also plays in a Christian
Southern-rock band called Hazard County. Rachel was always at their gigs,
usually transporting the band's equipment in her old Buick Skyhawk station
wagon. "She smiled all the time," said Kay Cowen, a nursing professor who was
Rachel's adviser in the UNCG program. "Even when she was concerned about a test
or something, she was smiling." She was a born nurse, Cowen said. "She loved
helping people." At the UNCG music building on West Market Street, Beth Harris
was halfway through a long day of delivering singing Valentines with a small
group of voice students. The annual fund-raiser runs from 8 a.m. throughout the
day, and Harris was one of the first to arrive, said Bill Young, the UNCG
choral professor who coordinates the event. Harris had gone out on several
early orders Wednesday, Young said. She also enlisted the group for a call to
her mother in Cary. "She does it every year," said Crystal Knight, her mother.
"She called me at work, at 1:30 in the afternoon, and said, 'Mom, here's your
Valentine a day early.'" Using the speakerphone, the UNCG group sang "Let Me
Call You Sweetheart" and "I Love You Truly," with Beth's soprano soaring. "It
was the last time I heard her voice," her mother said. On Thursday, Harris was
back for more singing. She made herself available for most of the day, Young
said. "She was a rather quiet, elegant, gracious person," said Bill Carroll,
voice division chair. "She was very anxious to be a teacher." Harris had
interned at Millis Road Elementary School in Jamestown. She was looking forward
to doing her student-teaching stint next year. Carroll got to know Harris well
during last year's 10-day choral trip to England, where the UNCG students
performed at Cambridge, Stratford-on-Avon and other locales. "We were both
trying to develop a vegetarian lifestyle," he said. "We would encourage each
other. I think it was a boyfriend -- a veggie boyfriend." The "veggie
boyfriend" was Justin Barbry, a rock musician who began dating Harris during
her freshman year. Barbry's cousin introduced them after meeting Harris through
UNCG's Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. "She had this innocence," said
Barbry, 24. "But at the same time she was so wise and logical. She was like the
best of both worlds. She had so many goals and wanted to do so many things. It
inspired me." They dated for two years, until last fall, when Harris moved into
Campus Walk Apartments with Rachel and Donna Llewellyn. Rachel and Beth Harris
had been roommates the year before in the Ragsdale dorm on campus. "She just
needed some time to find herself and grow within herself, instead of it just
being us all the time," Barbry said. "It was amazing -- we never fought, never
argued. It was just one of those things." Last month, Barbry sent Harris an
e-mail message. "I was sad that I hadn't talked to her in a while," Barbry
said. "She e-mailed back. We were on the same page. So I went over and took her
out to dinner. We were always friends." He planned to drop by Harris' apartment
late Thursday night on his commute home from his job in Durham to his home in
Jamestown. After all, it was Valentine's Day. By 6:30 p.m., the choral
department had delivered its last singing Valentine. Harris and choral teacher
Bill Young were the only ones left in the office. "We just sat and talked for
about 45 minutes," Young said. "She said, 'I'm really tired,'" Young recalled.
"I told her that when I'm real tired, I like to just bring in dinner and watch
a video." Harris told him that the last movie she rented was "Legally Blonde,"
a comedy about a ditzy woman and her relationship. "We laughed about that,"
Young said. "We were just cutting up." Finally, they both left, Young said, and
Harris caught a ride home. drop cap Not far away, young sweethearts Ryan Bek
and Donna Llewellyn had finished up their workdays at Greensboro College. Wayne
Dozier, who worked with Bek in the college information-technologies department,
followed them out the door of the Main Building about 5:15 p.m. They were
walking to their cars -- Bek's gray Mitsubishi pickup and Llewellyn's newly
bought green Honda Civic. She was proud to have saved enough money to pay cash
for the used car. Donna was carrying the carnations Bek had brought her that
morning. "Someone joked to him, 'I hope you got her more than that for
Valentine's Day,'" Dozier said. Don't worry, Bek replied. He was going to cook
his girlfriend a special meal that night. They headed for the grocery store,
then to his apartment in northwest Greensboro. Rachel Llewellyn was already
home in Apartment K. Boyfriend Ryan Holton had gotten out of class early and
dropped by to surprise her with a box of candy. They chatted, then watched a
movie on HBO that Rachel had seen earlier with her mother and sister on a trip
to Missouri. She had been eager for Holton to see it, too. The film was "Pay it
Forward," starring Helen Hunt and Kevin Spacey. The theme is one of passing on
good deeds until the world is full of them. "That's how Rachel lived," Holton
said. "She paid it forward." After the movie ended, Holton and Rachel talked
for a while and dozed off. When they woke up, it was nearly 10 p.m. They
chatted some more and exchanged Valentine's cards. Then Holton, who had to be
at his EMT job in Moses Cone Hospital's emergency room by 7 a.m. Friday, had to
go home. Rachel had an early day, too. She was to be at work on Moses Cone's
fourth floor, also by 7 a.m., as part of her schoolwork. While Holton and
Rachel napped, a church group dropped by to see Beth Harris, who had visited
their church. They invited her to attend Sunday school. Then about 9:30 p.m.,
old boyfriend Justin Barbry came by the apartment with Harris' Valentine gift
-- a book of poetry by Jalaluddin Rumi, a 13th century Muslim mystic. Barbry
read her a poem from the book. "When I arrived, she was exhausted," Barbry
said. "But she was still able to crack a smile and give me a hug. We sat there,
and I reread the poem as she leaned her head against my arm." Then Barbry left
for a late-night practice session with his band, and Harris went to bed.
