News from the Lone Star State

[TexasStooge]

Partially clothed, naked bodies spur drug investigation

By REBECCA LOPEZ / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - Dallas police are investigating the mysterious deaths of four people that were all found either naked or partially clothed.

Investigators said the deaths may be linked to some bad drugs that made the victims violent, sick and ultimately dead.

Thursday they found the partially clothed body of Saxvodakare Gallaher face down. A few days before, police said they also found Anthony Dixon's body in a landfill and he was unclothed.

Police said both Dixon and Gallaher may have died after taking heroin they didn't know may have been laced with PCP. The deadly combination of drugs makes people violent, they said.

Another case authorities said they are looking into involves Jose Romero. He was found foaming at the mouth and waving a knife at police. Witnesses said he was acting extremely paranoid.

"He thought someone was following him and he was freaking out," said Celia Ayala, Romero's sister. "He couldn't breathe."

Police said his body temperature soared to 108 degrees.

The deaths have spurred a fear that someone may be tainting drugs.

"We cannot find a common thread with the dealer," said Lt. Mike Scoggins, Dallas Police Department. "What we are looking for is a common thread of type of drug that we have."

In recent weeks, the Centers for Disease Control issued a warning to people in Michigan, Ohio and Maryland about a bad batch of heroin. Dallas police said they are now working with some of those departments.

"We are going to be analyzing drugs to ensure it's not happening here in Dallas," Lt. Scoggins said.

Police said they know that those who have died so far were known drug users.

[TexasStooge]

'Facelift' for hands with ropey veins

By JANET ST. JAMES / WFAA ABC 8

Working in a busy front office, 60-year-old Jody Seling feels the pressure to look good.

"The rest of my appearance I try to keep up to snuff as much as possible, but I feel like I have my grandmother's hands."

Hands with ropy veins can now get a facelift.

Doctors inject a solution called sodium tetradecyl sulfate -- or STS -- into large veins. The cells on the vein walls dissolve and become sticky.

"One side sticks to the other, and it seals it shut, and then the body absorbs it," said Dr. Robert Weiss.

The body doesn't need all the hand veins so they'll usually stay closed.

If the body does need one of the treated veins, it'll re-open, though much smaller than before.

"You can take these big, ropy veins on the back of the hand and with a simple series of one to three injections, get them to go away within two to three months," Weiss added.

Seling hopes younger-looking hands will give her more confidence in hands-on dealing with front-office customers.

[TexasStooge]

Sources: Dallas police shake-up possible

By CYNTHIA VEGA / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - Sources have told News 8 that as many as six Dallas police officers could be fired Friday in a major department shake-up.

Chief David Kunkle called an emergency 9 a.m. meeting with police union leaders to discuss his plans.

Several police officers have accused of wrongdoing in recent weeks.

Officer Michael Contreras and his partner, Officer Edward Saenz, are under invevestigation for arresting a wrecker driver after he towed Contreras' personal car last month.

Those officers were placed under administrative leave. The Dallas Morning News reported today that Dallas County proscecutors were not expected to take action in the case.

In another recent incident, Officer Michael Welch issued a ticket to neighborhood activist Avi Adelman after Adelman called 911 to complain about noise along Lower Greenville Avenue.

Adelman later received three scathing and profane e-mail messages that he said could be traced to the police department's computer network.

Adelman claimed he was the victim of retaliation. Mayor Laura Miller called for a full investigation.

Chief Kunkle was expected to hold a news conference at 11:30 a.m.

The Dallas Morning News contributed to this report.

[TexasStooge]

Loan records vanish

1.3 million files include Texas students' names, Social Security numbers

By PETE SLOVER / The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN, Texas – Don't breathe easy just because your student loans are long paid off: Names and Social Security numbers from accounts closed more than a decade ago were among at least 1.3 million records recently lost by a computer contractor for the Texas student loan company.

The Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corp., created in 1979, urged anybody who has ever borrowed through the agency to verify whether his or her records were among those on an unspecified piece of computer equipment that disappeared May 24.

"I think anybody who has concerns should go ahead and contact our call center," spokeswoman Kristin Boyer said.

The toll-free number is 1-800-530-0626. The corporation has also set up a Web site instructing affected individuals how best to prevent identity theft if the missing information falls into criminal hands. Go to http://www.tgslc.org and click on "Customer Data."

Ms. Boyer said the corporation is required by state and federal laws to keep records for at least five years after loans are paid off, longer for loans that had delinquencies, she said.

There is no time limit after which dormant records are purged, she said.

And, she added, records imported from older computer systems are sometimes unable to be indexed or sorted by date, making it technologically impractical to purge data on that basis.

The nonprofit corporation, created by the Legislature to administer federal student loan programs, answers to lawmakers and a board made up of the state comptroller and 11 members appointed by the governor.

"Governor Perry is concerned about the compromise of personal data and expects the agency to take swift action to rectify the problem and prevent future incidents," Perry spokeswoman Rachael Novier said.

The Round Rock-based loan corporation said in its press release that all of its security procedures were followed and that the data was decrypted and left unsecured only while in the possession of the contractor, Toronto-based Hummingbird Ltd.

Both companies were purposely vague about the circumstances of the breach, declining to release information about the nature of the "device" containing the data, the city in which it was lost or the circumstances of the loss.

"We don't want to create a scavenger hunt by those that would abuse the data," Ms. Boyer said. "As of now, we have no indication that this data has been accessed."

This much was reported by the loan corporation and Hummingbird, which was working on a data management project:

In January, the loan corporation prepared and encrypted a series of files containing the sensitive information.

Sometime after that, those files were downloaded by a Hummingbird employee, who decrypted them and stored them on some sort of device that was "subsequently lost." That device is password-protected, Hummingbird said.

A spokesman for Hummingbird declined to expand on a news release in which the company said it "has no reason to believe that the piece of equipment has been stolen to gain access to confidential data."

"Given the technology that would be required to retrieve the data, Hummingbird believes that any misuse of the data is extremely unlikely," the release said. "However, Hummingbird has exhausted every possibility to recover the equipment and has filed a lost property report with the police."

That police report could not be located because the companies declined to identify which of Hummingbird's offices around the world was involved. Ms. Boyer said it was one of the firm's nine U.S. locations, which include a Dallas office.

There might be fewer than 1.3 million people affected by the breach because some of the records are likely duplicates of borrowers with more than one loan, Ms. Boyer said.

