Katherine Korzilius articles

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Family searches for answers, peace - A year later, death of girl, 6, still a mystery
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Austin American-Statesman (TX)-August 7, 1997
Author: Hank Stuever

It was a little girl's request: Let me walk home from here.
Imagine being 6 years old. She was a voice from the back seat of the family's Chevrolet Suburban, in the hilly suburbs, a place where they put the mailboxes in a cluster at the top of the street.


Katherine Korzilius had been in the car all afternoon with her mother and her brother: They went to the math tutor and to Subway for lunch. They ran errands, driving to North Austin to buy Dad some golf clubs for his birthday. Was she bored, fidgety?


She got out of the car. Nancy gave her the box key. She handed her mother the mail.


``Mom, can I walk home?''


It meant she was a big girl.


It was just a few houses away. It was a routine they had.


``I said, `Sure,''' Nancy Korzilius, 50, remembers. ``And that's the last word I ever spoke to her.''


* This is a tranquil and privileged place called Rob Roy on the Lake, Section Two, across Lake Austin from Emma Long Metropolitan Park, where the brick and limestone homes generally start at $350,000 and can cost $1 million, set apart on the tree-thickened slopes, without sidewalks, looking back toward the city. Nothing ever happens. Bugs rattle in the heat; lawn sprinklers go chin-chin-chin.


A year ago today, around 4 p.m., somewhere between the mailboxes and the family's home in the 800 block of Elder Circle, a week before she was supposed to start first grade, Katherine suffered a head injury that fractured her skull and left her unconscious. She died seven hours later.


Her mother and her brother, Chris, 9, say they found her face down on the asphalt in the 1100 block, six houses down, arms at her sides, 15 minutes after she handed Nancy the mail. They had gone to look for Katherine when she didn't come home. They checked next door. They drove back around the circle.


``It was as if she had been laid there,'' Nancy says.


She ran to her daughter, took one look, and scooped Katherine up in her arms. ``It was the most instinctive thing I could have possibly done,'' Nancy says.


She didn't call an ambulance. She put Katherine in the back seat and they drove 25 minutes on Bee Caves Road to MoPac Boulevard and north to Seton Medical Center.


Nancy has told it a thousand times.


She told it to her husband, Paul, who was in New York that day, working as business manager for the rock group Bon Jovi.


She told it to her family, to doctors, to police officers, to her neighbors, to reporters, to fellow members of St. Michael's Episcopal Church, to friends, to a grief support group, to a private investigator and even to psychics.


Police and concerned neighbors searched for a killer, or anyone who knew what happened. After a time, they seemed to stop looking.


Many of the photocopied fliers, offering a $5,000 reward backed by the homeowners' association, came down. There's still one left, laminated by Paul Korzilius, posted at the entrance to Rob Roy on the Lake near a memorial tree and plaque. Children play in the neighborhood again, and go get the mail by themselves.


The Department of Public Safety considers the Korzilius death unsolved, an open case, but one with little or no physical evidence or leads.


An autopsy by Travis County Medical Examiner Robert Bayardo essentially ruled out a hit-and-run, because Katherine did not have other broken bones or internal injuries. Small scrapes on her elbows, knees and hands suggested she fell -- perhaps from a car, Bayardo reported.


A year has gone by and there is not a single answer. To any of it.


Accident? Murder?


``We still don't know what happened to her,'' Nancy says, sitting on a green leather chair in the family's brightly sunlit home. A painting of Katherine in a field of sunflowers, commissioned after her death, hangs on the living room wall. ``Did a lawn company drive by and a piece of equipment fell off the back of a truck and hit her in the head? Was somebody driving with a trailer and a protruding object came by? ... At one point, someone thought maybe a deer ran into her. There were two or three psychics, and they were all nice people, but they told us three different things. I went under hypnosis for DPS. Nothing.''


The family was unsatisfied with ``the lack of communication,'' Nancy says, from DPS about the case. In November, they turned to a private investigator, who hasn't broken the case, either.


``To me, it's a little disheartening to call (the family) every day and say we don't have anything new,'' says Sgt. Phillip Kemp, who heads the DPS investigation. ``A case like this, with no physical evidence, can sit for several years.''


``It seems almost as if it's a moment in time,'' Paul says of his daughter's death. Sunday was the Korziliuses' 12th wedding anniversary; the day Katherine died is Paul's birthday.


Katherine and her family had just taken a vacation cruise in Turkey. She had lost a front tooth. At home, she lived like any busy girl -- ballet lessons, soccer, swimming. She built little homes for bugs she found. She drew hearts with arrows through them.


Last week, the Korziliuses took their son on a trip to Washington, D.C. They have added a Welsh corgi puppy, Broderick, and a parrot, Inca, to the household. There is every attempt to repair.


``The rest of it, before and after, is as normal in this neighborhood as it's always been, if you're someone living down the street,'' Paul says. ``There is no returning to normal for us.''


* Piecing together what happened to Katherine Korzilius goes like this, and it is not satisfying: Underneath the shock there is grief. Under that, a mystery. And under that, a number of privately kept solutions and rumors -- none of them known as fact. Paul and Nancy Korzilius say they know nothing other than what they've previously reported.


Friends have supported the Korziliuses.


