Woman shot by police had faced bankruptcy / LJWorld.com

Archive for Wednesday, September 27, 2006

September 27, 2006

A woman shot and killed in a standoff with police Sunday had a bankruptcy case pending and had threatened suicide in the past, according to court records.

Lawrence Police on Tuesday continued an internal investigation into the death of Marsha Lynn Mace, 36, who was shot and killed by a police officer in an armed standoff at the Mobile Village, 110 N. Mich.

Key questions in Mace's death remain unanswered, such as the kind of weapon used to shoot her, the location of the officer who shot her and how many shots total were fired - both by Mace and by police. Police also have not released the name of the officer who fired the shot, pending completion of an investigation that will be done by the department with help from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

"We don't have any additional information to release at this time," Sgt. Dan Ward said Tuesday.

Chief Ron Olin said in a Monday morning news conference that Mace had left a note behind and that he believed she was trying to get officers to kill her. Police have said that Mace emerged from trailer No. 107 at 1:23 p.m. holding a revolver and began firing at officers before she was shot and killed.

Mace, who had grown up in Lawrence and was well-known as a cocktail waitress, filed for bankruptcy in October 2005 in federal court. At the time, she wrote that she was working as a certified nurse aide at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

She had been ordered to appear Oct. 24 in bankruptcy court for a hearing on whether she should be held in contempt for failing to turn over $3,681 in assets.

Friends described Mace as outgoing but occasionally unpredictable.

"Everybody has problems. I wish it didn't have to have happened like that," said Heather Kirchhefer, a friend of Mace's. "She never would have intentionally hurt anybody. She was just having a rough time and having a hard life."

In November 2002, a former boyfriend, Anthony Gauna, filed a protection-from-abuse order against Mace, alleging that after being out partying, she had come home, taken out his shotgun and rifle and threatened to shoot herself.

He alleged that she "threatened me to keep one eye open when I sleep because something could happen to me," according to court records.

She received probation in 1999 after being charged with criminal damage to property of another boyfriend.

- Staff writer George Diepenbrock contributed information to this article.

Discussion

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27 September 2006
at 10:37 a.m.

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Confrontation (Anonymous) says…

“She never would have intentionally hurt anybody. She was just having a rough time and having a hard life.”

Uh, she never would have intentionally hurt anybody?!! Yeah, that's real obvious…..
27 September 2006
at 10:49 a.m.

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monkeywrench1969 (Anonymous) says…

Who needs the questions answered about the number of shots and the weapon used… I am goingto make a guess it was most likely a gun since there were gunshots…that is common sense. No bow and arrow, no club, no Star Wars blaster…

Look at your past stories LJW and Channel 6 interviewed witnesses that saw the cops before they shot. Why not link the interview with the woman on 6 who said she saw the officers and “they gave her plenty of chances.” Or would that reduce the controversy.
27 September 2006
at 11:01 a.m.

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mommaeffortx2 (Anonymous) says…

I have a question…Do we the people of Lawrence really need to or have the right to know that she had money problems? I do not think so, so if the ljw wants to make an issue out of this maybe they should let us know everyone with money problems I bet that there is more than a few ljw workers that have money problems as well.
27 September 2006
at 12:21 p.m.

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msunderstood (Anonymous) says…

Lets quit airing out Marsha's dirty laundry, and let the poor soul rest in peace.
27 September 2006
at 12:41 p.m.

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stoptheBS (Anonymous) says…

I don't understand why ljw is talking about her bankruptcy, they shouldn't have gone into detail, enough was said with the mention of a note talking about her emotional, financial, and health problems. enough was said there!
27 September 2006
at 12:42 p.m.

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stoptheBS (Anonymous) says…

Please just let her rest! I think SHE made that obvious enough that that was what she wanted!
27 September 2006
at 1:12 p.m.

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Becca (Becca Sturgeon) says…

Yeah, I agree, this is taking it way too far. It's nobody's business what happened in her personal life.

27 September 2006
at 1:49 p.m.

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whatdoyouthink (Anonymous) says…

I can't believe that the Lawrence Journal World would do this. I am so sickened by this. I am so disappointed. Talk about a low blow, a cheap shot. Why on earth do they think they even have th right to print this. If I were in her family I think I would do something about this. I am just lost for words. shame on you ljw.
27 September 2006
at 1:57 p.m.