The current estimate of missing records represents about 10 percent of the company's borrowers. The number might rise, she said, because the companies are still working to identify which files were on the missing apparatus.

Because of that, the loan company said it is important for clients to call in and update their addresses so they can be notified if the companies learn more about which records were affected or if the case is solved.

[TexasStooge]

E. Texas constable finds child in abandoned building

TYLER, Texas (The Dallas Morning News) – A 7-year-old boy discovered by a Smith County constable in an abandoned building filled with trash was placed in the care of state Child Protective Services on Thursday as authorities looked for the boy's parents.

Constable Frank Creath said the boy told deputies that he lived in the building. Creath said he and his deputies had gone to the office building to serve a writ of possession after the tenants failed to pay their rent.

They found the boy walking around with his dog.

"When we entered the building, the smell was horrible. We noticed the commode was backed up with waste spilling out all over the place," he said in a story for Friday's Tyler Morning Telegraph. "There was standing water, rotten food and trash, and this little boy has been living here."

Paul Brinkman, who owns a business across the street, said he thought the family had lived there about six months. He said the boy sometimes came to his door just to talk.

"He was always wanting to talk to me and you could tell he was starving for attention," he said.

The dog was taken to a local shelter while the boy was placed with CPS.

[TexasStooge]

Feds nab digital counterfeiters

By JIM DOUGLAS / WFAA ABC 8

IRVING, Texas — More than two dozen people accused of printing or passing fake money are in real trouble.

They were caught in the largest-ever counterfeiting investigation in North Texas.

While the $100 bills looked real enough, a young store clerk had a hunch that was right on the money. He gave information on a suspect to police.

"It was a very good break," said Secret Service spokesman B.J. Flowers. The tip led to the arrest and guilty plea of Philip Mark Decker.

"It wasn't high quality," Flowers said of the bogus bills. "It was just good enough that if someone is not paying attention when they handle it, they're going to pass it."

Investigators said Decker used a simple home printer to make about $250 million in phony $100 bills.

Decker was just one of more than two dozen people indicted in the largest digital counterfeiting investigation ever in North Texas.

The criminals did a lot of damage in a lot of stores. "They'd concentrate on one Metroplex city at a time, hit the stores hard, then move to another location," Flowers said.

Federal agents said the suspects are not all linked; they operated in small or large groups. But almost all of them have spent time behind bars before, and that might be where they learned their craft.

Now they'll need to print some "get-out-of-jail free" cards.

[TexasStooge]

Truck stuck under railroad bridge

DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - A semi-trailer that was a little too tall was stuck under a railroad bridge near White Rock Lake in Dallas Friday afternoon.

The roof of the Aaron's Rental trailer was peeled back like a sardine can by the impact.

The accident happened on Garland Road, just east of the Gaston Ave. intersection.

The railroad overpass was clearly marked with a yellow sign denoting a "12 ft 10 in" clearance.

Another truck was backed up to the disabled trailer to transfer its cargo.

There were no reports of injuries.

Engineers were expected to survey the bridge for signs of structural damage.

[TexasStooge]

$5,000 offered for return of marshal gear

By DAN RONAN / WFAA ABC 8

CARROLLTON, Texas - North Texas law enforcement officials are searching for whoever stole a U.S. marshal's tactical equipment.

Early Wednesday morning in Carrollton, a truck belonging to the marshal was broken into and the gear was taken.

Now it appears someone has a lot of what they need to look and act like a federal agent.

A vest was one of the items stolen.

"This is copywrited material. You can't go out and buy this patch," said David Davidson from the U.S. Marshal Service.

The items were taken from a secure tool box attached to the marshal's personal pick-up truck, parked in Carrollton.

Officials aren't saying exactly how much equipment was stolen - except to say it included tactical gear and weapons.

They're offering a $5,000 reward for recovery of the equipment.

This incident is just the latest case in what police say is a disturbing trend: fake cops.

At least three times in the last two months North Texas police have been called to investigate serious crimes by people dressed as officers - crimes that still haven't been solved.

It's not clear if the thief targeted this marshal or if this was a crime of opportunity.

"Anytime that something is stolen, as far as law enforcement goes, a wallet, a badge or a vest, it's a slap in the face," said Sgt. Dave Sponhour from Carrollton police.

[TexasStooge]

Water bill for homeowner's water-wise yard: $3.48

Carol Cavazos, WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - With sprinkler restrictions underway, homeowners may want to rethink any attempts at turning out a lawn looking like the Augusta National this summer.

The City of Dallas would like you to rethink the idea of maintaining a full lawn all together.

They say a xeriscape or water-wise garden will save more water.

And, a homeowner, who used less than $4 of water last month, says it'll save you money.

One front yard, in particular, stands out on Victor Street in Dallas - it's the xeriscape yard.

But, the real beauty of it is the water bill - $3.48.

With base and sewer and all the other charges tacked on, the total bill comes to just under $42.

"I'm telling everybody come and look at my garden and copy. If you need information I will tell you what to do but just keep down your water bill," said xeriscape homeowner, Marina Block.

That's what the City of Dallas would like you to do.

"We have actually been hoping to get people on board with xeriscape or water-wise gardening for several years. The first tour was in 1995," said Yvonne Dupre from City of Dallas water utilities.

If you can't make the tour, experts suggest you start with a plan. Consider keeping half of your lawn, and filling the other half with select native or drought-tolerant plants like sage.

You can start introducing plants gradually. Unlike Marina, who took out her entire lawn.

With 50 to 70 percent of water use going to the lawn, the City of Dallas thinks xeriscape can pay off in the long run.

"Once you get them established, after about two years, you can do like Marina does and not even turn the water on," said Dupre.

[TexasStooge]

State body foots $1,000 lunch bill

By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA ABC 8

AUSTIN, Texas - When it comes to questionable government spending, most of us have heard of the $600 toilet seat bought by the defense department a few years ago.

Here's one from Austin that may top it - the $1,000 lunch.

News 8 has been looking into the startup expenses of the Texas Residential Construction Commission (TRCC).

The TRCC, built three years ago, is designed to resolve disputes between home builders and home buyers.

But if contractors spent money the way the TRCC did as it started up, they'd have plenty of unhappy owners.

A recent audit by the Texas comptroller found in its first two years, the TRCC spent $573,000 on public relations, including more than $90,000 for a Washington based PR firm and another $483,000 for an Austin PR firm.

The executive director of the agency, Stephen Thomas, used TRCC money on Washington PR firm Burson-Marsteller which charged as much as $358 an hour.