Jon Bon Jovi -- Paul's client and friend for 10 years -- put a song about Katherine, titled ``August 7, 4:15,'' on his new album. (``Somehow something happened/Someone got away/ ... Someone shouted `Hit and run,'/The coroner cried `foul'/ Her blue dress was what she wore/The day they laid her body down.'') A short film, a dark and moody companion piece to the album, ``Destination Anywhere,'' stars Demi Moore and Bon Jovi as a couple whose daughter is killed by a hit-and-run driver.


Last week, Paul's parents, who live in Wisconsin, wrote a letter to the editor of the Westlake Picayune, a suburban newspaper, pleading for the killer to ``Come forth. Tell us so our doubts will be quieted and at peace.''


* It is another afternoon, and Nancy Korzilius is sitting in the dining room. The muggy August, the start of school -- it all reminds her of Katherine. Her voice is steady, her eyes keep their focus on you. This is a woman who did not cry for TV cameras, but wears grief on her face in more subtle ways. She is forthcoming with details. She wants to keep public attention on it.


Nancy and Paul met when she was working at an airline ticket counter ... I concentrated everything on being a mother. I still do.''


Chris, an energetic and bespectacled basketball and photography enthusiast, is watching television in the next room and playing fetch with Broderick. He listens off and on to the conversation about his sister. Suddenly, he jumps up.


``Mom, hey Mom,'' he says.


The dog barks.


``What is it, honey?''


``There's this kid, this kid, he says he says his mom called 911 to pick (Katherine) up and I said, `Oh, yeah, right,' and thekid said his mom -- ''


``What kid,'' Nancy says, reaching out to caress her son's shoulder. ``What kid said that?''


``Um, the kid who lives at that house, I think,'' he continues, in the singsong, imaginative voice of a child playing Let's Pretend. ``I said,`Yeah, right,' no one saw it and stuff.''


She strokes his hair, taking him seriously, while knowing that this is not fact. ``Well ... I'd like to know who that kid was, because there wasno record of anyone calling 911 that we ever knew of.''


Chris trots back to the couch.


``It would so much easier for our family to have this solved,'' Nancy says.


Sensing the investigation -- and the news media -- were pulling away last fall, Nancy says she tried to get Katherine's story on television, perhaps ``Crimestoppers.''


``We were told there wasn't enough (evidence) to present a scenario,'' she says. She pauses, then adds: ``I wonder. Maybe because it's a young child, who is not an important person?''


* --


People care a great deal when a little girl dies on her own street. A dead child is an important person, who doesn't go away. At first, neighbors kept their children inside. They were fearful that someone had tried to kidnap Katherine, that evil had intruded here.


``We all still talk about it, of course,'' says Ben Hathaway, an Austin attorney whose family lives near the mailboxes, who is past president of the homeowners association, which stands by its reward offer.


``I admire Nancy for the way she's held up,'' he says. ``It's given everybody a lot of strength. ... Speculation runs the whole gamut. Everybody's got different theories, but no one knows.''


Joyce Gruger, who lives next door to the Korziliuses and has children the same age, says she still expects to see Katherine come running through her kitchen door behind her brother, who frequently comes over to play.


Gruger remembers Nancy and Chris stopping by that afternoon, looking for Katherine.


``It wasn't until the next morning that we heard it on the news,'' Gruger says. ``My daughter and son were very upset. We've done a lot to talk about safety in the neighborhood, about not talking to strangers. About looking out for cars, and things you don't do around cars.''


``The neighborhood isn't quite the same, because our hearts were very much affected,'' Deborah Delgado, another neighbor, says. ``While I think many would like the neighborhood to be the way it was before -- that is, peaceful and serene and beautiful, even though it appears that way on the surface -- I'm proud of the way the neighborhood rallied around the Korziliuses and the (investigation).''


* --


Barbara O'Brian is a private investigator hired by the Korziliuses when they felt they weren't getting enough answers from DPS.


On the matter of Katherine, she is adamant: ``The strongest impression I can give about this case is that it is not solved, that it was not an accident, and that it absolutely did not happen on the back of mom's car.''


O'Brian and her business partner, John Vasquez, a retired Austin police captain, came on the case three months after Katherine died -- too late, O'Brian says, to fully check out deliveries or workers in the growing neighborhood on Aug. 7, 1996.


``So much about that neighborhood has changed, even in the first few months,'' she says. ``I think the feeling was, inside the investigation, was that this little girl fell off the back of the car and the mother drove off down the street and didn't know it had happened. ...


``That's impossible,'' O'Brian goes on. ``Think about it: This is a blistering hot, August day. The car had been in the hot sun for hours. There is no way that girl could grab onto that car. She was not lying in the middle of the road. She was composed. Her clothes were not disheveled ... This is a case I will never be content to just let go. ... II can't believe DPS has.''


Sgt. Kemp says, ``I hate to elaborate on a case while it's still open, but we've looked at it from every situation.'' Also, DPS has never asserted that the death in any way involved Nancy Korzilius or the family car.


* --


Nancy and Chris are waiting in line at ZuZu's Handmade Mexican Food restaurant on Bee Caves Road. For no reason, a smiling, blond little girl runs up to tell Nancy that she is 61/2 years old.


``Are you?'' Nancy says. ``And I'll bet you're about to be in first grade.''


The girl nods, and runs away.


And why do these things happen, Nancy asks herself. It's something she will write in her journal. She feels Katherine all around. ``I feel fortunate to live right here, where it happened, where it all happened,'' Nancy says. ``If we ever had to move or if I lost some of these things, I'd lose her, too.''


