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SLAIN GIRL'S PARENTS VISIT HER MURDER SITE (MOTHER, FATHER THANK ANTIGO FOR HELP) Published Monday, May 29, 1995 (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) By Ann Schottman Knol Antigo- Nine months after 12-year-old Cora Jones was murdered on a deserted roadside north of here, her parents were moved to find that people their daughter never knew had turned the site into a loving memorial. Since her body was discovered, floral arrangements have appeared regularly near the site, according to Gail Behlke, who lives nearby. Her father, Robert Hess, owns the property. Some were brought by area residents, but other donors are unknown. Someone also brought a simple wooden cross to the site, and the flowers are clustered around the cross. Cora, a seventh-grader from Weyauwega, disappeared September 5, 1994, while bicycling near her grandmother's home in Rural, a hamlet in southern Waupaca County. Hunters found her body September 10 in a deep ditch obscured by tall grass, 15 miles north of Antigo and about 75 miles north of Rural. David Spanbauer, 53, of Oshkosh, pleaded guilty to killing Cora; Trudi Jeschke, 21, of Appleton; and Ronelle Eichstedt, 10, of Ripon. He was sentenced to three life terms plus 403 years. Vicki Jones said she and her husband, Rick, had seen the site where their daughter died on television and had wondered what it really looked like. "I guess it's something we've thought about so long," she said last week after Langlade County Sheriff's Lt. Ben Baker took them to the site. "It was hard. But there are flowers all over there, all over the ground and on the cross. There are a lot of caring people. And one of the neighbors must be mowing. Somebody is sure keeping the grass away from there." Behlke said there was a quiet, steady stream of visitors to the site and many had brought memorials. "Three bouquets showed up Tuesday," she said. "The cross appeared in October. We don't know where the cross came from, either. We moved it a little so the snowplow wouldn't tear it down. I saw some wildflower seeds somebody put over there, but they haven't come up yet. At Christmas time, someone put up a Christmas wreath." Earlier, she said, someone brought a floral arrangement in the colors of Cora's school in Waupaca. Pink ribbons are still tied around some of the trees at the site. Behlke said area residents were considering clearing the area and putting up a more permanent marker, if Cora's parents don't object. "Some people say leave it alone and let it go back to natural, but I don't think we can forget what happened here," Behlke said. "This area will never be the same here." Lt. Baker said the memorials sent a simple message: "We don't accept what happened here." While in Antigo last week, Cora's parents also attended the presentation of a scholarship given at Antigo High School in memory of Cora, and they gave a pink flowering crab tree to Antigo Middle School. The $500 scholarship was funded by donations given the Jones family in the wake of Cora's death. The Langlade County Deputies Association plans to fund the Cora Jones scholarship at Antigo High School in the future. "A lot of these kids were Cora's age," Vicki Jones said. "We got cards and letters from a lot of these kids. A lot of them were very, very personal. They were very affected by it. "These people have all been so personally involved, and have given us so much support. This is just something we felt we had to do. We almost feel like Antigo is our second home." During the scholarship presentation, Dennis Kruger, a Langlade County sheriff's deputy who had helped investigate Cora's death, read a statement written by Cora's parents: "The Cora Jones Memorial Scholarship is given to remember Cora, and also to remember all the wonderful things this community did for Cora's family - during and after the search. You did not even know Cora and yet you took her into your heart and treated her as one of your own." |
