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

[TGIRecovered]

Does anyone know when Karen's husband left on his trip? Was he gone the night before or was Monday the first night he was away and she was home alone?

 

[txsvicki]

I read somewhere that they had just finished a children's program, or maybe it was vacation Bible school. That leads me to another thought in wondering if the house being in disarray was verified as related to crime. People working really hard at practically two jobs might leave straightening up behind until some days off. I'd never have made it as a preacher's wife.

 

[ClemiFern]

I wonder if the church owned homes had alarm systems. Articles have said most people rented in the area and moved frequently, the neighbor said she's getting an alarm, and the Mayor or someone said most police calls are about alarms going off instead of actual crime.

If you go back and read the articles about the crime, you will see that the church owned "all" of the homes on Hugh Circle. Therefore, the church probably owned the neighbor's home (if it was on that street) and it apparently did NOT have an alarm system which is why the neighbor was installing one.

Typically, homes do not come with alarm services. That is a monthly monitoring service that must be purchased by the tenant.

 

[TGIRecovered]

If you go back and read the articles about the crime, you will see that the church owned "all" of the homes on Hugh Circle. Therefore, the church probably owned the neighbor's home (if it was on that street) and it apparently did NOT have an alarm system which is why the neighbor was installing one.

Typically, homes do not come with alarm services. That is a monthly monitoring service that must be purchased by the tenant.

I'm sure that the church members living in those homes felt a tight sense of community since they knew each other and probably looked out for each other.

I lived on a street like that once. We always knew when a neighbor had visitors or if some annoying door to door
person was around. We all kept each others phone #s and called before they got to the next house. We knew when someone's hubby was out of town, which dog belonged where and shared garage codes to care for pets and plants when someone was out of town.
It would have taken the Pink Panther to sneak in and murder one of us without being spotted. ( And he would have needed to pass the sniff test with our dogs too!)

If Karen's neighbors saw something out of place I think we would have heard about it. That's just my opinion.

I'll bet attendance will be very good today at the church. Folding chairs in the aisles good. Maybe some news tomorrow?

 

[SCHMAE]

If you go back and read the articles about the crime, you will see that the church owned "all" of the homes on Hugh Circle. Therefore, the church probably owned the neighbor's home (if it was on that street) and it apparently did NOT have an alarm system which is why the neighbor was installing one.

Typically, homes do not come with alarm services. That is a monthly monitoring service that must be purchased by the tenant.

I wonder who all knew there was about to be an alarm system on the home. Had someone been wanting to do this and moved up their plans to get it done before it was alarmed? That's curious.

 

[oceanblueeyes]

I read somewhere that they had just finished a children's program, or maybe it was vacation Bible school. That leads me to another thought in wondering if the house being in disarray was verified as related to crime. People working really hard at practically two jobs might leave straightening up behind until some days off. I'd never have made it as a preacher's wife.

I have been in many Preacher's homes over the years. I think because they really have an open door policy... where anyone in the congregation is welcome to come to the home at anytime.... they keep the homes quite neat. Its just one of the duties the Preacher's wife knows she must do being a Pastor's wife. One sad thing about it though a Preacher's wife would open the door if someone knocked on it thinking it may be one of the congregation when it may not have been.

So I think the disarray found in the home was very much out of the norm and that is why it was specifically commented on.

It sounds to me after they murdered her they went through the home looking for items of worth. LE knows so much more than we do. They may know by now if items are missing from the home. I am hoping that the suspect or suspects weren't wearing gloves and may have left fingerprints on the disarray they made in the home.

Home invasions are on the rise. Invasions like what happened to the Petit family and to the Hufsted family that had deadly results for those inside.

It took LE months to solve the Hufsted murders and Sara Walker's murder. And the motive for all three murders were home invasions/robberies.

IMO

 

[ClemiFern]

I wonder who all knew there was about to be an alarm system on the home. Had someone been wanting to do this and moved up their plans to get it done before it was alarmed? That's curious.