* --


Because Nancy took Katherine to Seton Medical Center, instead of calling 911, there is no independent eyewitness account of what happened -- how and where or what time the girl was found. (Other than Nancy's account, and the boy's, which in terms of grief, ring painfully true.)


Before Katherine was transferred to Children's Hospital, Nancy says, doctors and nurses thought it looked like she had fallen from something.


When Nancy called Paul at his office in New York, she said an accident had occurred. Paul thought she was calling to say happy birthday. He chartered an emergency flight home, but arrived an hour after Katherine's organs had been donated and she was gone.


By this point, Sgt. Kemp was at the hospital; Katherine's pediatrician, Dr. Ann Weaver, came and asked that more pictures and forensic samples be taken, that it just seemed wrong that a little girl could kill herself walking one block on a deserted street. The focus shifted from accident to crime.


And has not shifted since.


``Then and now, there has been blame on the parents, and I just have a real problem with that,'' Weaver says. ``These are two parents who have said, `Our child has died, and we want to know what happened' and they did it with such stoic determination. They didn't fall apart or have a public emotional display. People who know them understand.''


There are now 25-mile-per-hour speed limit signs on Elder Circle in Rob Roy on the Lake. Some neighbors want speed bumps, too.


``Is it possible,'' Joyce Gruger wonders, ``for there to be some kind of end to it, where the neighborhood gets an update and we go on? It would put people's minds to rest, to just know.''


Nancy says she and Paul find some comfort in the events and memorials in Katherine's honor.


She enumerates them. They had a party on Katherine's seventh birthday last October and invited the neighborhood children. An anti-violence group held a prayer vigil near the mailboxes. The neighbors planted the tree and paid for the plaque. Paul and Nancy are having the cafeteria redecorated at Valley View Elementary School; a rainforest mural will be painted, and Katherine and Chris will be in that jungle, together. Nancy bought a page in the yearbook and ran a picture of Katherine, wet and pretty in the family pool.


Besides all this, a tree will be planted at the Austin Nature Center this fall. Nancy and Paul put a marble marker in their front yard, beneath a stone angel.


Two women from St. Michael's competed with Nancy in the Danskin Triathlon in June, and won, under the team name ``For the Love of Katherine I.'' They each posted a personal best time. They wore matching Katherine KorziliusT-shirts. Nancy gave a short speech at the awards ceremony.


She asked what she always asks for. She asked people not to forget her daughter, and she asked for answers.

Larry Kolvoord/AA-S, Rebecca McEntee/AA-S

COLOR PHOTO, MUG SHOT, PHOTOS, MAPS


Nancy Korzilius says she found her daughter lying in the foreground, face down, with her head on the left and her feet on the right, in the 1100 block of Elder Circle in the Rob Roy on the Lake subdivision.

Chris, 9, and parents Nancy and Paul Korzilius keep Katherine close by in a portrait commissioned after her death a year ago today.

Katherine Korzilius, left, died on the birthday of her father, Paul, right, a year ago. Her mother found her unconscious on the road near their house and she died seven hours later. The mystery of her death has not been solved. Her father is business manager for the rock group Bon Jovi.


Edition: Final
Section: Lifestyle
Page: A1

Record Number: 0EA059DFCA179D41
Copyright (c) 1997 Austin American-Statesman

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Bon Jovi does it for charity at holiday show
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Star-Ledger, The (Newark, NJ)-December 21, 1996
Author: Jay Lustig, Star-Ledger Staff

Don't call it a Christmas concert. The surprise highlight of Bon Jovi's seventh annual "holiday-season" charity concert Thursday at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank was keyboardist David Bryan's rousing cover of comedian Adam Sandler's "Chanukah Song."




Frontman Jon Bon Jovi traditionally has let his bandmates perform songs by other artists at these concerts, but no one has ever come up with such a left-field choice before. In Sandler's hands, it was a nerdy folk song, rhyming Chanukah with Veronica and "gin and tonic-a," and irreverently paying tribute to Jewish celebrities ("Paul Newman's half- Jewish, Goldie Hawn's half, too/Put them both together - what a fine-looking Jew," "We've got Ann Landers and her sister, Dear Abby/Harrison Ford's a quarter Jewish - not too shabby"). Bryan didn't change the lyrics, but his booming vocals, combined with the swaggering rock beat supplied by drummer Tico Torres and bassist Hugh McDonald, made the song seem more like a statement than a joke.




The concert offered one other revelation: a new version of the band's 1989 hit, "I'll Be There For You," featuring vocals by guitarist Richie Sambora, and lead guitar by Jon Bon Jovi. The fascinating thing about it was the way the two musicians put their own musical stamp on their new contributions. Sambora, whose guitar playing is often the grittiest thing about the band's music, brought a smoldering, bluesy edge to his vocals, and the amiable Bon Jovi played his guitar solo with a light, fluid touch. Though the song was turned inside out, its ultimate effect wasn't very different from that of the original. Other departures from normal Bon Jovi routine include a stripped-down version of "In These Arms," featuring conga playing by Torres; McDonald's weakly warbled version of Bobby Womack's "It's All Over Now" (popularized by the Rolling Stones); and Torres' solid imitation of Louis Armstrong's singing on his cover of "What a Wonderful World." As is the custom for Bon!
Jovi's holiday shows, audience members chosen at random got to sit at an on-stage bar, with the "bartender," dressed as Santa Claus, danced wildly behind it. A Christmas tree sat on the stage, as did two pinball machines and a jukebox.