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crazyks (Anonymous) says…

I don't think it's anybody's business what her finances were, but it might be easier to understand her frame of mind at the time.

However, the fact that she had threatened to kill one former bf and had criminal damage charges by another makes me wonder about her. If she threatened and/or hurt people in the past, what made you think she couldn't be capable of it again?
27 September 2006
at 2:17 p.m.

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thisiknow (Anonymous) says…

Now we know way to much! Now do you have any more questions?
27 September 2006
at 2:56 p.m.

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MISSYSUE (Anonymous) says…

It's really sad that all of this info has had to come out. I've known Marsha for several years now (she is not a close friend, but a friend) and the only things that I knew of her is that she was a blast to be around and the type of person that would do anything for you. I have children that adored her. I understand that because of the nature of the way she was killed, some things are bound to come out. I just hope that the people that knew her will choose to remember the good things and not the bad that has come out. Everyone has skeletons in their closet and it is a shame that hers are being laid out for the world to see.
27 September 2006
at 3:23 p.m.

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mommaeffortx2 (Anonymous) says…

The LJW is really over the line on this one, I am sure the police that shot her , or the paramedics and docters really do not care about he money problems and it really was no ones business as we have all said on here so LJW wake up and realize not all things need to be printed in the paper and sometimes you should just leave things private.
27 September 2006
at 4:13 p.m.

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whatdoyouthink (Anonymous) says…

Previous comment a little tacky!!
27 September 2006
at 4:17 p.m.

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whatdoyouthink (Anonymous) says…

I hope this is the last story her family needs to live through. I mean come on find news elsewhere. How are loved ones supposed to heal, when the newpaper keeps diggin deeper and deeper? This was done in such bad taste. I just can't believe this. They have gone way too far on this one.
27 September 2006
at 4:23 p.m.

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biggunz (Anonymous) says…

although i agree, i think you all should relax. i don't think she minds at this point. the “let her rest in peace” comments probably are a little overboard.

27 September 2006
at 4:26 p.m.

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biggunz (Anonymous) says…

whatdoyouthink

we know what you think, you've stated it a couple times. if you're so against this news being shared and everyone needs to find news elsewhere, why do you continue to spout off about it?
27 September 2006
at 5:08 p.m.

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ForThePeople (Anonymous) says…

Shame on you Journal World, for even going here! This is tabloid journalism at best…and as many others have said, more information than the general public needed!
27 September 2006
at 5:25 p.m.

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bunnyhawk (Anonymous) says…

the real issue is that TWO people in this dinky county have committed suicide in the past week because of financial troubles…………the cops were just trying to do their jobs! let's rein in the bankers and the credit card companies who encourage working Americans to get themselves into debt up to their eyelashes!!! I get at least one item in the mail EVERY single day promising me nirvana with very low interest rates………….they're freaking vultures!!!!!
27 September 2006
at 9:23 p.m.

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bambam (Anonymous) says…

To her family I am truly sorry of your loss time and prayers will help ease the pain and in time the good memories will take the place of all the pain and heart break.

To all of you that post here lets turn this into a sampathy and memories place to much business being talked about here and in the paper. We cant control what the paper prints but we can control what we say.
27 September 2006
at 9:40 p.m.

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Pywacket (Anonymous) says…

mommaeffort & others who think the newspaper is “tacky” or out of line in printing this background information: like it or not, it is NEWS. When someone makes such a public display of her own demise, she has turned herself into a front-page story. And maybe that's a good thing.

By stating the plain truth surrounding this death, the media can help quell all the rumors and misinformation that would otherwise rush to fill the void. Like it or not, people are curious when someone dies in so spectacular a manner. Clearing the air, while perhaps painful, prepares the ground for the seeds of true healing.

Maybe a public presentation of facts can lead to helpful discussion. Perhaps others, desperate over financial matters and contemplating the unthinkable, can take this as a very graphic and tragic example why suicide (by one's own hand or the forced hand of another) is NOT the best way to resolve their own problems. If she were my loved one, I would try to take some comfort in the hope that other unhappy souls might give their own life another chance after reading about this and seeing that her death did not have to happen—that many people loved and cared about her and would have helped, had they only had the chance.
27 September 2006
at 9:54 p.m.