Records show that Burson-Marsteller charged the TRCC more than $1,000 to review a speech over lunch, $645 to write a letter to the editor of the Austin American Statesman, nearly $2,500 to write an op ed column for the Austin paper and $1,400 to write a speech for delivery in San Antonio.

Janet Ahmad of watchdog group Homeowners for Better Building saw the speech.

"He did it in less than two minutes," she said.

"It's unconscionable that we have paid taxpayer money to fund this kind of behavior."

For a public service announcement, the TRCC paid former Texas Ranger baseball player, Alfonso Soriano, $25,000. He appeared in two TV spots and two radio commercials.

Stephen Thomas resigned last August as criticism of the agency mounted.

"I can't imagine that I would ever use those services again at this point," he says.

Duane Waddill his replacement writes his own speeches and has no PR consultant but he refused to talk about his predecessor.

As new homes go up in Texas at a record pace, new home warranties are still only good for a year, less than a new car.

The TRCC has expanded its staff of investigators, and hopes to quell its critics.

But the house the legislature built remains unfinished.

[TexasStooge]

Drugs stand in way of south Dallas regeneration

By DEBBIE DENMON / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - Change is coming to south Dallas.

A bond program, the Trinity River Project and Dart expansion are all proof the city is taking the southern sector seriously.

But at least one eyesore is standing in the way of progress.

Anna Hill is proud of her garden, but she is ashamed of what goes on in her neighborhood.

She's lived here for 25 years and witnessed the growth of an ugly trade.

"Mainly its drugs," she said.

Hill is president of her Neighborhood Association and says South Dallas needs more affordable housing to lure responsible homeowners.

"The majority of rental property here is rented by someone selling drugs," she said.

One car wash is a symbol of frustration to resident and developer Hank Lawson.

He calls the car wash a lot for loitering.

"There's a lot of trading of knock-off goods. I'm pretty sure there is drug trafficking, but the most important thing is if you are a business person trying to get your neighborhood ready to seek investment, these are the types of things you have to have under control," he said.

Lawson tried to get the car wash shut down but failed.

He heads the Southfair Community Development Corporation which built $20 million worth of homes and businesses in the area.

He says image is everything when revitalization efforts are underway.

"If something is going to happen, we citizens have to do our part," he said.

Residents of South Dallas say new development like this defeats the purpose when right across the street a vacant lot becomes dumping ground.

"We walked upon the parts of some type of animal and I need for someone to pick 'em up," said Hall.

Some type of animal with horns was dumped down the street from Hill's home.

She takes action whenever she can.

She says it's up to the rest of the community to do the same.

[TexasStooge]

Caleb Anderson: Irving boy never lost courage in his battle with brain cancer

By DEBORAH FLECK / The Dallas Morning News

IRVING, Texas - His short life ended Monday morning.

Caleb Anderson, 9, of Irving died in the arms of his parents just a few minutes after his ventilator was removed. He was unable to recover from an infection that developed after chemotherapy for a brain tumor.

His parents, Jennifer and Brady Anderson, asked their son that morning whether he understood it was time to die. They wrote in their online journal, "Not only did he understand, but he also said he was ready."

Caleb's active, healthy world changed suddenly in October. The Brandenburg Elementary School third-grader started complaining of headaches that made him sick, said his mother, a teacher at Johnston Elementary School.

His parents took him in for tests and learned he had undifferentiated primary sarcoma of the brain, an extremely rare type of cancer. Treatment began immediately, but the tumor kept returning.

In between Caleb's frequent hospital stays, the family escaped in January on a trip to Disney World in Florida, courtesy of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Mrs. Anderson said Caleb and his brother, Joshua, had a lot of fun.

Soon after returning, Caleb began another series of treatments at Children's Medical Center Dallas.

Throughout his struggle, Caleb had the love and support of a large network of friends and family. Members of his church, First Baptist of Irving, held a fundraiser in February to help with medical expenses. School staff and students also rallied around the often-absent student to keep him involved.

Mary Beth and Dave Anderson said they admired their brave grandson.

"He has been a real hero to us, so brave and insightful as he faced this terrible disease," his paternal grandmother said.

In addition to his parents, brother and paternal grandparents, Caleb is survived by his maternal grandparents, Greg and Peg Oppenhuis of Murphy.

The family will receive visitors from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at First Baptist Church of Irving, 401 Main St. Services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the church, followed by burial at Oak Grove Memorial Gardens in Irving.

Memorials may be made to the Children's Brain Tumor Foundation of the Southwest, 2201 Long Prairie Road, Suite 107, No. 152, Flower Mound, Texas, 75022, or to the children's ministries at First Baptist Church, 401 Main St., Irving, Texas, 75060.

People may also view the family's online journal and post messages at http://www.caringbridge.org. Select "Visit a CaringBridge site" and type in calebanderson.

[TexasStooge]

Man dies after collision with train

IRVING, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/The Dallas Morning News) - An unidentified man died early Wednesday morning after the pickup truck he was driving struck a moving train in Irving, police said.

The man was driving southbound on Britain Road at about 2:40 a.m. Wednesday when at a curve in the road he jumped the median, crossed northbound lanes, drove in between the crossing arms at the railroad track and struck the train.

Police said the train pulled the truck for about 80 feet before it fell into a ditch. The man died at the scene.

[TexasStooge]

Revamped chase policy aims for safety

Guidelines among the most stringent in U.S.

By TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Police chases are about to take a different turn in Dallas.

Dallas police will still pursue fleeing motorists who have committed violent felonies. Other suspects may have to be arrested another time.

Police Chief David Kunkle announced Friday that he was implementing a tough new police-pursuit policy.

"In my view, the city will be a much safer place to live," Chief Kunkle said. "We'll have fewer citizens killed and injured as a result of this policy and fewer officers injured or killed."

He said he decided to tighten the policy because of the "inherent danger of pursuits" and because he didn't feel he could justify letting officers chase suspects for minor offenses, such as running a red light, shoplifting or driving while intoxicated. According to news accounts, at least 10 people have died in accidents involving police chases since 2004. Six of those died in 2005.

The new policy, which is expected to be implemented soon, will place the following restrictions on chases:

• Only offenders suspected of violent felonies – such as kidnapping, rape, murder or robbery – will be pursued.

• Officers may pursue a fleeing motorist based only on what they know about the person. They can't make assumptions.

• When officers from other jurisdictions enter the city, Dallas officers will join in only if the person fleeing is suspected of a violent felony.

