About 50 people marched down the sidewalk of Peeke Avenue the morning of Oct. 16. Some pushed wheelbarrows, others carried armfuls of coffee pots and donuts and one woman pulled a little red wagon. As cars passed, the drivers slowed, some staring at the parade. Most, however, rolled down their windows and waved, grinning from ear to ear to see the 50 people marching.
The group’s destination? The home of a woman beaten and sexually assaulted Oct. 7, where residents gathered to put up a new backyard fence and do yard work.
“It was phenomenal. The turnout was way higher than expected,” Patti Kleiss, neighbor, said. “All the neighbors came out, all the neighbors’ friends came out. It was fantastic.”
The Kleisses and another neighboring family, the Mosbys, began organizing the event as soon as they heard of their neighbor’s attack, and they were overwhelmed with support.
“My dad’s a construction worker,” Clayton Mosby, senior, said. “We live on Peeke, so we’ve all kind of organized and worked together for the cause. It was kind of a group decision. All our neighbors just started talking and brainstorming ideas, so we just came together and said, ‘Let’s make a difference. Let’s make a change.’”
When the woman returned from the hospital, neighbors had painted her bedroom walls, cleaned her home and replaced old bedroom furniture, bought with more than $1,000 raised by neighborhood children requesting donations. According to The Webster-Kirkwood Times, Phillips Furniture in Kirkwood donated $500 toward the purchase of a new bed, and both Kirkwood Florists and Summit Produce donated decorative items for her home.
Children stood at the corner of Peeke and Harrison Oct. 16 rattling jars of money and waving homemade signs that read, “Donate! Please help our friend!” “Build a fence for a neighbor!” and “A never ending gift that circles back again.” Kleiss’s son, Jack, 12, grinned and brandished his sign, repeating, “One guy just gave us a $100 bill!”
As the children raised money, adults and teens tackled the woman’s backyard, raking leaves and removing a rotting wooden fence to make way for a new one.
“Right now, we’re tearing up the garden,” Mosby said. “Our main thing is creating a fence around the house.”
Several members of Kirkwood Youth Service (KYS), the youth volunteering group at KHS, assisted the neighbors at the woman’s home.
“I just wanted to help out,” Ben Gaither-Ganim, junior, said. “I enjoy doing community service, and when I heard that they needed some help, I thought it’d be a cool way to spend a Saturday morning.”
Neighbors also held a candlelight service at dusk on the corner of Harrison and Peeke that same night.
“It was beautiful,” Kleiss said.
A chainsaw revved and everyone working stopped to watch a few men carefully take down a dead tree in the backyard. The tree started to lean and soon fell with a huge cracking noise onto the lawn. As the dead wood hit the grass, everyone burst into applause and cheers, before hauling it away to make room for the new landscaping.
KHS grad arrested and charged with sexual assault
Sean Adams, 19, was arrested Oct. 7 at his home as a suspect in the incident.
Kirkwood Police say the victim, who lived alone, called police and said she had been sexually assaulted in her home on Harrison around 1:30 a.m. She woke to a man wearing a ski mask and armed with a knife. She was assaulted and suffered non-life threatening injuries.
According to police, Adams may have jogged in the area and observed the victim’s patterns. Adams, a 2010 KHS graduate, allegedly entered the woman’s house through an unlocked door. The police used dogs to track Adams to his home, not far from the victim’s residence, and neighbors said they saw Adams arrested in nothing but his underwear around 7:30 a.m. His parents were not home.
He was charged with burglary 1st degree, assault 1st degree, forcible rape and three counts of forcible sodomy, and each charge is accompanied by one count of armed criminal action. Adams is the son of City of Kirkwood Finance Director John Adams.
Adams is being held at Saint Louis County Jail on cash bond set at $1 million. When Adams submitted a request to lower his bond amount, a judge denied the reduction. If convicted, he may face a sentence of life in prison.
