Brenda Keller would have been 44 years old today. On her Heavenly birthday, I’m sharing an excerpt from the book about her I’ve been working on since my last semester of graduate school in 2017. This is from Chapter 11, which focuses on the days and weeks after her tragic death, including media coverage:
In the early 1990s, the Topeka Capital-Journal was one of the most respected newspapers in the Midwest. The paper formed in the 1870s following a series of mergers, culminating with the Topeka Daily Capital and Topeka State Journal. The paper prided itself on being the state’s most reliable source of news and provided coverage from Liberal in the southwest corner of the state to Hiawatha in the northeast corner.
In October 1991, the Capital-Journal boasted a circulation of more than 100,000 across the state. If a story appeared in the paper, thousands of people were going to read it. In a time long before the Internet and smart phones, the newspaper often broke news to readers.
That was the case on the morning of Monday, Oct. 21, 1991, as people sat down for breakfast and coffee. Written by Tim Hrenchir, the lead story spanning five columns at the top of the front page featured the headline “Girl’s murder shocks small town,” with a pull quote from Dover principal Terri Anderson: “I just can’t say enough positive things about Brenda. She was a beautiful girl inside and out.”
Hrenchir’s leg work on the story showed. He had quotes from Ruth Lange, a neighbor of the Kellers and the grandmother of one of Brenda’s best friends, Joy 88 manager Warren Wilson, and Anderson. The piece was a feature introducing readers to a little girl beloved in a small town similar to thousands of communities in the state.
A second story written by Hrenchir, “Suspect arrested in slaying,” rested next to the first article and stretched from the top to the bottom of the front page in sixth and final column. It summarized the arrest of Jon Jr. and provided details surrounding Brenda’s disappearance and the search for her. Though the story didn’t contain quotes, it referenced Wanamaker’s statement in a press release that Jon Jr. was arrested on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, rape, and aggravated sodomy. The piece also noted that a Sheriff’s Department dispatcher said an “unrecognizable” body was found early Sunday morning.
“We knew Brenda was dead, and that the term brutally murdered had been used,” Hrenchir said. “It was the biggest (story) I’d covered at that point.”
Hrenchir pointed out in his second story that Brenda’s murder was the first homicide in Shawnee County outside of Topeka since February 1984, the murder of Clarence Lavin Jr., a case that remains unsolved. It also referred to Brenda’s obituary on Page 5B. Nestled at the bottom of the page, the obit was surrounded by the death notices of people much older, including a 95-year-old woman immediately before and an 87-year-old man immediately after. The notice listed her mom, dad, brothers, and all four grandparents as survivors, as well as Brenda’s involvement in church, the church youth group, Topeka Youth Band, and Friends of the Topeka Zoo.
At the time many were reading Hrenchir’s stories, fellow reporter Robbie Peterson arrived for work at the Capital-Journal’s building a few blocks east of downtown Topeka. A veteran journalist, Peterson had worked at the paper for more than seven years after serving as a professor of journalism at Kansas State University. A talented wordsmith who had a way with people, Peterson often wrote the heart-wrenching stories many reporters couldn’t capture.
“Whenever it was something sensitive, they would make me go,” said Peterson, “even though it was never my job, and I don’t consider myself really good at that.”
While Peterson had covered a wide range of stories all over the world during her career, she had never been a general assignment reporter. At least until there was a shift in the newsroom with the arrival of a new managing editor.
“They had all this drama going on in the newsroom,” she said. “This guy came in and decided he was going to turn the whole newsroom upside down. So, if you were near the top, you went to the bottom. The thing was I could be a general assignment reporter, and he knew that’d make me quit. So, that’s what he offered me. I said I was willing to do any story, and he didn’t believe me.”
On Peterson’s first day in the new role, the managing editor assigned her to cover Brenda’s funeral.
“I’d been there several years, and that was the first assignment,” she said. “He figured I’d refuse to do it because the family had requested no media. It was a very heavy thing.”
Brenda’s story also hit Peterson close to home. The day before the murder, Peterson’s son went missing. A year younger than Brenda, he left the family’s house in the Potwin neighborhood of Topeka with a friend without telling his parents. For an hour, the Petersons felt the crushing anxiety Bob and Tracy Keller felt just 24 hours later.
“The really short version is he was fine, but for an hour, we didn’t think so. I never had anything like that happen before,” she said.
The combination of stress at home and being assigned to cover a funeral the media wasn’t supposed to attend gave the seasoned reporter pause.
“I was afraid I should just go on and say forget it; this guy’s going to put me in the worst possible position,” she said. “I didn’t want to crash the funeral. I didn’t want to be there, and not being honest about the fact that I was with the newspaper … it was just bizarre.”
Peterson eventually accepted the assignment to cover the funeral, a decision that had a significant impact on Brenda’s story and people following the case.
Please let me know when your book is available.
Brenda and her brothers were the same age as my children. She was often in our home before we moved. . Our families were
I was at work when a friend called me and told me Brenda was missing.
I grew up in that community. I could not comprehend that anything could happen to this child or any other child.
The funeral was something else. I recall the crowed parking lot, the packed gymnasium and Bob’s message of forgiveness. It still breaks me up.
It was a time in my life I never forget.
Hi, Betty. I’m hoping it’ll be out this year. The book is written … now working on getting it published.
I am reading your book now. I grew up in Dover and road bikes all around there, went to Dover church as well with Bob Keller and helping them at their house taking care of their animals.
She was much older than I.
Thank you for sharing. I hope you enjoy the book. It really was a labor of love.