Any Bon Jovi concert is likely to contain a few classic-rock covers; on Thursday night's set list were songs like the Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme Some Lovin', " John Fogerty's "Rocking All Over the World" and Van Morrison's "Gloria" (worked into the middle of Bon Jovi's own "Bad Medicine"). The band didn't skimp on its own hits either, playing everything from an acoustic version of "Livin' on a Prayer" to its 1994 country- flavored hit, "Someday I'll Be Saturday Night."




Despite the unusual trappings and the occasional musical surprises, the majority of the show was Bon Jovi business as usual. Jon Bon Jovi was at his best when he dove whole-heartedly into the modern-cowboy melodrama of "Wanted Dead or Alive," and the band hit its stride on pounding hard-rock songs like "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" and "Damned." But in general, the group was not at its best Thursday night.




Tempos occasionally lagged, and only a few numbers projected the kind of wild abandon the band needs to make its catchy but cliche-filled songs seem extraordinary. The rustiness had an obvious cause: The band has been dormant in recent months as its members have worked on solo projects. They reconvened only to do the charity show.




A slight drop in quality was certainly forgivable. According to Bon Jovi's record label, Mercury, the show raised over $100,000. And, obviously, it offered fans an opportunity to see the band in an unusually intimate setting.




The organizations that benefited from this year's show were The Women's Center of Monmouth County, dedicated to providing shelter, counseling and protection to those affected by domestic violence and sexual assault; The Manna House, a transitional housing program for homeless women and children; The Valerie Fund, an organization providing outpatient care for children with cancer, and the Katherine Korzilius Memorial Fund, which supports various children's charities.

1. Bon Jovi, (from left) David Bryan, Richie Sambora, Jon Bon Jovi and Tico Torres, gave their seventh annual holiday show at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank Thursday night.

Edition: FINAL
Section: TODAY
Page: 37

Record Number: star199632c133686
Copyright 1996, 2001 The Star-Ledger. All Rights Reserved. Used by NewsBank with Permission.

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Prayerful gathering offers hope for healing - Family, friends join at site where girl, 6, found mortally hurt near her home
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Austin American-Statesman (TX)-September 12, 1996
Author: JUAN R. PALOMO

Where 6-year-old Katherine Korzilius walked her final steps a little more than a month ago, her parents, friends and neighbors gathered Wednesday under a searing September sun to take the first steps toward a reluctant reconciliation with her death, and the circumstances surrounding it.
In the hills overlooking Lake Austin west of West Lake Hills, they were joined by their pastor and several clergy members who have made it their mission in recent months to lead ``prayers for healing for violence'' at the site of such brutal incidents throughout the Austin area.


Katherine was found near death Aug. 7 shortly after she was dropped off at the community mailboxes by her mother as they were coming home from an afternoon of looking for birthday presents for Katherine's father.


It was a short distance -- only four houses away -- and Katherine had walked those last few feet often, according to her mother. It was something she enjoyed doing.


This time, however, she never made it home: She was found 15 minutes later, unconscious, a few blocks away. She died that evening, and investigators have yet to solve the mystery of her death.


The crowd of about 40 people -- some clutching Bibles -- stood somberly around a stone pillar marking the corner of Elder Circle and Barrett Lane, to which was attached a blue flier offering a $5,000


reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for Katherine's death.


They listened to the ministers pray, read from Scripture and tried to make some sense of the senselessness of the Korzilius' loss.


``In a very real sense, what we're doing here today is coming closer to the Korzilius family,'' said Lee Bowman, pastor of First Presbyterian Church. ``And also trying to consecrate the ground that was violated here.''


Larry Bethune, pastor of University Baptist Church, asked for God's forgiveness, ``for we have allowed violence to be celebrated as a means of solving problems, and we have allowed our children to experience violence.''


He asked God to ``use us to make a difference so that we might one


day no longer need to gather like this.''


The service was over in 15 minutes, but Katherine's parents, Paul and Nancy Korzilius, said the gathering and the support of friends and neighbors were invaluable.


One such neighbor was Kelley Jemison. A member of St. Michael's Episcopal, the Korziliuses' church, Jemison said she was there because she was out of town when Katherine died, ``and I feel so much sadness and remorse for the whole community -- I felt I needed to show support.''


Another member of St. Michael's, Marianne Weidemann, said she barely knew the Korzilius family. ``But I grieve a lot, every day,'' she said. ``Not a day goes by that I don't think of Katherine.''


Nancy Korzilius -- who was wearing a small gold-painted wooden cross with her daughter's name on it on a red string around her neck -- said the prayer service was good ``for the healing and for our peace of mind, but also to get the word out -- we need to have somebody to come forward with information.''


There are no new developments in the investigation of the case, a Texas Department of Public Safety officer said Wednesday.

Rebecca McEntee/AA-S

PHOTO

Paul and Nancy Korzilius and their son, Chris, join a prayer session Wednesday at the site where Katherine Korzilius, 6, was fatally injured.

