Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 18, 1991 TAG: 9103180188
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium
In Shawn Novak's fantasy world, Daniel Geier was a Kender, a dwarf-like green creature with pointy ears. The world revolved around the playgrounds and woods of Wadsworth Homes, where Daniel and other children would gather around Novak.
Novak called them the Kenders and encouraged them to behave like the race of creatures in D&D, which Novak played with an obsession.
"Shawn had like his little group of Kenders and the little kids would be in it," said 16-year-old John Cleapor. "They'd run around just goofing off. Daniel was in that group . . . It was pretty much normal everyday life, but he gave a name to it and made it more interesting."
In the literature of D&D, the impish Kenders are playful, curious, fearless and independent. They wear their hair in braids and ponytails, often festooned with wild flowers and feathers.
The happy-go-lucky world of the Kenders was shattered March 5 when Daniel's body, and that of a playmate, Scot Weaver, 7, were found in the woods beside a fallen tree.
The following Saturday police arrested Novak, declaring in affidavits to the court that Novak admitted cutting the boys' throats with a knife.
Novak is now in the city jail, awaiting a March 28 hearing before a juvenile judge. The judge is expected to turn Novak over for trial as an adult in the Circuit Court, where the city's chief prosecutor has said he probably will seek the death penalty for the double homicide.
Early reports about Novak portrayed an odd youth who turned a dead bird into an ornament on a necklace and wore it to school; a loner who bragged to classmates, falsely, that he had discovered the boys' bodies; an intense teen-ager who rebelled at regular church attendance.
But several dozen interviews with authorities, family members, teachers, friends and acquaintances paint a picture of a more normal 16-year-old who regularly baby-sat for his two younger brothers and expressed interest in girls, computer games and heavy-metal music.
To his band of adoring Kenders, he was a big brother, a pied piper whose imagination could turn an ordinary walk in the woods into an action-packed, mountain-conquering adventure.
To his "D&D" buddies, he often presented himself as Robin Hood, a brave and agile woodsman who could disappear in the underbrush under a coat of camouflage branches and observe others without being seen.
"When the group of us played, after the game was over that's where it ended till the next game," said Cleapor, a D&D regular. "He took it further; he started acting out his character's role, though not to the full extent."
"The Robin Hood in the woods was not really Dungeons & Dragons, but it came from it," said Mike Sims, a close friend and former D&D player. "He took stuff from real life and put into his games, but sometimes he'd take stuff out of the game and put it into real life."
For the most part, the Kenders games were harmless - make-believe, practical jokes, mischief and silliness. But once, the Kenders doused toads in gasoline and set them on fire.
"Some say Dungeons & Dragons is really evil. I don't see why people say that," said Sims, noting that his mother has taken away his D&D books and game materials. "But another point is that kids get too involved. Shawn was too involved. Aside from Kenders and his funny songs, that was all he'd ever talk about."
by CNB