Students respond to arrest
Sean Adams, 2010 KHS graduate, was arrested Oct. 7 and charged with assaulting the woman. For many who knew Adams personally, they met the news with disbelief.
“I was shocked,” Scott Mackenzie, senior, said. “I’ve known him for three years, and for him to do this is totally unimaginable.”
Mackenzie and Adams were captains of the varsity wrestling team in 2009 and hung out fairly often on the weekends. David Bauer, senior, and Adams were wrestling partners for one year.
“I just kept trying to explain to myself how it could have happened,” Bauer said. “I couldn’t wrap my head around it.”
Tom Gaither-Ganim, educational support counselor, reiterated how awful things can happen anywhere.
“It’s not normally what we would identify Kirkwood as being all about,” Gaither-Ganim said. “Then again, Kirkwood does belong to the United States of America on Planet Earth… Therefore, anything can happen.”
As negative comments about Adams swirled around the Kirkwood community, Mackenzie and Bauer tried to stress the importance of not being judgmental.
“I just want people to know this wasn’t the Sean any of us know,” Mackenzie said. “I don’t want people to label him as a monster or an awful person because he really isn’t.”
KHS wrestlers sent a letter to Adams’s parents to be forwarded to him in order to let him know of their support. Some even cleaned and did yard work around Adams’s house in order to help out his parents in this time of hardship.
“I think the world itself simply isn’t the safest place, but we have no choice but to live in it and try to impact change when we can,” Gaither-Ganim said.
KHS wrestlers sent a letter to Adams’s parents to forward to him in order to let him know of their support. Some are even planning to clean and do yard work around Adams’s house in order to help out his parents in this time of hardship.
“I think the world itself simply isn’t the safest place, but we have no choice but to live in it and try to impact change when we can,” Gaither-Ganim said.
Attack marks another dark time for city
From the death of Sergeant William McEntee in 2005 to the Michael Devlin kidnapping case in 2007 and the City Hall shooting in 2008, both of which made national headlines, to the Sean Adams incident just this month, the Kirkwood community has suffered several black eyes the past five years.
“As the city government, we certainly don’t want events like this to happen in our community,” Mayor Art McDonnell said. “At the same time, we have to be grateful that the perpetrators of these acts have been caught. It’s all been handled very professionally by the police department.”
Many believe these incidents have changed the image of Kirkwood.
“The thing that’s disturbing is that if [the perception of Kirkwood] has [changed], we’re being defined by the .0001 [percent of] people that live here,” Dr. David Holley, KHS principal, said.
Others believe Kirkwood is still viewed as the same tight-knit community it has always been, regardless of horrendous events that have occurred.
“I think we’re a community that really comes together,” Beth von Behren, Kirkwood public information officer, said. “Residents and citizens get involved.”
City officials were quick to praise residents for acting positively in the wake of negative events. McDonnell spoke highly of the neighbors who supported the woman beaten and raped Oct. 7.
“It is inspiring,” McDonnell said. “These people didn’t have to do anything, but they did. And that’s what’s so great.”
Although Kirkwood has been in the media many times within the last five years, coverage has not always been negative. Mayor McDonnell even writes an article for the “Eye on Kirkwood” segment in every issue of the Webster-Kirkwood Times, where he highlights the good things that have happened in the community.
“Often people focus on [bad events] and forget about the good things that happen,” McDonnell said. “Individuals do a lot of things in the community all the time.”
Several community members agree, cautioning Kirkwood residents to remember bad things happen everywhere.
“It’s just reality and today’s society,” Mike Bales, Kirkwood police officer and head of security for Kirkwood School District, said. “I’ve always had the mindset that things can happen anywhere even in a town like Kirkwood, which can be and should be considered a great place to live.”
Holley agreed.
“There are the same issues in Kirkwood as there are everywhere,” he said. “Is it sad? Is it disconcerting? Yeah, but it’s reality. We just keep marching on, trying to do the right things for the kids.”