Edition: Final
Section: Metro/State
Page: B5

Record Number: 0EA25DD2B3986F72
Copyright (c) 1996 Austin American-Statesman

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In memory of Katherine
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Austin American-Statesman (TX)-September 12, 1996
Clergy members and friends of the family of 6-year-old Katherine Korzilius gather in the West Austin neighborhood where she was found, fatally injured, for a prayer against violence. The girl's parents say they take comfort from the outpouring of support, but as long as Katherine's killer remains at large, they won't have peace of mind.
RebeccaMcEntee/AA-S

COLOR PHOTO


Edition: Final
Section: Metro/State
Page: B1

Record Number: 0EA25DD2B123E6AE
Copyright (c) 1996 Austin American-Statesman

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Local Briefs - `Prayer for Healing for Violence' today; Help sought for Mejia's family; Funeral expense money sought; Campbell to provide computers
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Austin American-Statesman (TX)-September 11, 1996

`Prayer for Healing for Violence' today
The next ``Prayer for Healing for Violence'' will be today near the place where 6-year-old Katherine Korzilius was last seen alive.


Korzilius was found near death Aug. 7 shortly after she was dropped off by her mother after an afternoon shopping trip so the girl could walk the rest of the way home. She died that evening.


Police initially thought the girl was hit by a vehicle, but Travis County Medical Examiner Robert Bayardo later said her fatal skull fracture and brain injury more likely occurred after she fell from a moving vehicle. The investigation into Korzilius' death continues.


The prayer campaign is an effort by several Austin congregations to make a positive response to violence.


The service will take place at noon at the corner of Elder Circle and Barret Lane in the Rob Roy subdivision west of West Lake Hills.


The congregations involved in the prayer campaign are Ascension Lutheran Church, Church of the Savior, First Presbyterian Church, Greater Calvary Baptist Church and University Baptist Church. For more information, call 478-8559.


Help sought for Mejia's family


El Buen Samaritano Episcopal Center is trying to help the family of Zoila America Mejia, a Salvadoran immigrant who was shot to death Sept. 7 in what police said was a case of domestic violence. Mejia is survived by four sons who attended the summer English as a second language classes at the center. The family needs help with funeral expenses for Mejia, said Francisco Lopez, director of development at the center. He said checks should be made out to San Francisco de Asis -- Mejia Family andsent to the center at 1919 S. First St. For more information, call 441-7977.


Funeral expense money sought


An Austin family that lost a child and his father within a week is accepting contributions to finish paying the little boy's funeral expenses.


Reynaldo ``Nono'' Flores, 4, died Aug. 31 after he fell out of his mother's car as she drove away from a gas station on Ed Bluestein Boulevard.


The child's father, Raynaldo Flores, 40, died Saturday after an illness. His burial Mass is at 2 p.m. today at Cristo-Rey Catholic Church.


Raynaldo Flores' widow, Margaret Morones, said Tuesday that the family still needs to raise $945 to pay for her child's funeral. Any donations toward that, she said, may be made to the Mission Funeral Home, at 1615 E. Cesar Chavez St., Austin 78702.


Campbell to provide computers


Earl Campbell, who won the Heisman Trophy as a running back for the University of Texas, has announced that he will provide 20 computers for elementary schools in Austin, Tyler and Houston.


Campbell, responding to a television newsmagazine report that stated children without computer skills will be lost in today's technology-oriented world, felt compelled to act.


``I felt that a lot of kids, especially in the inner city and in the rural areas like Tyler where I come from, could benefit from having access to computers,'' Campbell said. ``I chose elementary schools so these kids can get off to the right start on their education.''


Campbell, who embarked on a bus tour beginning Tuesday that will take him to the cities, is teaming up with Compaq Computer Corp. of Houston to implement his goal.

Edition: Final
Section: Metro/State
Page: B2

Record Number: 0EA25DD176647D00
Copyright (c) 1996 Austin American-Statesman

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Bon Jovi girl,7,is murdered - Star's grief at sex killing
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Sun, The (London, England)-August 17, 1996
Author: From Neil Syson in New York

ROCKER Jon Bon Jovi was grief-stricken last night after learning his manager's seven-year-old daughter may have been murdered by a sex fiend.


Katherine Korzilius was found dying in a country lane, yards from dad Paul's home.


Police in Austin, Texas, believe she may have been snatched by a pervert then hurled out of a speeding car.


Last night a spokesman for dad-of-two Jon, 33, said: "He is truly devastated. It is a horrific thing to happen."


Jon is close friends with Paul, who has managed U.S. supergroup Bon Jovi for five years.


A source said: "Jon doted on the little girl. He played games with her and treated her like his own."


Katherine vanished after mum Nancy let her walk a few hundred yards home alone from a post box.


Scrapes


Nancy wept: "We had been out shopping for a birthday present for her daddy.


"I let her walk the rest of the way home because it made her feel independent. She walked home many times."


Nancy found Katherine 15 minutes later, lying face down. Her skull was fractured and she had scrapes on her hands, arms and legs. She died in hospital.


Investigators think a hit-and-run accident was unlikely because there were no marks from skidding tyres.


They are trying to trace all people and cars seen in the area.


A spokesman for Texas Department of Public Safety said: "We are investigating all leads."

Section: Overseas news
Page: 15

Index Terms: Murder
Record Number: 970850381
(c) News Group Newspapers Limited 1996, 2003

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6-year-old's death remains a mystery
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Austin American-Statesman (TX)-August 15, 1996
Author: Enedelia J. Obregon

More than a week after 6-year- old Katherine Korzilius was found unconscious on a quiet neighborhood street, investigators still don't have any clues as to what happened to the youngster.
She died Aug. 7 after her mother found her on Elder Circle, a winding street in the upscale Rob Roy on the Lake subdivision in western Travis County, where street names are chiseled on large stones sitting atop brick pillars and children used to ride their bicycles to visit friends down the street.