Holton, back at his apartment near High Point, talked with Rachel Llewellyn
three more times by phone that night. Twice, she was asking him questions about
nursing studies. Holton was a year ahead of her in nursing school. During one
of the calls, Rachel mentioned that Donna and Ryan Bek had gotten in. The last
call was at 1 a.m. It was a nightly ritual. "We always tuck each other in by
phone," he said. They talked about plans for the weekend -- bike riding and a
trip to the Mad Platter to paint pottery together. He wanted to grill her some
chicken. Finally, they both had to get some sleep. "I love you," Rachel said.
"Good night." Holton arrived in the emergency room at 7 a.m. Friday. He was at
his post when a patient with a broken collarbone was wheeled past him. She had
been injured jumping from her third-floor apartment to escape the Campus Walk
fire. Holton didn't have a clue. "Someone said there had been a fire at UNCG,"
he said. "I didn't think it was Rachel's apartment -- that's a mile from
campus," Holton said. He went on working. Then a police officer walked over.
"Do you know where Rachel is?" she asked gently. No one had been able to locate
her or her roommates after the fire. "She's upstairs," Holton replied. He knew
she had to be at work at 7. Terrified, he ran to the elevator and punched the
fourth-floor button. When the doors opened, he raced to the section where
Rachel's group of nursing students were working. He saw it on their faces.
Holton ran down the hall, yelling. Then he began to cry. Contact Tom Steadman
at 574-5583 or at tste...@news-record.com
Cary Woman Killed In Greensboro Fire Laid To Rest
POSTED: 11:45 a.m. EST February 25, 2002
UPDATED: 11:53 a.m. EST February 25, 2002
CARY, N.C. -- A final tribute was held Sunday for a young woman who died in an
apartment fire near the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. . . .
Prank may have sparked fire
3-3-02By STAN SWOFFORD, Staff Writer
News & RecordGREENSBORO - The fire that killed four young adults at the Campus
Walk apartments early Feb. 15 may have begun with a woman's Valentine's Day
prank against her former boyfriend.
According to sources close to the investigation, 23-year-old Janet Louise
Danahey went to the three-story, 12-unit apartment building at 904 Howard St.
