Assault At Salon Tops Local Stories For 2000
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
At the end of the year, publications and organizations around the world make their lists of the top stories of the year.
Locally, the top stories of the year include a sexual attack and suicide, a new county tax and a girls' basketball team winning the state title.
The top local stories of 2000 were voted on by the staff of the Times-Union. And though there were disagreements with the outcome, unlike the presidential race this year, there will be no recounts.
The top story of the year did not occur until most of it was two-thirds gone.
On the morning of Sept. 25, police were called to The Cutting Edge, Woodland Plaza, shortly after it opened and found Michael Joseph Beavers, 38, of Dearborn Heights, Mich., dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Beavers reportedly entered the business about 9 a.m. and was inside for approximately 18 minutes before a 911 call was made.
Upon entering the hair salon, Beavers reportedly signed in and asked for a haircut before he ordered the four female employees to lie on the floor and bound their wrists with plastic cable ties. He then allegedly sexually assaulted one of the women and cut another across the chest with a knife.
In addition to the knife, Beavers was armed with a sawed-off .22-caliber bolt-action rifle. After the attack, victims and witnesses said, Beavers placed the gun to his head and killed himself.
Beavers was from Michigan, and the only local connection police could find was that he had lived in a mobile home park on CR 29 in Elkhart County, just outside Syracuse, in the early 1990s. It was believed Beavers lived near Syracuse for only a "couple of years" and moved back to Michigan in the early 1990s.
The other top stories of the year include, in descending order of importance:
2 Three people died Jan. 21 after an early-morning house fire in the Boggs Addition on Warsaw's west side. Kelly Grossman, 40, and her two daughters, Ashley and Angela Grossman, died in the home at 1504 Maye St. The husband and a son escaped the one-story home with minor injuries.
3 On June 19, Warsaw City Council unanimously denied Meijer's request to rezone 41.65 acres to special commercial so they could build a store at 900 Husky Trail, along Patterson Road. The Warsaw Plan Commission's unanimous recommendation April 10 to deny the petition foreshadowed the city council's decision.
4 Donald Sundheimer, 62, Warsaw, was beaten to death July 23. His body was found in a cornfield in Whitley County several weeks after Eugene Nowak of Pierceton allegedly beat him to death with a tire iron.
Stephanie Smith was given the maximum prison term for her role in the death.
5 By a vote of 6 to 0 on March 2, the Kosciusko County Council approved a resolution enacting the Economic Development Income Tax at 0.3 percent and raising the County Option Income Tax from 0.6 to 0.7 percent.
EDIT will be distributed on a population basis. It can be used only for capital improvement projects, infrastructure and more permanent structures. The county council had 62 of the 100 income tax council votes needed to pass EDIT.
The county began collecting the tax in July.
6 On Jan. 15, Indiana State Trooper Jason Beal died in a Fort Wayne hospital after being struck by a car Jan. 12 near the intersection of Ind. 14 and CR 700E in southeastern Kosciuko County.
He was hit by a car driven by Teresa Cooper, 22, of North Manchester, as he tried to help a tow truck driver get a vehicle out of a ditch.
7 Triton Trojans Girls Varsity Basketball Team won the Class A state title by beating No. 4 Rising Sun 57-54 in overtime at Hinkle Fieldhouse in the first week of March.
Their title championship was the first ever in school history of any sport for either boys or girls.
Missy Nifong won the Mental Attitude Award.
8 Triad Hospitals Inc. and Quorum Health Group Inc. jointly announced Oct. 19 they have agreed for Triad to buy Quorum for approximately $2.4 billion in cash, stock and the assumption of debt. Kosciusko Community Hospital is owned by Quorum.
9 Human remains were discovered in a wooded area near Syracuse April 6. The remains were found off CR 1050N on the east side of Lake Wawasee.
The human skeleton was found by mushroom hunters.
The skeleton was later identified as Crystal Gayle Homister, Elkhart County, who was reported missing on Jan. 7 by family members.
On Sept. 14, Christoval Dimas, 25, pleaded not guilty to murdering Homister and burning her body.
10 Medtronic Sofamor Danek Mfg., formerly at 100 Publishers Drive, Winona Lake, is now in its new facilities on the northeast corner of the intersection of U.S. 30W and CR 150W, near Warsaw. Danek's new building includes an estimated $20-million orthopedic hardware manufacturing and production facility consisting of 150,000 square feet on 25 acres of land, which is designated as an economic development area. [[In-content Ad]]
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At the end of the year, publications and organizations around the world make their lists of the top stories of the year.