Nancy Korzilius said she dropped off her daughter at a cluster of mailboxes at the entrance to Elder Circle about 4 p.m. As she had done other times, she let Katherine walk home after picking up the mail because it made the child feel independent.


Sgt. Philip Kemp with the Texas Department of Public Safety said investigators are interviewing everyone in the neighborhood to determine whether visitors, delivery people or construction workers might have seen anyone or anything suspicious.


``I've worked cases where there was very little evidence, but not one where there was no evidence,'' Kemp said.


Korzilius said she thinks her daughter was hit accidentally.


She said that the day after Katherine died, she dreamed about her daughter, a shiny chrome bumper and the number 24 or 27.


``I believe it's part of a license plate or number of a car,'' Korzilius said.


Because the subdivision is secluded, there is little traffic other than that of residents, visitors and delivery people, Kemp said.


Investigators initially thought Katherine's death was a case of hit-and-run. But Travis County Medical Examiner Robert Bayardo said she died from a fatal skull fracture and brain injury consistent with falling off or out of a moving vehicle.


The lack of clues has led to speculation by neighbors, including theories of an attempted abduction or an attempt by Katherine to hitch a ride on the bumper of her mother's car.


``The thing is, none of the theories make sense,'' said Wayne Hoyer, father of two young children, who said the incident has shattered their sense of security.


Hoyer, who lives near where Katherine's body was found, said he finds it hard to believe there is an evil person out there hurting children. But he said not knowing for sure is unsettling.


``I'd feel better if I knew if it was an accident or a murder,'' he said.


Another neighbor, Sandy Stramoski, said parents are keeping closer tabs on their children, even older ones.


``We used to let our 10-year-old daughter drive her bicycle two houses down,'' she said. ``We drive her now.''


Roz Stephenson, who recently moved into Rob Roy from Utah, where she was a school counselor, recently talked to about 20 neighborhood children about Katherine's death.


``We felt they needed to know everything that we knew,'' she said. ``When something like this happens, it affects us all. It helps children to talk about it. Otherwise their imaginations run wild.''


The Rob Roy on the Lake Section Two Owners' Association is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the persons responsible for Katherine's death. Anyone with information should call Kemp at 444-4178 or 873-3131.

Edition: Final
Section: Metro/State
Page: B1

Record Number: 0EA25D9E86330613
Copyright (c) 1996 Austin American-Statesman

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Mother thinks girl was hit accidentally by a car - 6-year-old's death remains a mystery
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Austin American-Statesman (TX)-August 15, 1996

Continued from B1
See Mother, B10


By Enedelia J. Obregon


American-Statesman Staff


More than a week after 6-year- old Katherine Korzilius was found unconscious on a quiet neighborhood street, investigators still don't have any clues as to what happened to the youngster.


She died Aug. 7 after her mother found her on Elder Circle, a winding street in the upscale Rob Roy on the Lake subdivision in western Travis County, where street names are chiseled on large stones sitting atop brick pillars and children used to ride their bicycles to visit friends down the street.


Nancy Korzilius said she dropped off her daughter at a cluster of mailboxes at the entrance to Elder Circle about 4 p.m. As she had done other times, she let Katherine walk home after picking up the mail because it made the child feel independent.


Sgt. Philip Kemp with the Texas Department of Public Safety said investigators are interviewing everyone in the neighborhood to determine whether visitors, delivery people or construction workers might have seen anyone or anything suspicious.


``I've worked cases where there was very little evidence, but not one where there was no evidence,'' Kemp said.


Korzilius said she thinks her daughter was hit accidentally.


She said that the day after Katherine died, she dreamed about her daughter, a shiny chrome bumper and the number 24 or 27.


``I believe it's part of a license plate or number of a car,'' Korzilius said.


Because the subdivision is secluded, there is little traffic other than that of residents, visitors and delivery people, Kemp said.


Investigators initially thought Katherine's death was a case of hit-and-run. But Travis County Medical Examiner Robert Bayardo said she died from a fatal skull fracture and brain injury consistent with falling off or out of a moving vehicle.


The lack of clues has led to speculation by neighbors, including theories of an attempted abduction or an attempt by Katherine to hitch a ride on the bumper of her mother's car.


``The thing is, none of the theories make sense,'' said Wayne Hoyer, father of two young children, who said the incident has shattered their sense of security.


Hoyer, who lives near where Katherine's body was found, said he finds it hard to believe there is an evil person out there hurting children. But he said not knowing for sure is unsettling.


``I'd feel better if I knew if it was an accident or a murder,'' he said.


Another neighbor, Sandy Stramoski, said parents are keeping closer tabs on their children, even older ones.


``We used to let our 10-year-old daughter drive her bicycle two houses down,'' she said. ``We drive her now.''


Roz Stephenson, who recently moved into Rob Roy from Utah, where she was a school counselor, recently talked to about 20 neighborhood children about Katherine's death.


``We felt they needed to know everything that we knew,'' she said. ``When something like this happens, it affects us all. It helps children to talk about it. Otherwise their imaginations run wild.''


The Rob Roy on the Lake Section Two Owners' Association is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the persons responsible for Katherine's death. Anyone with information should call Kemp at 444-4178 or 873-3131.