To my knowledge there was NO alarm system on the Shahan home. That has not been reported. What posters have been referring to is the fact that a neighbor of the Shahans was having one installed a day or 2 after the murder because of the murder.

If you read through the past few pages of posts, some posts will make a lot more sense and everything won't start getting all misconstrued.

 

[meanmaryjean]

I have been in many Preacher's homes over the years. I think because they really have an open door policy... where anyone in the congregation is welcome to come to the home at anytime.... they keep the homes quite neat. Its just one of the duties the Preacher's wife knows she must do being a Pastor's wife. One sad thing about it though a Preacher's wife would open the door if someone knocked on it thinking it may be one of the congregation when it may not have been.

So I think the disarray found in the home was very much out of the norm and that is why it was specifically commented on.

It sounds to me after they murdered her they went through the home looking for items of worth. LE knows so much more than we do. They may know by now if items are missing from the home. I am hoping that the suspect or suspects weren't wearing gloves and may have left fingerprints on the disarray they made in the home.

Home invasions are on the rise. Invasions like what happened to the Petit family and to the Hufsted family that had deadly results for those inside.

It took LE months to solve the Hufsted murders and Sara Walker's murder. And the motive for all three murders were home invasions/robberies.

IMO

BBM: This is a common misconception. You find both ends of the 'cleanie to slob' scale in preacher's homes, just like in accountants, teachers and nurse's homes. I am fairly neat- a preacher's wife friend of mine nearly had CPS called on her for the level of filth and trash in their (parsonage) home. There is no magic clean gene we get blessed with when we marry into the ministry.
And from the sounds of it- his job was not primarily ministry- he was also the 'facilities' guy - aka custodian/ landscaping/ maintenance person.

 

[ATasteOfHoney]

Due to the actual location of the home, I wonder if that led to it being more likely for an attacker/intruder?

The back of the house is an easy walk thru from the parking lot. It has a highway very close by. It is a corner lot.

Landscapers or lawn care guys would find this an easy target via the parking lot under the "protection" of a small patch of trees backing up to the house if they were "opportunists". They may even know the Pastor was out of town.

Were there new maintenance workers for the church recently?

 

[SCHMAE]

To my knowledge there was NO alarm system on the Shahan home. That has not been reported. What posters have been referring to is the fact that a neighbor of the Shahans was having one installed a day or 2 after the murder because of the murder.

If you read through the past few pages of posts, some posts will make a lot more sense and everything won't start getting all misconstrued.

Wow, a little too much scroll and roll in my roll . sorry about that

 

[ClemiFern]

Wow, a little too much scroll and roll in my roll . sorry about that

No problem I was going to delete my comment because I hate snippy comments on boards and I am not usually one to be that way. I apologize if it seemed as such this morning. Guess I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.

I don't want to see facts getting misconstrued and I, especially, don't want to perpetuate the misconstrued information so I guess that's why I replied as I did. Hope you'll overlook my "moment." :blushing:

On another note, I sure hope one of the local news outlets reports something this week. We may have to wait weeks before the Homewood Police Dept. releases anything. It's really odd how the news outlets here and the local paper has not seemed to press for more information. It's almost as if they're in some type of agreement with LE. Hmmmm...I wonder...

 

[SCHMAE]

No problem I was going to delete my comment because I hate snippy comments on boards and I am not usually one to be that way. I apologize if it seemed as such this morning. Guess I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.

I don't want to see facts getting misconstrued and I, especially, don't want to perpetuate the misconstrued information so I guess that's why I replied as I did. Hope you'll overlook my "moment." :blushing:

On another note, I sure hope one of the local news outlets reports something this week. We may have to wait weeks before the Homewood Police Dept. releases anything. It's really odd how the news outlets here and the local paper has not seemed to press for more information. It's almost as if they're in some type of agreement with LE. Hmmmm...I wonder...