to trash the car of her ex-boyfriend, Thaddeus Johnston."That was to be her
Valentine to him," said an investigative source.Johnston could not be reached
for comment. An employee of the Grande Theater, where he works as a
projectionist, said he is taking some time off.Friends of the couple said
Danahey and Johnston, a UNCG student, had recently broken up. Johnston lived in
apartment 904-G on the second floor with roommates Victor Medina, a student at
GTCC, and Emily Hunter, a UNCG student. Medina and Hunter declined to be
interviewed.Danahey, a UNCG graduate, had been out with friends Valentine's
night, and she rode to the apartment building with a girlfriend, according to
investigators. She carried a container that held a substance, or mixture, that
she intended to use to foul Johnston's car.Danahey had done something similar
in 1996, when she lived with her parents and sister in Kernersville and
attended East Forsyth High School. She and two friends were arrested and
charged with vandalism after they egged a house and its mailbox and covered a
car with a mixture of syrup, cat litter and cereal. The owners of the property,
David and Laurie Emery, said Danahey thought their son had revealed details of
her relationship with a boyfriend.However, on Valentine's night in 2002,
Danahey and her friend could not find Johnston's car, sources said. Danahey,
who lived at 2607 Spring Garden St., within walking distance of the apartment
building, got out of her friend's car in the Campus Walk parking lot, and her
friend drove away, according to investigative sources.The night was chilly,
with a brisk north wind.It was about 2:30 a.m. when something -- perhaps people
screaming -- awakened Victor Medina, who was alone in 904-G that night. Medina
declined to be interviewed, but several of Medina's friends, including his
girlfriend, said he narrowly escaped with his life. Fire, fanned by the wind
swirling through the building's breezeway and up the wooden stairs, blocked his
path out the doorway of his apartment. Flames already were consuming the deck
outside the apartment, where investigators suspect a couch was set afire.Medina
jumped out his bedroom window, said his girlfriend, who asked not to be
identified publicly. "He was very lucky," she said. "It was the only way
out."Four people didn't make it out: sisters Rachel Llewellyn, 21, and Donna
Llewellyn, 24; Elizabeth Harris, 20; and Ryan Bek, 25. Their bodies were found
in the rubble of the fire, which firefighters said generated temperatures as
high as 1,000 degrees. The four were in 904-K, a third-floor apartment on the
southeast corner of the building, across from 904-G on the second
floor.Greensboro police Detective Marty Sexton, who is heading the
investigation, said police have not yet determined whether an accelerant was
used to ignite the couch.Danahey was arrested Feb. 17 at her parent's home in
Weddington, a Union County community near Matthews. Sources close to the
investigation said the woman who had driven Danahey to the apartment building
called police the day of the fire.Danahey, charged with four counts of
first-degree murder and one count of arson, is being held in the Guilford
County Jail without bond. The next court hearing in her case is scheduled for
April 11. Danahey's lawyers -- former Guilford District Attorney Jim Kimel,
Robert Scott and Kernersville lawyer Joseph Coltrane -- have declined requests
to interview her.Meanwhile, Danahey's family and friends struggle to understand
what happened and why.There had been nothing to suggest that she was even
remotely capable of deliberately harming anyone, they say.Childhood friends in
Kernersville, former classmates and teachers at East Forsyth and friends of
Danahey's in the close-knit UNCG community say that if she did something to
cause the fire, she did not mean to hurt anyone or destroy anyone's property.
They use words such as "nice," "sweet," "good-natured," "caring" and "friendly"
to describe her."All I can say is that Janet was such a sweet girl to me," said
one resident of Campus Walk, who did not want to be named."Sweet," however, is
not the word some other former tenants of Campus Walk use to describe her.
Christopher Cox, a UNCG sophomore, said he and his girlfriend burned their feet
as they ran from the building. "I feel sorry for her family," said Cox, "But I
want her to pay." Cox, a friend of Rachel Llewellyn's, said he knew and liked
Johnston, and had seen Danahey several times "coming and going" when she
visited Johnston.Raechel Kowalski, who jumped from her third-floor apartment to
escape the flames, said Danahey "should be forced to sit in a blank cell and
think about what she has done. The death penalty is way too quick. I want her
to suffer."Those words make Doris Chappell and Carolyn Brickey cringe. They can
barely believe that anger is being aimed at the person they knew so well and
whose character they helped shape as they watched her grow from a girl to a
bubbly teenager to a young woman headed for college.Chappell and Brickey were
Danahey's Girl Scout leaders, and guided her and five other girls to their Gold
Award, Girl Scouting's highest award. Brickey remembers her as a "very
vivacious young lady. All the girls liked her," she said.She was a
light-hearted girl, Chappell said, but "very responsible and very
respectful."Brickey said Danahey loved animals, and her Gold Award project
involved working with the Humane Society to rescue animals.Brickey and Chappell
said they were devastated when they heard the news of Danahey's arrest. "In my
heart of hearts I don't believe she could intend to harm anyone," Brickey said.
