AL - Karen Shahan, 53, murdered, Homewood, 23 July 2013 #1

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BhamAdGal said:
This article says that church staff found Mrs. Shahan as she missed an appt. What kind of appt. at the church? Counseling? Her husband's out of town and he's on the church staff. Curious.
The News reported that her Hobby Lobby co-workers called the police for a welfare check. An interesting initial reaction initself. Which is it?
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The additional appointment is a new, added detail that I have read no where else. Based on a personal conversation and a possible "slip" by a source in-the-know, I have an anecdotal suspicion that a co-worker from Hobby Lobby may have gone to the Shahan home prior to asking for a welfare check and may indeed have seen something.
 
BhamAdGal said:
This article says that church staff found Mrs. Shahan as she missed an appt. What kind of appt. at the church? Counseling? Her husband's out of town and he's on the church staff. Curious.
The News reported that her Hobby Lobby co-workers called the police for a welfare check. An interesting initial reaction initself. Which is it?
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I missed that article. Thank you for finding it. I guess we'll eventually find out whether someone went there initially and then called for a welfare check but what could be taking so long??? If this was a random act of violence, I'd be afraid to stay at my home if I lived in that neighborhood.

I still can't find the article that quoted the neighbor across the street who said he heard a loud noise from the Shahan home on Monday night. I have searched and searched. I swear I didn't dream it...lol...or did I...lol.
 
BrianInBirmingham said:
The additional appointment is a new, added detail that I have read no where else. Based on a personal conversation and a possible "slip" by a source in-the-know, I have an anecdotal suspicion that a co-worker from Hobby Lobby may have gone to the Shahan home prior to asking for a welfare check and may indeed have seen something.
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If somebody did see something prior to calling for the welfare check, that would make more sense to me, because otherwise the call to the police seems as if it was made a little more quickly than one would expect, as others have mentioned here.
 
IHAVENOCLUE said:
This article reports that Karen was found by church officials...

But earlier reports stated Karen's co-workers called 9-1-1 when she did not arrive to work at Hobby Lobby...

does anyone know the chain of events on that day?

TIA...:seeya:
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Quoting myself...

I see that these questions had been asked before I read the whole thread...
 
meanmaryjean said:
I'm not sure this can be considered MSM/ reliable info. It appears to be a church newletter type outlet.

So, let's take this info with a grain of salt, shall we???

Is there nothing new in the local media?
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Per Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Alabama_Baptist


The Alabama Baptist was founded in 1843 in Marion, Alabama by Baptist leaders to publicize the church's work domestically and abroad.[1] One of the co-founders was Julia Tarrant Barron, who also founded Judson College and Howard College, now Samford University.[2] After the American Civil War, J.J.D. Renfroe, a prominent Southern Baptist minister was associate editor and then editor of the newspaper (1873–76 and 1886–87), which he used as a platform to defend southern views, encourage national reconciliation, and promote his idealized view of Old South values.[3] Renfroe was assisted by D. W. Gwin, E. B. Teague, and Edwin T. Winkler during this time.[4] The paper was purchased by the Alabama Baptist State Convention in 1919.[5] In July 2005 the al.com news website announced that it was adding content from The Alabama Baptist.[6]
Today[edit]

As of 2010 the weekly paper was being mailed to more than 100,000 homes.[5] The newspaper attempts to provide concise and balanced reporting of events related to religion, and gives editorial advice on moral and ethical issues from a biblical standpoint.[7]
 
<modsnip> The credibility of "The Alabama Baptist" or "Wikipedia" for that matter is not at question here. <modsnip> The only "fact" in the article under scrutiny is what appears to be a possible additional meeting Shahan missed - so noted.
 
I am not questioning the intentions of the Alabama Baptist paper: I'm just saying that it is NOT what WS would consider mainstream media - the ONLY source we are allowed to link to here.
 
BrianInBirmingham said:
Killarney Rose... The credibility of "The Alabama Baptist" or "Wikipedia" for that matter is not at question here. We are certainly not basing our understanding of the facts of this case based on Proverbs or Psalms... so let's toss that one for good measure. The only "fact" in the article under scrutiny is what appears to be a possible additional meeting Shahan missed - so noted.
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I was neither criticizing nor promoting The Alabama Baptist here. Only trying to give readers an idea of what it is and when I googled , the Wikipedia description was the best I could find. <modsnip>.:twocents:
 
I wonder if Karen was active on SM on her computer?

I hope LE is investigating technologies she used... Such as computers, phones, etc...

I imagine LE is...

Just trying to get my thought processes going... Ya know?

JMO
 
According to TOS MSN is acceptable only. The article in The Alabama Baptist did report the type of caring person Karen was so it was informative. Otherwise it could have been deleted.
 
So the place was mussed up, like a robbery.

Has there been any report at all as to whether any property or money was actually missing from the home?