Under the previous policy, Dallas officers could chase drivers for traffic violations and other Class C misdemeanors until it was "apparent that the violator will do whatever is necessary to evade the officer."

Dallas' new chase policy will be among the most stringent in the nation and similar to those in place in Phoenix and Orlando, Fla. The new policy would be tougher than the policies in place in other North Texas cities such as Arlington, Richardson and Fort Worth.

"I believe we will establish a new standard for pursuits in North Texas," Chief Kunkle said.

Geoffrey P. Alpert, a professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina who has written extensively on police chases, praised the changes and said he hoped rank-and-file officers would be supportive.

Chief Kunkle has "taken a huge step forward, a very progressive step forward in making Dallas a safer place," Dr. Alpert said. "It's what progressive chiefs are doing in other cities."

Reaction from the department's police associations was muted, with several leaders saying they did not want to comment because they had not had a chance to review the new policy.

Some police officials expected that the department's rank and file would be strongly against such a change.

Senior Cpl. Glenn White, president of the Dallas Police Association, said the day might come when police don't chase a suspect who, it later turns out, has kidnapped a young child.

"But preventing injuries to officers is important, and preventing injuries to citizens is also important," Cpl. White said.

Lt. Rick Andrews, head of the Dallas Police Executive Lodge, which represents higher-ranking officers, said he had not seen the policy but it appeared that the chief's "heart was in the right place" and that he was trying to make the city safer.

Lt. Andrews had previously said he did not favor tightening the chase policy because he feared it would encourage criminal behavior.

Chief Kunkle ordered a review of the chase policy after a fatal August 2004 pursuit in which a man fleeing in a stolen vehicle struck and killed another motorist. Under the new policy, motor vehicle theft would not be cause for a chase.

The new policy would have eliminated as much as two-thirds of all police pursuits last year, and perhaps more. In 2005, there were about 355 police pursuits. Roughly 230 of those were for traffic violations and stolen vehicles.

So far this year, there have been about 140 pursuits and one death, in late May, involving Dallas police. That includes about 55 pursuits for traffic violations and about 25 pursuits of stolen vehicles.

The death in May might not have involved Dallas police if the new policy had been in effect.

That pursuit began when a Dallas County constable tried to stop a car with a missing inspection sticker and an expired registration. The chase ended when a Dallas police squad car and a car driven by a fleeing motorist slammed into each other in Far East Dallas. The fleeing motorist died. A passenger in the fleeing car and the officer were both injured.

Two recent police chases crystallized Chief Kunkle's decision to sharply limit when his officers may engage in hot pursuits.

A mid-March pursuit over $600 worth of stolen merchandise involved speeds of up to 115 mph and ended near downtown with the fleeing motorist crashing head-on into a squad car and hitting two more vehicles.

In a pursuit about a month later, a man carjacked a woman at gunpoint and fled from police at high speeds before hitting a vehicle and injuring the woman and a young child inside.

Pursuing a violent offender, Chief Kunkle said, "was necessary to make the city safer." But, he added, he couldn't justify chasing after a shoplifting suspect and endangering others.

Staff writer Holly Yan contributed to this report.

[TexasStooge]

Church targeted by copper thieves

Carol Cavazos, WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - Copper for cash - it's a lure that's costing a Dallas church thousands and they aren't alone.

The Dallas Police Scrap Metal Squad says the number of metal thefts has more than doubled in just five months.

In December, there were 71 reports.

Last month, that number grew to 159.

Saint Andrew Kim Catholic church has been hit three times in two weeks.

This was one of those situations where thieves plucked the forbidden fruit, saw they didn't get caught and came back for more.

The Korean Church they targeted got mad, got over it and then got a plan.

"This is church and people should have some respect here," said Shawn Kim, assistant Sunday school principal.

Thieves gutted two air conditioning units at Saint Andrew Kim Catholic church for the copper wires. The units kept the fellowship hall cool. Now, a large fan has to push the warm air around.

"We have about 500 congregation members. This hall is used to gather after church and ceremonies. Without this unit we cannot do anything," Kim said.

A third unit was left intact, but rendered useless after thieves snipped the outside copper line. Replacement air conditioners will cost at least $2,000. With more expensive units open to attack, the church has taken steps to defend itself.

"We will have a security company come out here and assess the situation and put some kind of sensor around here and connect it to the security system," said Jhihoon Lee, the parish council president.

They've already covered the other units with fencing.

The Shekinah Tabernacle Baptist Church has been through this. When thieves stole 11 air conditioners from them, they put wrought iron cages over the replacements.

Air conditioning companies say the problem is widespread and a waste.

"They're getting probably for one unit $100 for the coils and they did over $6,000 in damage," said Wes Parker from Weston Air Conditioning.

This church is sounding the alarm, so other churches can save their air conditioners.

[TexasStooge]

In Routier case, time doesn't heal the wounds

Rowlett: A decade later, officers reflect on killing of sons

By IAN McCANN / The Dallas Morning News

ROWLETT, Texas - Every so often, Brownie Sherrill will see a car creep down the street, its occupants' eyes fixed on a prominent two-story house at a bend on Eagle Drive.

By now, he's used to it. For a decade, he and his neighbors have put up with local people and others staring at the site of one of Rowlett's most brutal crimes.

About 2:30 a.m. June 6, 1996, Rowlett police received a 911 call from Darlie Routier saying someone had broken into her home and attacked her sons Damon, 5, and Devon, 6.

Police and paramedics arrived minutes later.

"There was so much blood," said Police Chief Matt Walling, then a sergeant and the second officer on the scene. "When I entered the front door, there was a stream of blood going back to the living room, and that was from where she had walked around the house bleeding. The two boys were in the living room, and there were large pools of blood accumulated around where they were."

Chief Walling said Ms. Routier stood in the living room while husband Darin, 28, tried to perform CPR on one of the boys. The chief and another officer made sure no intruder was around, then let paramedics in to treat the children and Ms. Routier, who had cut and stab wounds on her neck and upper body.

TV news crews arrived within hours, and the quiet neighborhood was soon overrun by reporters, investigators and onlookers. Police would soon conclude what some considered unthinkable: that the 26-year-old suburban mother had stabbed two of her three children to death and then turned the knife on herself.

To this day, Ms. Routier, her family and attorneys insist she is innocent.

Her arrest two weeks after the killings brought neighbors shock – and relief.

