GUILTY KY - Louise Pulliam, 72, stabbed to death, Harrodsburg, 12 Jan 2006

Two Harrodsburg women are left wondering if they would have been victims had they opened their doors to a stranger Thursday night, just before Louise Pulliam was stabbed to death in her home... Police Chief Ernie Kelty would not comment about the women's accounts or whether police believe the person who knocked on their doors is the same person who killed Pulliam...

A 17-year-old male was arrested early Friday morning at the Harrodstown Motel and charged with murder and robbery. Authorities have declined to identify the juvenile, but Hatcher and others said that Lee Anderson, who used to live across the street from Pulliam, was arrested in the case.

Pulliam, 72, was discovered stabbed to death inside an entrance to her home about 10:30 p.m. Thursday by police who went there to check on her welfare at the request of friends. She had lived alone since her husband, Henry, died about a year ago, said Hatcher, who, like Pulliam, is a retired Mercer County teacher.

http://articles.centralkynews.com/2006-01-15/news/24884989_1_stab-wounds-gas-front-door

what a monster! :furious:

He didn't have to kill her!

Sure sounds like the same kid. :furious:

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/local/13630972.htm

David Taylor said Pulliam's daughter, Brenda Buckner of Louisville, told him Friday night she had spoken with her mother between 8:15 and 8:30 p.m., when someone rang the doorbell at her mother's house. Taylor, who is the city attorney, and his wife, Cathy, were longtime friends of Pulliam and lived three blocks from her. Buckner said her mother got off the phone, saying that a boy who used to live across the street years ago had run out of gas, according to Taylor. Pulliam told her daughter she was going to give him a gas can and a drink of water, Taylor said.

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(emphasis mine)


It's just a damn good thing this woman described her "visitor" to her daughter on the phone. If not...?

Just another example of the boldness of criminals. Don't answer the door if you don't know the visitor well!


http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=%22Louise+Pulliam%22&btnG=Search+News

I would say those two women were very lucky that they didn't open the door to him.

I don't have a dorr chain. I have dead bolt though. How are you supposed to answer the door without opening it?

I always open it a crack so I can talk. What is protocol?
Once when i was much younger a weirdo rang at 10pm asking if he could rake my yard. I cracked the door with my foot against it. He kept looking down at my foot and I know he was up to something but he saw I was on the defensive.
How does one answer the door without opening it and you can't hear thru it?

Door chains can be purchased for less than $10 and are easy to install. Though it might be a problem if you live in an apt. If that is so, then I would ask managers to install one, if they refused, then submit it to them in writing, with a copy to your family. And advise them of such.

I learned by experience that door chains don't provide much safety. Shortly after my ex-husband moved out, before I had the locks changed, he came back to the house while I was gone. Long story short, I turned my key but the chain was on. He thought it was real funny to be standing inside the house peeping through the crack of the door at me and for me to be on the outside of my own home not able to get in (he said "now you know how i feel").

I was not in the mood!! After a stream of obscenities went shooting out of my mouth, I went into Bruce Lee mode and kicked the door open. The door hit him in his big head and when he moved out of the way, I walked in past him and we both stood there with our mouths open in that "Oooh my Gaaaawsh" look.

The chain was dangling from the door, along with about 5 inches of the door frame that the lock had been "secured" to. It surprised the heck out of him and me too!! If I could do that being a 5 ft tall woman, it would have been no problem for a man to do the same thing when I answered the door.

I suggest a peep hole and motion sensored light in the front of the house. If you don't recognize the caller, don't open the door. If you get an uneasy feeling, call the police or call and have a neighbor turn on their porch light or something to let the caller know there is somebody else aware of their presence.

I don't even say "who is it?" until I've looked through the peep hole. Of course if it's a familiar face, there's no need to say that but if it's a delivery person. etc... I will ask who it is and when they state they have a delivery I ask who the sending party on the package is.

From December 2008:

http://www.wbko.com/home/headlines/35961749.html

Mercer County Circuit Judge Darren Peckler re-sentenced Lee Anderson this week to life without a parole hearing for 25 years for the 2006 slaying of Louise Pulliam.

It was the maximum sentence Peckler could impose after the Kentucky Supreme Court earlier this year vacated the life without parole sentence originally given Anderson.

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