Maybe they knew the pastor was out of town...

It's really nice to see local people contributing to a thread. Sad to meet in tragic circumstances, but welcome to WS and thank you for your input!
 
Ausgirl said:
So the place was mussed up, like a robbery.

Has there been any report at all as to whether any property or money was actually missing from the home?

Maybe they knew the pastor was out of town...

It's really nice to see local people contributing to a thread. Sad to meet in tragic circumstances, but welcome to WS and thank you for your input!
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I just wanted to say thanks for all the warm welcomes. I've been registered here for a couple of years and came here to read occasionally but I've only just begun posting here.

There has not been any reports of property or money stolen...only that the home was in disarray. Basically, the Homewood Police Dept. has not released one single tidbit of information other than what has been reported here already. Nada, nothing, zilch...I really think they have suspicions about who is behind this.

It's just very odd that no one and I mean NO ONE, not the church staff or members, not the victim's co-workers, not the police dept....no one is saying a word. This is the South folks. People can't keep their mouths shut about anything. If you don't want it known, you best not tell it because if you do, you can rest assured it will be repeated. This situation is just strange. SMH
 
I suppose there is quite likely a logical reason why Karen did not or was not able to go on this family trip with her husband to see their adult sons and their 2 grandchildren..but I must say that is what piqued my curiosity in questioning was everything "OK" on the home front, so to speak.. what I mean is I initially had just assumed her husband was away on something like church business..or even his own personal business, but upon learning that the trip was to spend time with their grown sons and 2 grandchildren..well, it just had me question why in the world would Karen not have been along for this family trip?

and to be clear I am in no way wanting to imply anything as I quite obviously have no clue the how/who/why of this wonderful woman's life being taken.. The most questionable issue for me was why would Karen have not been on this trip?.. again there is likely a logical reason for why, but its definitely the issue that struck me the greatest in reading the details known thus far..

Welcome to all you locals, your insights are very much appreciated and my thoughts and prayers are with your community in dealing with such a shocking and tragic loss:hug:
 
SmoothOperator said:
I suppose there is quite likely a logical reason why Karen did not or was not able to go on this family trip with her husband to see their adult sons and their 2 grandchildren..but I must say that is what piqued my curiosity in questioning was everything "OK" on the home front, so to speak.. what I mean is I initially had just assumed her husband was away on something like church business..or even his own personal business, but upon learning that the trip was to spend time with their grown sons and 2 grandchildren..well, it just had me question why in the world would Karen not have been along for this family trip?

and to be clear I am in no way wanting to imply anything as I quite obviously have no clue the how/who/why of this wonderful woman's life being taken.. The most questionable issue for me was why would Karen have not been on this trip?.. again there is likely a logical reason for why, but its definitely the issue that struck me the greatest in reading the details known thus far..

Welcome to all you locals, your insights are very much appreciated and my thoughts and prayers are with your community in dealing with such a shocking and tragic loss:hug:
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HI SO !!!:seeya:

It could be as simple as she could not get time off from work, a doctor's appt., or her DH went to help with home repairs, etc. She may have had a cold, and didn't want the grandbabies to catch it. I have had my FIL here by himself- to help with our family room renovation; and my in-laws frequently travel separately. They have another home in VT, where he likes to ski and she doesn't, and she flies to her sister's, or here. They have been married for 50 years.
 
Has the church membership gone down in recent years? I'm in Texas and a Baptist who has never attended a church where the preacher's wife worked outside the home. Times may have changed, but the fact she worked seems odd and the church owning all the homes in the cul de sac also seems odd.
 
I've been keeping up with this intriguing, yet devastating, story over here in Ttown, too. My condolences to those who knew and loved Karen. :(


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk 2
 
txsvicki said:
Has the church membership gone down in recent years? I'm in Texas and a Baptist who has never attended a church where the preacher's wife worked outside the home. Times may have changed, but the fact she worked seems odd and the church owning all the homes in the cul de sac also seems odd.
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Keep in mind that Richard Shahan is an associate pastor (Children & Families Pastor). I can assure you that it is quite acceptable in Birmingham, AL that Mrs. Shahan work outside the home (To the degree that I could almost say "expected"). The Church bought up all the homes on Hugh Circle because it is contiguous to their property and completes the parcel. It wouldn't take a Harvard graduate Church Treasurer to understand the value of owning the property for future growth and development while in the meantime serving as an investment/endowment. (This Church is composed of a very educated and savvy membership base -- this isn't rural hickville -- I would guess that the average income of members would be six figures) The link below will show you the cul-de-sac. The church is the property and parking lot to the right. The Shahan home is approximately halfway up the road on the right and backs up to the Church parking lot.

https://maps.google.com/?ll=33.467703,-86.781011&spn=0.002554,0.002411&t=h&z=19
 
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