"At that time, we didn't know whether there was some kind of killer running around," Mr. Sherrill said.

Eight months later, a Kerr County jury sentenced Ms. Routier to death after convicting her of capital murder in Damon's slaying.

One of her appellate attorneys, Stephen Cooper, said last week that neither his client nor her family wanted to discuss an incident that was 10 years old.

Ms. Routier did not respond to an interview request sent to the Lew Sterrett Justice Center in Dallas, where she has been while several motions seeking to test physical evidence await rulings in state district court.

Case on appeal

Meanwhile, an appeal filed in November is pending in federal court in San Antonio, though defense attorneys are seeking to delay that proceeding as a state district judge decides whether additional DNA testing should be conducted on several pieces of evidence.

Among the arguments in her appeal: that her defense has new evidence to rebut some of what was presented at trial; that the prosecution used testimony that was unfair and prejudicial; and that Ms. Routier had poor legal representation that ignored evidence and failed to look at her husband as a suspect.

Mr. Cooper said that Mr. Routier has since moved to Lubbock and that the couple remains married. Mr. Routier's parents received custody of their youngest son, Drake, who was an infant at the time of the killings.

Mr. Routier, now 38 and a professional photographer, did not return phone calls. Ms. Routier's mother, Darlie Kee, said in a voice-mail message that she didn't want to discuss the case.

"It's very painful and private to all of us," the message said. "And it's not about sparring with the Rowlett police or a handful of them about all the things they put out there that are wrong about my daughter. So I just hope people will remember us in prayer, 'cause it's been 10 years, and it seems just like yesterday."

Family members still visit the dual headstone at Rest Haven Cemetery in Rockwall, cemetery superintendent Ronnie Burns said. On Friday, fresh white carnations sat in a metal vase attached to the headstone, and small American flags jutted from the ground beside the graves.

Though thoughts of the slayings have faded in the Rowlett neighborhood as people have moved away, memories are vivid for the officers who worked the case.

Chief Walling, then the patrol supervisor on the deep night shift, teared up as he spoke of the toll the case still takes on the officers.

"The only way to describe it is, I feel like a piece of my heart is not there anymore," he said. "I don't think about it every day, but when something comes up and points to it, I just feel that emptiness inside. And I blame Darlie Routier for that."

Lt. David Nabors, who supervised evidence collection at the Routier home after the slayings, is often invited to speak about the case to law enforcement agencies and others.

"I've probably talked about this case 20 times – to colleges, hospitals, CPS," said Lt. Nabors, now the criminal investigations division commander. "Probably in the last two years, I can go through it, and it doesn't bother me. I used to get extremely irritated and short-tempered the day before, that whole day, until I got up on stage and talked about it."

'You have nightmares'

It was much worse immediately after the crime.

"You have nightmares," Lt. Nabors said. "I remember the first night when I went home. Power Rangers were big then, and Devon was wearing Power Rangers briefs. My child wore the same kind of stuff. The first thing I did when I got home 30 hours later was to go in there and wake up my son and hug him."

Though the officers carried the weight of two dead children on their hearts, they had a job to do.

"You'd see guys with photocopies of the pictures of the two little boys sitting next to their desk," said Lt. Dean Poos, who was and remains the department's public information officer and a police dispatch commander. "The focus was on doing right for those two dead kids."

Over the years, Web sites, books and letters have taken the department to task for quickly focusing on Ms. Routier. Even today, Lt. Nabors said, officers receive threats and criticism.

"This is the worst-case scenario," Lt. Poos said. "I was sitting here as PIO [public information officer] saying, 'Dear God, let it be an intruder. Tell us we're wrong here, because people aren't going to want to believe that a mother's going to hack up her kids.' "

But some moms do kill. In recent years, they have included Dena Schlosser and Lisa Diaz in Plano, Andrea Yates in the Houston area and Deanna Laney in East Texas. And in 1994, there was Susan Smith, the mother who put her two children in her car and let it roll into a South Carolina lake.

Lt. Nabors said investigators didn't set out to trap Ms. Routier – the evidence and holes in her frequently changing story did that.

"We were careful about getting statements from her each time," he said. "We'd throw her a bone and tell a little bit about what we know, and the story changed to meet that physical evidence."

Once investigators began suspecting Ms. Routier, they saw how she reacted to different situations.

"She got released from the hospital that Saturday, and when she came by [the police station], she was laughing and joking," Lt. Nabors said. "At this point, I already knew she did it. So I got a little graphic describing the boys to see what kind of response I could get out of her. She said, 'I know this must be hard on y'all.' She never shed a tear. At all."

Lt. Nabors pointed to: evidence of a cleanup around the kitchen sink, though Ms. Routier denied cleaning up; analysis indicating a knife from the home was used to cut a window screen; and a lack of evidence to corroborate Ms. Routier's account that an intruder escaped from the back of the home.

Ms. Routier's appeal will dispute some of the evidence, saying that analysis of a bloody fingerprint on a glass table showed it was probably from someone not in the family. Her defense also will question the theory that she staged the crime scene, saying she wouldn't have had time to do so much.

Lt. Nabors said too much evidence points in Ms. Routier's direction. The man who said the bloody fingerprint was from an unidentified adult, rather than a public safety official or family member, is a forensic anthropologist and not a crime-scene expert, he said. Blood drops in the home weren't consistent with Ms. Routier's story. Bloody footprints showed her walking – not running, as she told investigators – around the house. And, he said, an intruder would have set off a motion-detector light in the back yard – a light that Chief Walling told him wasn't on when he was doing his initial search.

One question Chief Walling hasn't heard answered is why Ms. Routier would kill her children.

"The only person that can answer that is her," he said. "I would like for her to own up and give us that answer."

Staff writer James Ragland contributed to this report.

[TexasStooge]

Dallas streetlights stay broken, dimming hopes for downtown

By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Each night Jack MacDonald looks out his storefront window, he grimaces at his nemesis.

There, across the intersection of Elm and Ervay streets, is a broken streetlight that he says he's asked Dallas City Hall to fix since he helped open the Press Box Grill downtown in January 2005. Four, maybe five times he's tried, to no avail.

"These are the kinds of things that drive me insane," Mr. MacDonald said. "Downtown is a tough market, and the city is not making it any easier. Who wants to come to a place if the area is uninviting at night? It's a scary place."

Folks in dying cities joke bitterly, "Would the last soul downtown please remember to turn the lights off?"

