1/14/2010

Salina Journal, The (KS)-August 18, 2003

        Officials have yet to identify slain woman, but relatives say Carol Fleming was killed

        BELOIT — Family members confirmed Sunday that Carol Fleming, 51, was the woman found dead early Saturday morning at her home here.

        A local funeral home has issued a death notice for Fleming, but law enforcement officials won’t confirm the name or her cause of death.

        Beloit Police Chief Frank Gent said he had a meeting at 9 a.m. today with Mitchell County Attorney Rod Ludwig “to discuss the facts of the case.”

        “After the meeting, I’ll know what he’ll allow me to say,” Gent said. Ludwig could not be reached for comment Sunday night.

        Gent said Sunday there had been no arrests. Asked if there were any suspects, he said, “We’re looking at several different options along that line.”

        The official word from law enforcement was that officers were called to 622 E. Fourth at 3:23 a.m. Saturday, where the woman was found dead.

        That section of street was still barricaded Sunday night.

        Neighbor Pene Cox said she was out of town Friday night but said her husband, Harvey, was awakened by the gathering of officers across the street and the red lights on their patrol cars.

        Gent would not say who called police.

        Charlie and Norma Fleming, Carol Fleming’s inlaws, said they were called to the crime scene between 4 and 4:30 a.m. Saturday and were met outside by Mitchell County Sheriff Doug Daugherty.

        “He took us aside and said Carol was gone, passed away,” Norma Fleming said. “We found out later in the day (from other family members) that she had been shot in the head.”

        The Flemings said they were unable to get more information from officials. The local police and sheriff’s office and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Kansas High Patrol are investigating the case.

        “That’s our daughter-in-law,” said Charlie Fleming, a former owner of Sunflower Manufacturing. Carol Fleming was married to their son, Chuck Fleming II, who died in 2000.

        “All I know is what rumors we hear,” Charlie Fleming said. “The police don’t tell us nothin’.”

        Norma Fleming said two of Carol Fleming’s four sons, Chuck “Chuckie” Fleming III, 31, and Chad Fleming, 27, live at the home that was cordoned off through the weekend.

        Carol Fleming’s other sons, Travis, 24, and Brad, 25, live in Kansas City.

        Norma Fleming said Chuckie and Chad “went to the police station to be questioned” Saturday, but added they are not suspects. She said other individuals also were questioned at the station that day.

        Carol Fleming owned and operated Joint Effort, a beauty salon in downtown Beloit.

        Norma Fleming said she will remember Carol Fleming for her strength and will to carry on when her husband died in their car in 2000 while returning home from heart bypass surgery.

        “Of course, she was terribly upset, and it was a terrible time for her,” Norma Fleming said. “And yet she just picked up with those boys and went on with her life. That was a terrific thing that she done.”

        She said Carol Fleming cared for everyone and was always happy. Pene Cox concurred.

        “If anybody needed something, they could go to her and she’d give it to them,” she said. “A lot of the young kids around here did. Carol knew everybody in town.”

        With four sons at home, Cox said, the Fleming home was an active place.

        “Those boys, I saw the good in them,” she said. “Deep down, they’re good boys.”

        Cox said Carol Fleming’s sons were staying with relatives in Beloit, adding they were supplied with “all kinds of food” from an outpouring of community support.

        “I saw them,” Pene Cox said, “and I gave them a hug.”

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