I went back and read word for word very slowly the post about the alarm and realized my ERROR. I for some reason, ( immablameitontoomuchcoffee) I thought that all the homes would be getting alarms on that block that were owned by the church. There is nothing written to indicate that, it's just the thought I had. Like an owner of apartments would give them all new doorknobs one year, IDK! So you were right and I was wrong and thanks for cleaning it up

 

[oceanblueeyes]

BBM: This is a common misconception. You find both ends of the 'cleanie to slob' scale in preacher's homes, just like in accountants, teachers and nurse's homes. I am fairly neat- a preacher's wife friend of mine nearly had CPS called on her for the level of filth and trash in their (parsonage) home. There is no magic clean gene we get blessed with when we marry into the ministry.
And from the sounds of it- his job was not primarily ministry- he was also the 'facilities' guy - aka custodian/ landscaping/ maintenance person.

That may be true. I have never been to one of those homes.

However; it doesn't mean this Preacher's wife was a lousy housekeeper does it? Is there a poster posting here who is from there that has actually been inside their parsonage?

I still think 'disarray' was mentioned for a reason because it was felt to be out of the norm for the residence when she was discovered.

JMO though

 

[Cherry]

Does anyone know who was on the homeowners committee for this block of "housing owned by the church" ? *just another thing I find extremely odd in this case I might add*

 

[meanmaryjean]

Does anyone know who was on the homeowners committee for this block of "housing owned by the church" ? *just another thing I find extremely odd in this case I might add*

I would think there is NOT a 'homeowners' committee' as a previous poster stated they are all rentals.

 

[MissJ]

I used to live in Chattanooga, TN a southern city with a high crime rate and lots of home invasions. Don't know why but it was a very high rate of home invasions. Unfortunately the mother of one of my friends was on the receiving end and she did not have an upscale home. She was beaten nearly to death and she never had a chance to fight back, so she was no threat to them. What did they get? A small TV and a few dollars. Home invasions are on the rise. JMO.

 

[waitin'4thewrld2chg]

If this were a home invasion robbery and the murder was done to eliminate the witness, I would wonder if the murder itself might not have been accomplished as quickly and 'efficiently' as possible. This murder is described as brutal, which could mean, sad as it would be, that a knife and a little time were involved.

I know it is too simplistic to equate brutality with passion/rage and with the perpetrator being familiar with the victim. This could have been an opportunistic hit on a stranger's home, and the murderer might have been amped up enough on drugs (or not) to have become exceedingly violent. Very possibly home invasion murders commonly cover the gamut in terms of method.

However, I wonder if the disarray found could have indicated a struggle (maybe a chair overturned, papers pushed off a table, etc.) rather than a robbery. Mrs. Shahan's body was found on a couch but she may not have been on the couch during the entire horrific event.

 

[mom23boys]

That may be true. I have never been to one of those homes.

However; it doesn't mean this Preacher's wife was a lousy housekeeper does it? Is there a poster posting here who is from there that has actually been inside their parsonage?

I still think 'disarray' was mentioned for a reason because it was felt to be out of the norm for the residence when she was discovered.

JMO though

I agree with this. I feel like 'disarray' was mentioned for a reason and probably means more than dishes in the sink, laundry on the couch and dust on the bookshelves. I feel like it was indicative of either a struggle, a robbery (or even staged to look like a robbery) or both. JMO

 

[BrianInBirmingham]

I agree with this. I feel like 'disarray' was mentioned for a reason and probably means more than dishes in the sink, laundry on the couch and dust on the bookshelves. I feel like it was indicative of either a struggle, a robbery (or even staged to look like a robbery) or both. JMO

... Or rage.

 

[txsvicki]

Will police give a statement about cause of death soon or remain quiet? I guess we know from other cases that it can take awhile for toxicology reports. Maybe, to me, the word disarray means things lying around or made to look like someone was looking for something. Home invasion, to me, means door busted in quickly and things broken and turned over.