But what of the lights in a downtown like Dallas' – once left for dead, yet resuscitated, where apartments and condominiums are proliferating, numerous eateries now remain open nightly and pedestrians are off the list of endangered urban species?

Seemingly lost in the center city's broad revitalization is a concerted push to illuminate it all. Even along some of its most well-traveled tracts, downtown is just plain dark.

On Main Street between St. Paul and Harwood streets, an informal tally last month revealed 13 lights on, 19 off. Between North Akard and North Ervay, 25 streetlights on, 14 off.

For every two streetlights glowing on Commerce Street between Harwood and Field streets, one wasn't. And at the gateway to the Dallas Farmers Market, where Harwood, Cadiz and Marilla streets converge, all seven overhead streetlights were either burned out or broken off their poles. Seven of the 21 small "pedestrian lights" ringing the intersection were also out.

Downtown residents and business owners say lighting is critical to safety, which is tantamount to commerce. In other words: Bad lighting equals bad business.

Shedding light on why

Why so many lights that don't light up?

Chances are nobody's reported them as broken, says Dallas street lighting manager Brad Moss. The city doesn't regularly monitor streetlight outages downtown or anywhere else in Dallas, he said.

That job falls to TXU Electric Delivery, which has a contract with the city to repair most streetlights. The company says it surveys downtown streetlights for outages about once every three months.

The estimated response time to fix a broken streetlight is two or three days. But city and TXU Electric Delivery officials acknowledge that for a variety of reasons, replacing streetlights may take longer. Sometimes much longer.

For one, the most publicly accessible streetlight repair remedy – Dallas' 311 service-request system – isn't the most efficient solution.

If someone reports a broken streetlight through the 311 system, it isn't immediately processed. Workers compile the information and then, after a week or two, fax a list to TXU Electric Delivery, said Rex Dennison, the company's electric operations supervisor for streetlight maintenance.

A better method, he said, is contacting TXU Electric Delivery directly by phone or through the company's Web site.

Because of downtown traffic, however, TXU Electric Delivery usually does repairs only during relatively slow periods, such as Sunday mornings.

And like the childhood game "telephone," streetlight repair requests through 311 and TXU Electric Delivery's channels may get mixed up in transit, city officials acknowledged. If, for example, a caller provides incomplete information on a light's location or an inaccurate light number – an alphanumeric code is stamped on each street lamp pole – delays may occur.

Lights may also temporarily go dark because of nearby construction or because they need repairs more complicated than simple bulb replacement, Mr. Moss said.

And sometimes people report light outages on private property, for which the city isn't responsible.

"Then you have people call up sometimes and say, 'There's a light outside my house that's been out for two months!' and then they hang up," Mr. Moss said. "We want to help people, but it's hard to help someone in that case."

Said Mr. Dennison: "It's not always anyone's fault. We try to do the best job we can with the time and information and resources we have. The best set of eyes is the person who is living or working right outside the problem light, reports it and gives us accurate information."

Also complicating matters are the downtown pedestrian lights – shorter lamps used to brighten sidewalk areas – which the city has installed by the dozens in recent years. More are coming.

TXU Electric Delivery is not yet responsible for them; the city is. Mr. Moss recommends calling the city, or even him directly, for repairs to those lights.

'Central to safety'

City and TXU Electric Delivery officials say they're unsure why the streetlight Mr. MacDonald wants fixed remains dark.

But for City Council member Angela Hunt, who represents much of downtown, the issue stretches beyond one broken bulb.

"Lights are so central to safety, and we certainly want to create a safe environment downtown," Ms. Hunt said. "A lapse in getting lights repaired – we need to get that addressed immediately."

Ms. Hunt said residents should call her council office directly if a broken downtown streetlight isn't repaired quickly.

Don Raines is president of the Downtown Neighborhood Association and lives in the Kirby Building at Main and Akard streets, one of downtown's highest-profile intersections, also known as Pegasus Plaza.

But even this location, he said, is saddled with broken streetlights.

"We shouldn't have any dark spaces. It creates a negative perception, and a negative perception is the last thing we need here," Mr. Raines said. "Because, if we can win the sidewalks and get people walking on them at night, we win downtown."

Rudy Perez, an assistant manager of Footgear on Elm Street, lamented having to walk to his car in the dark.

"And more lighting will drive more pedestrians to the area, bottom line," he said.

Amen, Mr. MacDonald said.

In five years, he predicted, businesses will flock to downtown Dallas in droves, lured by a larger resident population and big business resurgence.

But in the meantime, he wonders whether he'll have enough customers willing to dodge the late-night panhandlers who congregate beneath the broken light across the street.

"I believe in downtown. I knew what I was coming into," Mr. MacDonald said. "The question is, who's going to hang around if we can't even get help on the little stuff?"

[TexasStooge]

Church, ex-member battle over discipline

By JEFFREY WEISS and MICHAEL GRABELL / The Dallas Morning News

For the leaders of Watermark Community Church, church discipline is simply loving like Jesus.

But for many people, the notion of churchgoers publicly denouncing one another's sins raises fearful images of The Scarlet Letter and Pilgrims in stocks.

An appeals court in Dallas is now being asked to decide where the right of Watermark – or any church – to confront sin ends and an individual's right to privacy begins.

Can a church pursue someone who isn't even a member?

Watermark, a fast-growing nondenominational church in northeast Dallas, says the case involves accusations of adultery, a wife who wanted to save her marriage, a husband who sat on a board of a national Christian organization, and another woman who works for another church.

The man and woman accused by the wife and by Watermark of having an affair – identified in court documents only as "John Doe" and "Jane Roe" – say the church is distorting what happened and has invaded their privacy. (Both declined to be interviewed.)

They filed suit against the church in April to stop the discipline process.

These days, congregations may call it church discipline, "care and correction" or a "restoration ministry." Discipline is mostly private and informal, one friend talking to another. Less often, church officials get involved.

What makes the Watermark case fairly unusual is the lawsuit.

Jeff Tillotson, attorney for the man and the woman, said the case has nothing to do with the church's view of biblical teachings. "It has to do with actions the church wants to take against its former members and third-party citizens who never belonged to this church in the first place."

Church officials say their responsibility is clear. As Watermark's senior pastor, the Rev. Todd Wagner, told his congregation last month: "Sue me. Nail me to a tree. Tell me you hate me. Misrepresent my motives. We're going to love you anyway."

Guided by Gospel

Anger, gluttony, sex, inattention to others' needs – the list of possible sins some Christians say demand congregational attention is long.