Edition: Final
Section: Metro/State
Page: 01

Record Number: 0EA25D9E8AAED16B
Copyright (c) 1996 Austin American-Statesman

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CORRECTION
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Austin American-Statesman (TX)-August 11, 1996
A story in Saturday's editions gave an incorrect name of the subdivision where 6-year-old Katherine Korzilius was found Wednesday after what authorities believe was a hit-and-run accident. The fatal accident happened in Rob Roy on the Lake in southwestern Travis County. The story also incorrectly stated the day of Korzilius' father's return home from out of town. Paul Korzilius returned home from New York on Wednesday, the day of the accident.
Edition: Final
Section: News
Page: A2

Record Number: 0EA25DA25627DD0B
Copyright (c) 1996 Austin American-Statesman

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Injuries suggest dead girl may have fallen from auto - Medical examiner findings deepen mystery surrounding suspected hit-and-run -
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Austin American-Statesman (TX)-August 10, 1996
Author: Nichole Monroe, Enedelia Obregon, Tom Vaughn, Chris Riemenschneider

The county medical examiner said Friday the injuries to Katherine Korzilius suggest that she may have fallen from a moving vehicle, adding to the mystery of what killed the 6-year-old as she walked near her home on a quiet road.
Katherine died late Wednesday evening after her mother, Nancy, found her unconscious on Elder Circle, a winding road nestled in the hills of the Rob Roy subdivision, west of West Lake Hills.


Neighbors rallied to help the Korzilius family find the person responsible for Katherine's death and posted fliers Friday offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible.


Although police thought Thursday that the girl was hit by a car or service vehicle, Travis County Medical Examiner Robert Bayardo said Friday that the girl's fatal skull fracture and brain injury were not the result of a hit-and-run.


``It is consistent with falling off a moving vehicle,'' Bayardo said. ``She had scrapes on her hands, elbows, knees and back. It makes me think she fell or was thrown off a moving vehicle. She died when she hit the pavement.''


Bayardo said if the child had been hit by a car she would have had fractured legs or ribs or some other impact injury from a vehicle.


Although investigators had not yet seen the autopsy results Friday afternoon, Sgt. Philip Kemp with the Department of Public Safety said until they receive any substantial new information, they are investigating the case as a hit-and-run accident.


``We are still pursuing it as a motor vehicle accident ... but we're not counting anything out at this point,'' Kemp said.


Kemp said if autopsy results show that Katherine Korzilius may have fallen out of a vehicle rather than being hit, it could change the focus of the investigation, but that it would still be the same charge.


``Whether or not she was hit, or she was picked up and fell out of a vehicle, it is still the same charge -- failure to stop and render aid,'' Kemp said.


SCENE OF THE FATALITY


In Rob Roy, groups of deer roam freely on neatly manicured lawns, and expensive homes lie hidden among rolling green hills. The roads that travel through this community are just wide enough to fit about three cars side-by-side.


Traffic on Elder Circle is sparse, and the street is traveled mostly by residents, friends, construction workers and delivery drivers. Though there is no posted speed limit, a vehicle traveling at the legal maximum, 35 mph, on the street must navigate repeated blind curves, which could make stopping to avoid a person in the road difficult.


Katherine's mother Nancy Korzilius said Friday that on the day of the accident, she had taken Katherine and her 8-year-old brother Chris on a day of shopping and other activities.


They were shopping for a birthday present for the children's father, whose birthday was Wednesday and was out of town at the time. Paul Korzilius is a manager for the band Bon Jovi. He returned to Austin Friday night.


On the way home, Nancy Korzilius said she stopped at the beginning of Elder Circle to get mail from the community mailboxes. At Katherine's request, Korzilius said she let her daughter walk the rest of the way home because it made her feel independent.


``She's walked home many times,'' Korzilius said. ``It was a route that she was very familiar with.''


MOTHER RECOUNTS EVENTS


Korzilius said she believes that as Katherine traveled toward her home, she was struck by a car about two blocks before she got home. The mother thinks that the person who hit Katherine picked her up, drove four houses past the family's house and lay her body on the ground.


Friday, Nancy Korzilius returned to the stretch of Elderwhere she found her daughter's body.


``Her toes were pointed toward the curb, and her body was lying on her stomach,'' Korzilius said. ``Her body was lying in a manner that looked like she was placed there. I firmly believe she was placed there.


``That's why we're going public, because I know that someone knows what happened. Unless they come forward, we'll never know what happened to Katherine. I think everyone that lives here feels violated in some way.''


Neighbors, who described Katherine as a kind and generous little girl, said they were very disturbed by her death.


``I am devastated, and we are all dumbfounded by this incident,'' said Elizabeth Blatt, whose children often played with Katherine and her brother Chris. ``We were hoping someone will come forward. Katherine was a beautiful little girl who was sweet, charming and active. We're all shaken up, and I think this will bring us together as a community.''


NEIGHBORS EXPRESS DISTRESS


Others said they were taking more steps to make sure their children stay safe in the neighborhood.


``The whole neighborhood is distraught,'' said Ben Hathaway, director of the Rob Roy neighborhood association. ``You never think this kind of thing can happen in your community. My kids won't be walking the dog by themselves for a while.''


Neighbors described the Korziliuses as a tight-knit family who were well-respected in the community. The family had recently returned from a two-week vacation trip to Turkey and other countries.


