news-record.com

RALEIGH (MCT) — Three days after a state school board member was found injured in the West Raleigh home of a local lawyer, police still are combing the crime scene for evidence and remain uncharacteristically tight-lipped about the crime.

State Board of Education member Kathy A. Taft was found severely beaten inside a two-story home at 2710 Cartier Drive late Saturday morning.

The 62-year-old Taft was rushed to WakeMed's Raleigh campus by emergency workers after being found in the home of John Geil, a local tax and divorce attorney. Geil has been described by friends and neighbors as Taft's boyfriend.

WakeMed officials have declined to comment about Taft's condition, but state schools Superintendent June Atkinson said Monday that Taft is a patient in the hospital's intensive care unit. Several school board members had been to WakeMed to try to visit Taft and the family and friends surrounding her.

"They were unable to get in," Atkinson said, "given that she's in intensive care."

Taft, the mother of four adult children — two sons and two daughters — lives in a quiet neighborhood in Greenville.

Police spokesman Jim Sughrue said Sunday that investigators hadn't eliminated the possibility of a random attack. Officials have said little else since then about the investigation.

Typically, police will quickly release a recording of the 911 call reporting the crime, a written report from officers who initially respond to the call, general information about the victim's medical condition and any information on suspects.

But there is an aura of mystery around the Taft investigation.

Even though Sughrue said "every part of the police department" — from the assault squad to K9 units — have been out on the scene, police are holding close to their vest any theories about what happened.

On Monday, Sughrue said that the department expects to release public documents about the case soon but that detectives needed time to review the information and conduct more interviews before giving the public access to early details.

Though the silence may be unusual, Sughrue insists the investigation is being handled the same as many others.

Almost from the moment 911 operators dispatched emergency workers to Geil's home, police have cordoned off the neighborhood. Until late Monday afternoon, the only people who were allowed to pass the police cruiser barricades were those who live on the quiet, winding street a short walk from Glenwood Village shopping center.

Residents on Cartier Street say Taft was a frequent visitor to Geil's home. According to neighbor Mary A. Jones, Taft drives a white, late-model Lexus that police towed away over the weekend.

Jones' daughter, Laura Jones, said neither she nor her mother heard anything unusual Saturday, but they noted that Geil's two-story home does not have a door facing the street. They also pointed out that the back door leads into a wooded area and a path that's often used by residents to walk to the Harris Teeter grocery store at Glenwood Village.

Taft's neighbors in Greenville recall seeing her outdoors, playing with her grandchildren. They are confounded by the scant details police released.

"We all know Kathy," said Harvey Turnage, who lives just across the street from Taft's home. "We are devastated by the news, and we haven't heard any more information about what happened."

Another neighbor, Robert William McConnell, a retired physician, said Geil often accompanied Taft at social functions around Greenville.

"It's just one of those things that makes you wonder if there's a supreme being and why would he allow this to happen," he said.