The idea that Christians have a sacred obligation to keep tabs on one another has been part of the faith since the beginning. It was as common as singing hymns in most churches in early America. After almost vanishing in the mid-20th century, discipline has made a comeback in many conservative Protestant churches.

About 1,500 worshippers fill the auditorium at Lake Highlands High School every week for each of Watermark's two Sunday services. Worship begins with Christian rock. Sneakers, T-shirts and open-toed sandals are OK.

But while the style is informal, doctrine is anything but.

People who join Watermark literally sign on the dotted line, agreeing to "submit themselves to the care and correction of the Board of Elders."

And that's where the story of John Doe and Jane Roe vs. Watermark Community Church started.

According to church officials, Mr. Doe and his wife joined Watermark more than a year ago. Both signed the papers agreeing to church accountability.

Soon, the wife went to Watermark leaders, saying she had evidence that her husband was cheating on her, church officials said. Her plea for help set off what Watermark calls a "Matthew 18" process, referring to a passage in the Gospel:

"If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. ... If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you. ... If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church."

The wife confronted her husband – by herself and with friends – and he confessed, church leaders said. But early this year, the wife, who also declined to be interviewed, discovered that Mr. Doe was continuing his affair with Ms. Roe, and she filed for divorce, church leaders said.

At a regular evening church meeting, the wife Doe asked for a public prayer, which Mr. Wagner offered. Identifying the wife by name, he prayed that she and her husband would reconcile. While he discussed some difficulties in the marriage, Mr. Wagner said, he did not specifically mention infidelity.

Watermark officials asked the wife to make one more try at reconciliation, one last meeting with close Christian friends who might be able to work with her husband. She supplied the names of 14 people, half of whom were not Watermark members. The church sent a letter to the 14 describing the situation and inviting them to a meeting, but Mr. Doe refused to attend, church leaders said.

Then the church sent a letter to Mr. Doe telling him that it planned to contact the woman who was allegedly his paramour – and who is not a Watermark member. The letter also said the church would write to the 14 people invited to the meeting, letting them know about his unwillingness to cooperate, and to the national Christian organization where he was a board member. (Mr. Doe has resigned from that board, Mr. Wagner said, and the church no longer intends to contact the organization.)

There was never a plan to inform the entire congregation about the affair, the pastor said.

Mr. Wagner and two other Watermark leaders called Ms. Roe and suggested that she tell her boss, the pastor of another Dallas-area church, about her relationship with Mr. Doe. If she didn't, they said, they would call the pastor, "even as we would want and expect others to contact us if one of our employees or members was engaging in activities damaging to the reputation of Christ," according to a prepared statement from the church.

Mr. Wagner said this week that he believed he was obligated to contact the woman's boss even though she never signed up for Watermark's discipline, because all Christians are obligated to one another.

"If a sister sins, she is a sister in Christ," he said. "We are commanded to love our neighbor."

Mr. Doe sued in late April to block the church from sending out the follow-up letter and from contacting Ms. Roe's employer.

In court papers, he gives a different version of the story:

According to the lawsuit, Mr. Doe revealed his personal problems directly to Mr. Wagner, believing the information would be confidential. Mr. Doe believed that Watermark encouraged open discussion of problems without fear that the secrets would be revealed, said Mr. Tillotson, the lawyer.

After the discipline process started, Mr. Doe decided to quit the church, Mr. Tillotson said. But church elders told Mr. Doe that he couldn't leave and that they would continue their efforts to make his "sin" known – to the congregation, his friends outside the church, his employer, Ms. Roe's employer and possibly even the public at large.

Battle moves to court

When Mr. Doe filed suit on behalf of himself and Ms. Roe, he got a temporary restraining order blocking the church from acting further.

But on May 5, state Associate Judge Sheryl McFarlin lifted that order, agreeing with Watermark's assertion that it violated the church's constitutional right to freely exercise its religion.

Mr. Doe has appealed. No hearing date has been set.

Although Watermark is legally free to send out its letters and contact Ms. Roe's boss, it will hold off until the appeal is decided, Mr. Wagner said.

Kelly Shackelford, the lawyer for Watermark, wants the lawsuit dismissed. Allowing it go forward, he said, would force judges to decide whether Watermark's elders are correctly applying the Bible. That, he said, is inappropriate.

"What happens next?" said Mr. Shackelford, chief counsel for the Liberty Legal Institute in Plano. "[Do] we need to get churches involved in politics to ensure that we have judges in office that support their theological views?"

But Steven K. Green, former general counsel for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the appeals court should hear the case. Otherwise, he argued, the church's religious views trump the right of a member to change his religious views and leave.

"Once he withdraws, it seems that the church's interest is over," he said.

Church discipline cases raise important constitutional issues:

•The First Amendment protects a church's right to exercise its religion but also protects an individual's right not to have another's religious beliefs imposed on him.

•Americans have a right to have conflicts heard before a judge, but such cases entangle the court in religion.

In cases involving both of those dilemmas, the courts have usually ruled in favor of the churches, say experts in church-state law.

The U.S. Supreme Court has never ruled directly on church discipline involving lay members. Federal and state courts, however, have often ruled that civil courts can't interfere with religious controversies – regardless of the harm to individuals. Safeguarding religious freedom, judges have said, is worth some damage to an individual.

The courts can intervene only if they find an important nonreligious reason, like a threat to health or public safety.

But the legal record is more mixed when discipline is aimed at nonmembers or those who have quit, church-state experts said. And at least two lawsuits demonstrate that courts can find reasons to intervene in church discipline disputes.

In 1989, an Oklahoma court ruled that a church could no longer publicize a woman's alleged sexual immorality after she quit. The decision prodded many churches to develop extensive education for members about the discipline process, including the kinds of forms that Watermark members sign.

And in 2004, an appeals court in Fort Worth denied claims against a church but agreed with a woman who said the license that her pastor holds as a professional counselor prevented him from publicizing her behavior – even though she attended group sessions with other church members. An appeal is expected to be heard by the Texas Supreme Court this fall.

Different methods

Even churches that advocate the discipline process can struggle with how to do it. Last year, the magazine Christianity Today highlighted the issue. The headline on the cover: "Fixing church discipline: Tough love without the legalism."

Not every theologian reads Matthew 18 as a procedural formula, said Robin Lovin, a professor of ethics at Southern Methodist University.

"Methodist pastors would interpret that as advice to keep working on relationships. It's about not giving up on somebody," he said. "It shouldn't be turned into a legal process."