Dawn Bridges, Bon Jovi's spokesperson at Mercury Records, said Paul Korzilius coordinates all facets of both the group Bon Jovi's touring and recording affairs as well as the extracurricular film and television career of Jon Bon Jovi, for whom Korzilius has worked for at least a decade.


Bridges said Korzilius travels a lot with the group, but also isable to handle much of the group's business from his Austin-area home, a rare case for the normally New York City- or Los Angeles-based entertainment industry.


``Everyone feels a lot of respect and affection for him,'' Bridges said. ``We're all really shaken up over this.''


Funeral services are 2 p.m. today at St. Michael's Episcopal Church, 6317 Bee Caves Road. Visitation is from noon to 2 p.m. at the church.


A special account has been set up in Katherine's name at the Wells Fargo/First Interstate Bank of Texas, 609 Castle Ridge Road. The fund will be used for various Austin charities for children and education.


Anyone with information about traffic in the Rob Roy area between 4 p.m. and 4:10 p.m. Wednesday is asked to call 873-3100.


Staff Writers Enedelia Obregon, Tom Vaughn and Chris Riemenschneider contributed to this report.


(from maps) Tracking a child's last steps: Nancy Korzilius found the lifeless body of her 6-year-old daughter a short distance from their family home Wednesday afternoon. Law enforcement authorities are trying to figure out what happened to Katherine Korzilius in the 15 minutes between the time of her mother last saw her alive and found her body. Nancy Korzilius gave this account to investigators:


1. Wednesday, 4 p.m.: Nancy Korzilius stops at mailbox, lets Katherine out of the car.


2. A few minutes later: Nancy and her son arrive home. When Katherine doesn't show up, they both go out to look for her.


3. 4:15 p.m.: Katherine is found mortally wounded.

Larry Kolvoord/AA-S

COLOR PHOTO, PHOTO, MAPS

An unconscious, mortally injured Katherine Korzilius, 6, was discovered Thursday in the 1100 block of Elder Circle, in the foreground of the area shown. Her body lay face down completely in the three-car-wide roadway, with her head to the left and toes to the right, Korzilius' mother said.

Edition: Final
Section: News
Page: A1
Correction: A story in Saturday's editions gave an incorrect name of a subdivision where 6-year-old Katherin Korzilius was found Wednesday after what authorities believe was a hit-and-run accident. The fatal accident happened in Rob Roy on the Lake in southwestern Travis County. The story also incorrectly stated the day of Korzilius' father's return home from out of town. Paul Korzilius returned home from New York on Wednesday, the day of the accident.

Record Number: 0EA25DA10F201730
Copyright (c) 1996 Austin American-Statesman

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Death of 6-year-old walking home is baffling
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Austin American-Statesman (TX)-August 9, 1996
Author: Claire Osborn

Nancy Korzilius let her 6-year-old daughter get out of the car Wednesday afternoon after relenting to her request to walk the rest of the way home -- only four houses away.
A few minutes later, Korzilius found her unconscious on the road a few blocks from their home in Southwestern Travis County.


Katherine Korzilius died at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday at Brackenridge Hospital. She died of a fractured skull, said an investigator with the Travis County medical examiner's office.


Now her mother, along with the Department of Public Safety, is searching for answers.


``I hope somebody at least has a terribly guilty conscience. If we just knew why and when and what happened, it would never bring her back, but it would certainly close this,'' Nancy Korzilius said.


Katherine was the daughter of Nancy and Paul Korzilius, a manager for the rock star Jon Bon Jovi.


Nancy Korzilius said she found her daughter's body about 4:15 p.m. at 1105 Elder Circle, a few blocks from the family's home in the 800 block of Elder Circle, near River Hills Road and RM 2244 west of West Lake Hills.


Though there were no skid marks or road debris near the girl's body, her injuries were consistent with those of someone who had been hit by a vehicle, said Sgt. Philip Kemp of the Department of Public Safety.


Investigators said the child had significant cuts to a hip and her back.


Kemp said the child was found on the road, curled in a fetal pose with her legs extended.


``I'm not ruling out that somebody could have hit her and moved her body. It's strange,'' Kemp said. ``We are following some leads on vehicles in the area, but nothing definite.''


Nancy Korzilius said she was driving home from a shopping trip with Katherine and her 8-year-old son, Chris, when she stopped around 4 p.m. at the family's mailbox and let her daughter get out of the car. The mailbox is less than one-eighth of a mile from the family's home, she said.


A few minutes after Nancy Korzilius and her son arrived home, Chris became worried that his sister had not arrived. He went to look for her at the mailbox, his mother said.


``He got hysterical and said she wasn't there,'' Nancy Korzilius said.


She said she got back into her car with Chris and drove around looking for her daughter until she found her.


Kemp said neighbors he interviewed didn't see or hear anything unusual during the time Katherine was missing. He said the street doesn't have much traffic. On e house is under construction, but neighbors said deliveries to the house were slow Wednesday.


The road on which the girl was found is curvy, but a driver could have seen a person from about one-tenth of a mile away -- plenty of time to stop, Kemp said.


Katherine Korzilius would have been a first-grader at Valley View Elementary School. The funeral service is at 2 p.m. Saturday at St. Michael's Episcopal Church.


Anyone with information about traffic in the area between 4 and 4:10 p.m. is asked to call 873-3100 or 444-4175.

COLOR PHOTO

Katherine Korzilius

Edition: Final
Section: News
Page: A1

Record Number: 0EA25DA44ED9091F
Copyright (c) 1996 Austin American-Statesman