MISSING
Erie Times-News (PA) - Sunday, December 22, 2002
Author: TIM HAHN ;
tim.hahn@timesnews.com
Susan Burg won't celebrate Christmas without her daughter, Sabrina Kahler. While two of her sons spend the holiday with her ex-husband, Richard Kahler, Burg said she'll more than likely spend Wednesday at work. She said she doesn't feel like celebrating because her 20-year-old daughter is missing, possibly the victim of foul play. "It's rough, rough, really rough not knowing," Burg said from the living room of her East Third Street home, where a small Christmas tree stands across from Sabrina Kahler's high school graduation photo in a standup frame near the front door.
"It will be six months Christmas Eve, and that's really heavy." Sabrina Kahler vanished on June 24, leaving virtually no clues to her whereabouts. The months that have passed since the East High School graduate was last seen at a Springfield Township ice cream stand have left police with the realization they might not find her alive. "We think, and everyone has led us to believe, that if she was just missing she would have called home or made some attempt to get in touch with her family," said Capt. James Skindell of the Erie Bureau of Police, whose detectives have been investigating Kahler's disappearance since she was reported missing on June 26.
The investigation has been exhaustive, but it hasn't yielded much in helping police find the woman. Still, Kahler's family remains optimistic that something will surface to bring her home — on her own or otherwise.
"We are waiting for her to walk through that door," Richard Kahler's current wife, Sarah, said from the dining room table of their home on East 26th Street. "We believe she's still alive, but ... it's difficult."
A friendly girl
Sabrina Mae Kahler turned 20 on June 20. Her father, with whom she had lived until moving in with her mother in the summer of 2000, was thinking about taking her out to celebrate her birthday when he learned Sabrina did not come home that Monday. "I didn't follow through," he said.
Richard Kahler cried as he talked of his daughter, the youngest of his and Burg's five children. He described Sabrina as friendly almost to a fault, the kind of woman who is overly trusting and not afraid of striking up conversations with anyone she met. "When she was a child and I took her to the store, I had to keep an eye on her because she would wander off and talk to people," he said. "She's the type of person ... she's easy to take advantage of."
Sarah Kahler said Sabrina Kahler also loves children, and liked to help out at the nursery at Wayne Park Baptist Temple, where she attended church. Sabrina Kahler is very rooted in the Lord, her father said. During the five years she lived with her father after her parents separated in 1996, Sabrina would read the Bible every night, he said. "If she's not with us, she's with (God)," Richard said, tears streaming down his cheeks.
Sabrina worked at McDonald's for a time when she lived with her father, but had not held a job since then. Her main goal since moving was to graduate from East High School, which she did in 2001, Burg said. She was considered developmentally delayed, and attended special education classes in high school. She had a
maturity level of two to three years younger than what she was, Richard Kahler said.
"Really, she's just a really caring, loving kid, really kind of almost empathic in a way," Burg said. "She might not have been a genius, but Sabrina was special in her own way."
Without a trace
Christopher Lee, Kahler's live-in boyfriend, said he returned from an appointment shortly after noon on June 24 when he found a note from Kahler that said she had gone swimming with David Heck and wouldn't be home until 4 p.m. Lee, 22, had met Kahler on Valentine's Day, and the two soon began dating. He moved into the blue ranch house at the corner of East Third and Lighthouse streets with Kahler and Burg in May.
"I didn't think anything of it," said Lee, who was friends with Heck. "My assumption was that (Heck) and (Heck's then-girlfriend), Ashley (Peters), showed up to ask me and Sabrina if we wanted to go swimming. I was not home. She was probably a little upset about that, and they went without me." Lee and Kahler had gone out in the past with Heck and Peters, Lee said.
Kahler was still sleeping when Burg went to work on the morning of June 24. Burg said she called home at about 11a.m. while she was on a break, and spoke briefly to her daughter. "I told her to throw a load of clothes in the washer," Burg said. "She said, 'OK, mom. I love you.' Normal, everyday
stuff."
Heck, who is in Erie County Prison on unrelated charges, said he went alone to Kahler's house on the morning of June 24 to see if anyone wanted to go swimming. Heck and Kahler then traveled to Eagley Park in Springfield Township, a public swimming area on the Lake Erie shoreline, where he said they spent a half-hour swimming before he was confronted by Peters and 10 to 15 other people.
They came down there and started a whole bunch of stuff," said Heck, who had broken up with Peters a few days earlier. "So I went and called the police."
The confrontation between Heck and Peters was related to an incident a day earlier at a home on Route 6 in Conneaut Township. Witnesses told police that Heck tried to force Peters to leave the residence, then tried to run over Peters and four others with his truck.
Heck faces trial on reckless endangerment and other charges related to the incident. Heck said he and Kahler got into his truck after the confrontation at Eagley Park and drove to the Tasty Twist ice cream stand on Old Lake Road, where he called state police. A trooper met him at the ice cream stand, then went to
Eagley Park to tell Peters to leave Heck alone, Heck said. Heck said he also drove back to the park to drop off a pair of pants that belonged to Peters.
The state police trooper confirmed that he had gone to the Tasty Twist and had spoken to Heck the afternoon of June 24, said Erie police Detective Sgt. Barry Snyder, the lead investigator in Kahler's disappearance. The trooper also confirmed seeing Kahler there. It was the last time anyone other than Heck reported seeing Kahler. Heck said he drove Kahler back to Erie and dropped her off at the West Erie Plaza, because she wanted to see the film "Lilo & Stitch" at the Plaza Cinemas. He gave her $10 for the movie and for transportation home, he said.
Looking for answers
Police have not been able to verify or discredit Heck's story. "The time of day, the day of the week ... we feel very confident with the information that we found that she was not present at the movie theater," Skindell said. With the confirmed sighting of Kahler at the Tasty Twist as a beginning point, Erie police and others launched an extensive search for the woman immediately after she was reported missing. The search has included numerous interviews with people who know Kahler or who might have seen her on June 24. It also involved several extensive searches through the woods of western Erie County, along the Lake Erie Shoreline stretching from Harborcreek Township into Ohio, and in streams and ponds throughout the county.
In July, Erie Police Chief Charles Bowers asked land owners in Erie and Ashtabula counties to walk their property in search of anything that might seem "unusual" and to report it to police. In November, Skindell asked deer hunters to do the same. No one reported finding anything.
In early October, the FBI, Erie police and the Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers put up a $5,000 reward for any information about Kahler's disappearance. Police have received only one telephone call since then, Skindell said. "Nothing's closed," he said. "As far as not hearing something one way or another or finding something, it's fairly unusual. But we're still talking to people." "It may be quiet on the street, but it's not quiet in here," Skindell added. The police investigation includes the involvement of state police, the Erie County Sheriff's Department, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and the FBI, which sent one of its profilers from Washington to assist in the case.
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