The Catholic Church, by far the largest Christian denomination in the United States, has no formal method for lay members to discipline one another with or without church leadership involvement, said the Rev. Thomas Green, a canon law professor at Catholic University in Washington.

But it's easy to find other churches that have adopted some form of church discipline over the past 20 years. And when discipline goes beyond face-to-face discussions, it's usually about sexual issues, said Darrell Bock, a professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary and an elder at Trinity Fellowship Church in Richardson.

"Issues of marital fidelity have become a litmus test for general fidelity. And it some ways, they're the easiest to quantify," he said.

Several years ago, he said, his church had to deal with a man he called a "serial adulterer." When his church discovered the man had joined another congregation, Dr. Bock's church notified the leadership of the other church, he said.

Bent Tree Bible Fellowship in Carrollton has also used public church discipline. A worship leader whose husband discovered she was having an affair was confronted by her pastor more than a year ago. Unlike the Watermark example, the woman repented, reconciled and eventually went on a local Christian radio show with her husband to discuss the experience.

Bent Tree has had four other successful reconciliations of married couples that had been split by adultery, said the executive pastor, the Rev. Tim Harkins.

"Those are the home runs. That is what we are pursuing," he said.

That's the kind of reaction that Watermark hoped for with Mr. Doe, Mr. Wagner said.

"Most folks respond really well and are grateful," he said.

[TexasStooge]

North Texans bow heads in global observance

By LEE POWELL / The Dallas Morning News

ARLINGTON, Texas - Prayers, praise and preaching spilled from the pulpit Sunday as Reunion Arena morphed into a megachurch of sorts, drawing thousands.

"It's just something emotional, you know, to be together and pray and receive from the Lord," said Max Saucedo of Arlington, a disc jockey on a Christian Spanish radio station.

The crowd came to mark the Global Day of Prayer, with the Dallas observance coming near the end of a day filled with similar gatherings worldwide.

Sunday's service segues into what organizers are calling the 90 Days of Blessing, with churches tackling community outreach projects like building homes and visiting prisons.

The Dallas gathering drew megachurch pastors like Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano and Bishop T.D. Jakes of The Potter's House in Dallas. The faithful also heard evangelist Luis Palau.

All were backed by a more-than-1,000-member choir. The entire event was electronically packaged and beamed over large screens in the arena and to viewers beyond the venue's walls.

Parts of the service were in English and Spanish.

"We're trusting it will be one of the most racially diverse worship services Dallas has seen in some time," said Bob Bakke, Global Day of Prayer's U.S. coordinator and executive producer.

[TexasStooge]

McKinney residents attracted to heart of their town

By MIKE JACKSON / The Dallas Morning News

McKINNEY, Texas – Don Day says he'll probably never move out of his apartment above a hair salon and art gallery on McKinney's historic square.

He's 30 paces from his office down the hall. He's a short walk away from shops and restaurants on or near the square. And he can get to a couple of his company's building renovation projects without even getting in his car.

"What's so neat is the convenience of everything," Mr. Day said. "I'll probably never leave."

Mr. Day, 66, shares his enthusiasm for the lifestyle with six other denizens who live on the square. They're not alone.

It's happening from Denton and Granbury in North Texas to Huntsville in southeast Texas and Colorado City in West Texas. Small-town coziness and old-fashioned character are drawing people to live in historic downtowns.

Debra Farst, who promotes downtown revival for the Texas Historical Commission, said old downtowns have been drawing people away from suburban subdivisions for years. Anecdotal evidence suggests a state and national trend, she said.

"A lot of times, when people want to move downtown, they want to do away with their yards and they want to do away with their cars," Ms. Farst said.

Jennifer Day was among them. She gave up her house in a newly developed subdivision in west McKinney and moved into a one-bedroom loft on the square last year.

She's glad to be rid of the yard work, she said, and enjoys the five-minute commute to her job at LifePath, an agency that treats people with mental illnesses.

Ms. Day, a Texas native, got her first taste of downtown life when she lived in Manhattan during the mid-1970s.

"Ever since then, I've always wanted to live in a loft," said Ms. Day, who is no relation to Mr. Day. "I saw this apartment and fell in love."

Linda McNeff moved to the square three years ago. She wanted to be closer to two shops she owns there. She said she also wanted to leave behind a Plano neighborhood characterized by block after block of look-alike brick homes.

She now shares an apartment with Mr. Day, her fiancé. With three grown children between them, apartment life suits their needs.

The couple often take morning strolls to the nearby coffee shop and then walk to work afterward. For more exercise, on some evenings, they'll extend a stroll around the neighborhood or to a restaurant.

"I don't drive much," Ms. McNeff said. "Sometimes I forget where I've parked my car because I haven't driven it for days."

People from the surrounding neighborhood walk the square after work, Mr. Day said.

"About 6 or 7 in the evening, there's a dog parade," he said. "We still have that small-town feel."

That's one of the things Gerhard Deffner said he likes most about living downtown.

"McKinney people will actually say 'hi' and stop you in the street and look you in the eye," said Mr. Deffner, a flight instructor who moved to the square in 1998.

Mr. Deffner left Dallas to be close to his flight school at McKinney's airport.

"It's nice because I have a five-minute commute to the airport," he said. "If I ride my bike it would take me 15 minutes. I'll never commute an hour again."

The square has 10 apartments, but only five are used as homes, said Mr. Day. The rest are occupied by small businesses.

The buildings date to the late 1800s and early 1900s. Restaurants, boutiques and antique shops take up most of the ground-floor space.

The square anchors McKinney's historic district, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Mr. Day's building, which he bought and renovated 10 years ago, was built around 1875, he said. It was unoccupied and boarded up when he bought it, but its three-foot-thick walls and solid foundation were promising.

Its long second-floor hallway, a beige concrete tunnel that leads to several offices, leaves no hint that anyone lives here.

But open the door marked "204" and enter Mr. Day's elegant 1,800-square-foot apartment. Floors are a mixture of carpet and original wood. The ceilings are made of pressed tin salvaged during the renovation. Original art adorns the walls, and an antique Chinese Chippendale table demands space in the dining room.

On a recent afternoon, he left his building to inspect another one on the square that he recently bought. He plans to convert it into a hotel and restaurant.

Mr. Day, who has renovated 18 historic buildings in the area, hopes his latest project will attract more people to downtown.

"Right now it's a big dusty building," he said. "But when we're done you won't recognize it."