The Waiting Game::::How long will this last? It is possible he has holed up with relatives, or even has moved into a vacant camp.ON the run could coneivably last a long while.
By KEVIN CRUSH, SUN MEDIA
Nadine Collins wipes away tears while speaking with reporters with her daughter Coralyn, 4, by her side outside a mobile home in Merritt, B.C. where three young children were found dead inside, Monday, April 7, 2008. Coralyn was a classmate with the youngest of the three children killed. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Richard Lam
A former Edmonton woman with ties to the eldest of three children found massacred in their Merritt, B.C., home says horrified residents are gripped with fear the killer will emerge once the police presence cools.
Police and security continue to patrol the grounds of Diamond Vale elementary school and everyone is watching over their shoulders, says Nadine Collins, 37.
?One of the biggest fears we have right now is that the minute the police and the security are gone out of the school, this guy will come back in and do something.?
That fear has even turned to anger as residents try to understand why the police didn?t start a manhunt until 21 hours after discovering the bodies of the three children believed to have been killed by their father, Allan Dwayne Schoenborn, 40.
?For our community, maybe the dad did this ? probably ? but why aren?t you (police) looking for him? What about the rest of us? Typically, people who would do this wouldn?t stick around, but what if he did?? said Collins, who left Edmonton 20 years ago.
Schoenborn had been banned from the school after making threats and had three run-ins with Merritt RCMP in the week before the killings.
On Sunday, police were called to a mobile home in Merritt, 991 km southwest of Edmonton, where they found the bodies of Kaitlynne, Max and Cordon Schoenborn, aged 10, eight and five. Their bodies had been discovered by their mother, who had left them in the care of their father while she ran an errand.
Collins said her nine-year-old niece Kendra ? who lives with her ? was one of little Kaitlynne?s closest friends. Their house is just three blocks away from the crime scene.
Kaitlynne celebrated her 10th birthday last Friday and Kendra, her Grade 4 classmate, was the only person at the party.
On the day of the killings, her son, Cooper, was out riding his bicycle when her husband, Richard, heard about the massacre while outside talking to the neighbours who had a police scanner.
?He came in white as a ghost saying something bad had happened and we had to get Cooper,? said Collins.
They gathered the kids and brought them in the house, fearing the killer might still be around. They didn?t tell the children what happened until hours later.
?Kendra took it pretty hard. She cried. She really cried,? said Collins. Kendra broke down again on Tuesday when the school reopened. She found in her desk a library book Kaitlynne had loaned her and told her to read before returning it to the library.
When she broke down, her teacher told her to take whatever time she needed. ?She went and read the book and was able to go back into the class and felt better.?
The school has been trying to help the kids, parents and teachers, said Collins.
A shrine has been set up for the three slain children for the students to contribute cards and well wishes to. The students are also working on a book for the Schoenborns? mother, with pictures, stories and poems for her.
Collins said the attitude of police and security at the school has also been great, with authorities adopting fun and cheerful demeanors, rather than keeping solemn guard over them.
Topic: Manhunt for suspect in slayings of 3 children (Read 3197 times)
