Yosemite Murders: Joie Armstrong
Patty
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/072699_joie26_19.htm
Hope fills final e-mail of ex-Orlando woman
Kevin P. Connolly
of The Sentinel Staff
Published in The Orlando Sentinel on July 26, 1999.
Only days before she was killed, Joie Ruth Armstrong sent an e-mail message
to a longtime friend in Orlando describing how she and her boyfriend swam in
the crystal blue waters of Yosemite National Park.
Armstrong, 26, wrote about her hope for the future, her deep love for nature
and her blossoming passion for her boyfriend of more than a year, Michael
Raffaeli.
"It was straight out of a dream. Yes, straight out of a dream," Armstrong
wrote of that day at Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.
She also wrote about her life at the Green House, a cabin in Yosemite she
shared with Raffaeli and another roommate. Raffaeli was a fellow instructor
at Yosemite Institute, a private nonprofit education group that works in the
park.
"I love it here in this house," Armstrong wrote. "I love Michael with my
soul and every last cell in my body. I love the big meadow with all its
daisies and incredible history."
It was the last message her friend received from Armstrong, whose beheaded
body was found Thursday near her new California home at the western edge of
the park.
Armstrong, a graduate of Orlando's Dr. Phillips High School who went to
college in California, moved into the home owned by the Yosemite Institute
less than two months ago, friends said.
Investigators on Sunday charged Cary Stayner, a 37-year-old handyman, in
Armstrong's slaying. Authorities also are investigating whether Stayner was
involved in the slayings of three other women visiting Yosemite this spring.
On Sunday, Armstrong's family and friends were mourning the slaying of the
young woman who dedicated her life to teaching children about the
environment.
A neighbor said her mother, Leslie Armstrong, who lives in Orlando, went to
California late last week when she learned her daughter had been killed.
"I want people to know how happy she was and how amazing she was," said
longtime friend Kim Fox, 27, of Orlando, who shared the e-mail message and
her memories of the former Orlando resident Sunday.
"She was just amazing. She was so spirited," Fox said. "She was so magnetic
and so fun. People have referred to her as a bright star, a bright spark in
their lives."
The two met through a mutual friend while they were both in high school.
Armstrong was a freshman at Dr. Phillips, and Fox was a sophomore at
Orlando's Edgewater High School.
Fox remembers Armstrong telling her she was born in Germany and her father
worked for the federal government, possibly the military.
Her parents had divorced years ago, Fox said, and Armstrong was living with
her mother.
She arrived in Orlando when she was about 12 years old, her friends said.
Fox remembers Armstrong picking her up in a white Volkswagen Rabbit.
They would spend hours hanging out at a Winter Park coffee shop, sneaking
smokes and chatting about boys.
At one point, their circle of friends all worked at the Barnie's Coffee &
Tea at the Florida Mall.
"She made it one of her weekly jobs to work with the plants" at Barnie's,
said former boyfriend Matt Gunderson, 25, who once worked with her at the
store.
"She watered them. She pruned them. She would touch each leaf of the plant,"
Gunderson said. "Nature was a sure bet for her in a world where there was
not a lot you can count on."
During those days, Armstrong introduced Fox to Steve Burry, and the couple
began dating two years ago. They had invited Armstrong to attend their
wedding on Feb. 19.
Fox graduated from high school a year before Armstrong and moved away to
college in Charleston, S.C. Armstrong graduated in 1991 and went to
California State University, Chico, where she earned a bachelor of science
degree in parks and natural resource management.
The two maintained their friendship through phone calls, e-mail messages and
Fox's annual field trips out West.
The trips included visits to San Francisco, the Mojave Desert, Yosemite Park
and Seattle.
About two years ago, Armstrong landed a job with the Yosemite Institute's
sister organization, The Headlands Institute, in Marin County north of San
Francisco.
Less than a year later, Armstrong and Raffaeli began dating, Fox said.
"She referred to him as the core of her life," Fox said. "She was just in a
really good place in her life recently."
In October, Armstrong joined Raffaeli at the Yosemite Institute. Life in the
Green House was simple, just as Armstrong liked it. It was about a
quarter-mile away from other homes.
Her body was found next to a stream Green House residents use for drinking
water.
"You should come see this place -- I wonder if you ever will," Armstrong
said in the e-mail to Fox.
"I also love my garden and living in Yosemite -- one of the most beautiful
places in the whole wide world."