"She wasn't put together that way," said Chappell.The Girl Scout leaders said
Danahey's parents, David and Mary Belle Danahey, provided strong support for
Janet, as well as an older daughter, Emily, who also won a Gold Award.David
Danahey rebuilds jet engines for US Airways. Mary Belle Danahey has been a
teacher at a private school. Chappell said she had talked with them since their
daughter's arrest. "They are devastated and heartbroken," Chappell said. "Not
just for Janet, but for all the other children and their families."Chappell and
Brickey were so impressed with Danahey that they nominated her to carry the
Olympic torch on one of its legs through Forsyth County for the 1996 Summer
Olympics in Atlanta. Television footage from WFMY (Channel 2) shows a
fresh-faced all-American girl with a chestnut ponytail and a bright, excited
smile as she ran down the street with the torch held high. "Go, Janet, go!" her
friends shouted.That image contrasts sharply, sickeningly, with the image on
closed-circuit television of the frightened woman with the puffy, red-rimmed
eyes who trembled during her first court appearance as the judge told her she
was being charged with first-degree murder and could face the death penalty.
Prosecutors have not decided whether they will try her for her life.Mashawnda
Dowell, one of Danahey's friends at East Forsyth High School, said she could
barely recognize her. "She really didn't look like the same person," said
Dowell, who works as a community coordinator for the Winston-Salem Arts
Council.The Janet Danahey whom Dowell knew was the girl who sat beside her in
U.S. history and made good grades, graduating near the top of her class. She
was the girl in the Drama Club who performed in "Joseph and the Technicolor
Dreamcoat." She was the girl who was active in the Latin Club; who played
violin in the band; and who would pray in the mornings before school with other
members of the Young Christian Society. She was the girl who talked about
saving the environment, the world.She seemed to know and like everybody, and
everybody knew and liked her, Dowell said."It's so sad," Dowell said. "I wonder
what happened to her?"Danahey attended Appalachian State University in 1997 for
a semester, where she made the dean's list, before transferring to UNCG. She
did not stand out there like she did at East Forsyth and Appalachian. She
participated in few, if any, campus organizations or sororities. Her grades
were adequate, but not outstanding, good enough to allow her to graduate in
2000 with a degree in business administration.Few people in the business school
recall her, however. Her adviser, professor Brad Kirkman, can't remember her.
"Nothing rings a bell at all," he said.Danahey apparently had trouble parlaying
her business degree into a full-time job. She had a contract with Olston
Staffing Services, which supplies companies with temporary help. Her last job
was with Syngenta. A spokeswoman there said the company had no complaints about
her work.In August 2000, Danahey moved into an apartment at 1106 W. Friendly
Ave. According to Doug Osborne, her landlord, she left sometime before last
September without giving notice and owing back rent of at least $400. Osborne
filed a court action against her but has received no money.Osborne said he had
no other problems with Danahey. "She was quiet and pleasant," he said. Osborne
said Danahey has been on his mind since he learned of the fire, the deaths and
her arrest. "It's so very sad," he said.Todd Buker, who lived in that complex,
told the News & Record shortly after her arrest that he had been "sort of"
involved with Danahey. He said the relationship ended several months ago. Buker
said she could do "dangerous things, not meaning any harm." He did not
elaborate.Geoff Schuppert dated her just a couple of weeks before the fire and
saw her friendly, fun-loving side. The two met at the Exchange Restaurant & Bar
on Tate Street, just off the UNCG campus. She was with a group of alumni who
belonged to an organization called American Distractions, devoted to the
performing arts, poetry and literature. She and Schuppert, who has acted at the
Broach Theater in downtown Greensboro, hit it off well, he said. They had
dinner and drinks at Harper's Restaurant and New York Pizza."She was fun,"
Schuppert said. "She had a lot of energy, and she was very positive."There was
no indication that she was angry or depressed, he said. And certainly nothing
to foreshadow an arrest for murder and arson. "Nothing adds up," Schuppert
said. "It's very strange."It's a tragedy, said James Danahey, Janet's uncle.
"It's a tragedy for our family and for all the families. I wish there was
something that would make it go away."James Danahey, who lives in Texas in the
Dallas-Ft. Worth area, said the last time he saw Janet was in 2000 when he and
his family traveled to North Carolina for the wedding of Emily Danahey, Janet's
sister. . . .
RLloyd8949
>
WELL....I hope you got my point, k.
YuccaMtnGlowworm
(RLloyd8949) writes:
>>Their Last Day
>>
>
>WELL....I hope you got my point, k.
Sure I did......the fault lies with everyone, or anyone, else. Little
compassion for the deceased. A tirade against the powers that be. ... Points
taken.
k (and please stop using "k" to agree with someone. Use ok or okay or sure or
yes, or anything but "k" The "k" is coming up in some posts and making it
appear that I had written certain things - which I did not. Appreciate it.
RLloyd8949
k...everybody knows the the difference between noun, verb, adverb and adjective
....lol...lol