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geekin_topekan (Anonymous) says…

Well,I do applaud ljworld for not feeling the need to print the location of the victims genitals as they did with Jeannie Newmoon a couple of weeks ago.
Hurray Ljworld!!
28 September 2006
at midnight

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Marion (Marion Lynn) says…

Well, I've been thinking about this post most of all day today; even while I've been working and have now decided, “What the Heck?”

I'm going to have to call a few of you to task as far as a bit of your “outrage” is concenced.

As many of you may have noted, one of my detractors on this forum is fond of pointing out that I filed a Chapter Proceeding last year.

There have been no expressions of outrage regarding his constant and frequent references to that matter except for mine which indicated that the guy doesn;t understand the law, couldn't find his way around a courtroom and is about as dumb as a box of rocks.

Now, many folks around this town (And a few others, for that matter!) consider myself to be bat++++ crazy and in some ways, I may well be.

From my teen years, I hung around lawyers, jusges and cops and was a cop for a while sometime in the last century.

i learned that courtrooms are nothing to be afraid of unless you are guilty and then only if they can prove it, I learned that for the most part, they can't hang you and they can't eat you, so why be afraid?

Well, Marsha; with whom I was acquainted, did not have that sort of experience and God Bless Her, was the victim of certain instabilites which could be profoundly affected by the need to file such a proceeding and the process itself.

Filing a chapter Proceeding is, on the Great Scale, not a big deal but to a person with Marsha's infirmity could be a gigantic thing!

I really believe that what the LJW is trying to do(Although I will agree, somewhat badly,) is to background the circumstances which led to this tragic event.

I just found out that I have lost a very dear friend; a guy who was like a son to me, to suicide.

I had been calling him and thought that he was just busy on his project so I had no reason to worry.

My freind was a bit on the bipolar side and was faced with the filing of a Chapter proceeding and he lost it.

Last time I saw him we went for a drive in his Ferarri and burned up I-435 for about a hundred miles and I had no clue that anything was wrong.

We even went back to his shop for some target practive with the firearm that he ended his life with.

Our system frightens folks and it frigthens the mentally ill even more.

i really beliieve that the LJW has no ill will or malintent, especially since all such proceedigns are documentd in the paper every month or so.

I have a couple of freinds who are mentally ill and work with ehm a lot, in fact I just got an email from the gal who used to be known as “Little Red Riding Hood” here in Lawrence.

She is doing fine.

The system can do some really tough things to those who are ill equipped to deal with it so lighten up on the LJW.

I think that the LJW is trying to make a point.

I will miss Marsha.

My doncolences to the family and friends.

Thanks.

Marion.
28 September 2006
at 12:05 a.m.

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Marion (Marion Lynn) says…

Oh, please forgive the typos; the right eye is now in complete shutdown and I've been on the 'net all day working so the typos are REALLY happening now!

Thanks.

Marion.

28 September 2006
at 12:08 a.m.

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a2thek (Anonymous) says…

yeah I have to agree that the LJW is going to print as much stuff as possible but all the other garble could have stayed out of the paper. Hell, Bankrupcy doesnt mean anything, half the world files bankrupcy. Big deal.
I actually knew this person and she was a decent person to be around and never threatened me or talked about her financial woes or anything else. Of course I wasnt her boyfriend but rather just grew up with her.
Before we judge her to much i do know she got her little boy in the Crown Casting Club and attended that every year with him and she loved him very much.

To her family and son: my heart goes out to you.
To the cop that shot her: Good going you just killed somebody, I hope you go to church sunday or go find God somewhere and get some peace with yourself. I know it must be a tough job and I would hate to do it.
Knowbody wins in this.
28 September 2006
at 8:59 a.m.

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kujeeper (Anonymous) says…

Marion really can ramble about nothing for a long time…
28 September 2006
at 9:19 a.m.

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Marion (Marion Lynn) says…

kujeeper:

Don't jeeps have floor shifts with a little ball on top?

Go play with your knob.

Thanks.

Marion.
28 September 2006
at 1:25 p.m.

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Halloweenie (Anonymous) says…

a2thek..

“good going you just killed somebody….”??

WTF?
28 September 2006
at 3:16 p.m.

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Halloweenie (Anonymous) says…

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