Locally, the top stories of the year include a sexual attack and suicide, a new county tax and a girls' basketball team winning the state title.
The top local stories of 2000 were voted on by the staff of the Times-Union. And though there were disagreements with the outcome, unlike the presidential race this year, there will be no recounts.
The top story of the year did not occur until most of it was two-thirds gone.
On the morning of Sept. 25, police were called to The Cutting Edge, Woodland Plaza, shortly after it opened and found Michael Joseph Beavers, 38, of Dearborn Heights, Mich., dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Beavers reportedly entered the business about 9 a.m. and was inside for approximately 18 minutes before a 911 call was made.
Upon entering the hair salon, Beavers reportedly signed in and asked for a haircut before he ordered the four female employees to lie on the floor and bound their wrists with plastic cable ties. He then allegedly sexually assaulted one of the women and cut another across the chest with a knife.
In addition to the knife, Beavers was armed with a sawed-off .22-caliber bolt-action rifle. After the attack, victims and witnesses said, Beavers placed the gun to his head and killed himself.
Beavers was from Michigan, and the only local connection police could find was that he had lived in a mobile home park on CR 29 in Elkhart County, just outside Syracuse, in the early 1990s. It was believed Beavers lived near Syracuse for only a "couple of years" and moved back to Michigan in the early 1990s.
The other top stories of the year include, in descending order of importance:
2 Three people died Jan. 21 after an early-morning house fire in the Boggs Addition on Warsaw's west side. Kelly Grossman, 40, and her two daughters, Ashley and Angela Grossman, died in the home at 1504 Maye St. The husband and a son escaped the one-story home with minor injuries.
3 On June 19, Warsaw City Council unanimously denied Meijer's request to rezone 41.65 acres to special commercial so they could build a store at 900 Husky Trail, along Patterson Road. The Warsaw Plan Commission's unanimous recommendation April 10 to deny the petition foreshadowed the city council's decision.
4 Donald Sundheimer, 62, Warsaw, was beaten to death July 23. His body was found in a cornfield in Whitley County several weeks after Eugene Nowak of Pierceton allegedly beat him to death with a tire iron.
Stephanie Smith was given the maximum prison term for her role in the death.
5 By a vote of 6 to 0 on March 2, the Kosciusko County Council approved a resolution enacting the Economic Development Income Tax at 0.3 percent and raising the County Option Income Tax from 0.6 to 0.7 percent.
EDIT will be distributed on a population basis. It can be used only for capital improvement projects, infrastructure and more permanent structures. The county council had 62 of the 100 income tax council votes needed to pass EDIT.
The county began collecting the tax in July.
6 On Jan. 15, Indiana State Trooper Jason Beal died in a Fort Wayne hospital after being struck by a car Jan. 12 near the intersection of Ind. 14 and CR 700E in southeastern Kosciuko County.
He was hit by a car driven by Teresa Cooper, 22, of North Manchester, as he tried to help a tow truck driver get a vehicle out of a ditch.
7 Triton Trojans Girls Varsity Basketball Team won the Class A state title by beating No. 4 Rising Sun 57-54 in overtime at Hinkle Fieldhouse in the first week of March.
Their title championship was the first ever in school history of any sport for either boys or girls.
Missy Nifong won the Mental Attitude Award.
8 Triad Hospitals Inc. and Quorum Health Group Inc. jointly announced Oct. 19 they have agreed for Triad to buy Quorum for approximately $2.4 billion in cash, stock and the assumption of debt. Kosciusko Community Hospital is owned by Quorum.
9 Human remains were discovered in a wooded area near Syracuse April 6. The remains were found off CR 1050N on the east side of Lake Wawasee.
The human skeleton was found by mushroom hunters.
The skeleton was later identified as Crystal Gayle Homister, Elkhart County, who was reported missing on Jan. 7 by family members.
On Sept. 14, Christoval Dimas, 25, pleaded not guilty to murdering Homister and burning her body.
10 Medtronic Sofamor Danek Mfg., formerly at 100 Publishers Drive, Winona Lake, is now in its new facilities on the northeast corner of the intersection of U.S. 30W and CR 150W, near Warsaw. Danek's new building includes an estimated $20-million orthopedic hardware manufacturing and production facility consisting of 150,000 square feet on 25 acres of land, which is designated as an economic development area. [[In-content Ad]]