THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 28, 1995 TAG: 9506280445
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KERRY DOUGHERTY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
No sooner had police announced that they had recovered the body of Jennifer Evans on Tuesday evening than it seemed to be the singular topic of conversation on the resort strip.
Outside The Bayou in the Radisson Hotel, where Evans parted company with her friends early June 19, Liana Ramirez was leaning on the hood of a white Buick sedan. Ramirez is the lead singer for the Killroos, the alternative rock band that performed at the club on the night Evans disappeared.
``I am so deeply saddened I can hardly talk,'' she said, pushing her black baseball cap back on her head and biting her lip. ``I was singing the night she disappeared. The detectives interviewed me and I wanted to remember something that would help.
``Here I had a bird's-eye view of the dance floor all night and I never even saw her.'' Like other young women at the Oceanfront, Ramirez said Evans' disappearance had made her extra cautious for her own safety.
``I get off work at 2:30 in the morning,'' she said. ``I never walk to my car by myself anyway, but since this whole thing happened, I'm being even more careful.''
At the 19th Street bus stop, Karen McNaughton said she was distressed by news of Evans' murder.
``I can't believe it, it's such a shame,'' whispered McNaughton. ``Ever since this happened, I've been having my boyfriend pick me up when I had to work late.''
Norfolk State University student Shannon Moore was writing a letter to a friend while waiting for customers at the bike rental stand where she works near 21st Street. Her eyes filled with tears when she heard the news.
``I kept hoping she had just gotten some kind of wild hair and taken off for a week,'' Moore said, ``but she was obviously a bright girl.''
Moore said she and her girlfriends had talked about ``nothing else'' all week.
``I was at The Bayou two weeks ago and I let a guy I had just seen around a few times walk me to my car,'' she said, shaking her head and staring at her hands. ``It was so dumb. I keep thinking it could have been me murdered like this. He could have had a knife.
``I swear I will never, ever, ever do anything that stupid again.''
Gail Doff, manager of the Candy Kitchen on Atlantic Avenue, pointed to the Jennifer Evans ``missing'' poster in the shop's front window.
``I've been thinking about that girl all week,'' she said. ``She was so smart, had her whole life ahead of her.
``I've been telling all the girls who work here they have to be so careful.''
Locals weren't the only people affected by the gruesome case. Maxine Campbell, from Newark, Del., just arrived at the beach last weekend and promptly read in the newspaper about the missing pre-medical student.
``I said to my husband, `I don't know whether this place is safe or not,' but we told our 17-year-old daughter she wasn't going out alone at night.''
Five recent high school graduates from Rochester, N.Y., were sitting in a semicircle on the 24th Street beach at sundown Tuesday, watching the surfers. They arrived in town Sunday and saw ``missing'' posters everywhere they went.
``It's weird, really scary,'' said Megan Kolomick, 18.
``We made a pact, we stay together,'' said 18-year-old Michelle McGlory, as her friends nodded in agreement.
The case of Jennifer Evans kept the quintet indoors Monday night, and the women said they'd probably make it an early night again.
``We're basically afraid to go out,'' said Susanne Steck, also 18.
Several locals said they weren't afraid, just saddened.
At the Princess Anne Inn on 25th Street, manager Shawn Weyand carefully removed the buff-colored missing poster of Jennifer Evans that had been in the hotel lobby window all week.
``It's very upsetting,'' he said, picking a piece of cellophane tape off the plate glass with his thumbnail. ``People have been stopping in and asking what happened to her.
``We kept hoping she'd turn up alive.'' ILLUSTRATION: Maps
JOHN CORBITT/Staff
KEYWORDS: MURDER ARREST SEX CRIME by CNB