DATE: Monday, August 25, 1997               TAG: 9708250077

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LIZ SZABO, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:  130 lines

SLAYING BRINGS OUT CAMELOT'S COMPASSION A YEAR LATER, IT STILL AFFECTS AREA RESIDENTS

August will never be the same for Betty Harper.

For 17 summers, that month meant family outings to the beach, trips to water parks and parties celebrating the birthday of her youngest child.

But this year, such activities only remind Harper that her daughter Michelle is not around to enjoy them.

Michelle Harper's death on Aug. 23, 1996, has had a lasting effect on the Camelot community where she lived. It has isolated some Camelot residents, and has inspired compassion not only for her and the Harper family, but also for the man accused of killing her.

Michelle Harper died when a man went on a rampage at a back-to-school slumber party.

Police say Curtis Lee White II, 20, attacked Michelle Harper, his girlfriend, and his girlfriend's brother and sister. Two of the girls were sexually assaulted.

White is in jail, awaiting an October trial on charges of capital murder, abduction, rape, attempted rape, burglary, two counts of forcible sodomy and three counts of malicious wounding.

Ronald and Betty Harper's house, which once bustled with five children, has been empty since that August night.

Their son Mark, a Marine, left for duty in Japan on Michelle Harper's 17th birthday, just five days before the attack. Son Terry departed for Army duty in Korea the next month. Daughter Tiffany moved into a dormitory at Old Dominion University at the same time. The Harpers' oldest son,Ron, had left home for military service in Germany several years ago.

``Some people say it doesn't seem like it's been a year,'' said Betty Harper, sitting on her couch, her husband seated on the floor at her feet. She looks into the distance, occasionally rubbing her husband's back when he speaks. ``For me, it's been a long, dragged-out year. . . . When August rolled around, my spirits really started to drag. . . . Her birthday was Monday. She would have been 18.''

The Harpers smile at the memory of a scholarship established in their daughter's name at Deep Creek High School.

The senior class created two one-year, $300 scholarships, said Deep Creek Principal Nathan T. Hardee. The high school yearbook dedicated a page to their daughter's memory. Deep Creek High School also honored the young man injured in the attack for his bravery in saving his two sisters. The Air Force Junior ROTC gave the young man its ``highest and most prestigious honor,'' the Gold Valor Award.

Others have been good to the Harpers as well.

Church members and friends raised money for Michelle Harper's funeral. The family's insurance had lapsed just before her death.

Among the many sympathy cards they've received, one stood out. It was from White's mother. The Harpers did not write back.

Betty Harper pauses after White's name is mentioned. Her eyes squint hard when thinking of him. It's not a comfortable memory. But no one in the Harper family bears him any ill will. They even pray for him.

``I had my angry experience. I was angry, so angry,'' Betty Harper said. ``That's part of the healing process. But Christ comforted me, and I could face it, and I was able to forgive. It doesn't take the pain away. But when you hold hatred in, you only destroy yourself. It's not going to profit us to hate him or his family for what he did. It won't bring her back.''

Tiffany Harper occasionally sees White's brother around Camelot. Their conversations were once lively. Now they are civil, but clipped. Her neighbors on Darius Court, on the other hand, are kinder than before. Even the postal carrier always stops to ask how she's doing, Tiffany Harper said.

Betty Harper now looks forward to putting the ordeal behind her.

``I am really looking for closure right now,'' Harper said. ``Whatever happens, I just want it to be over.''

Many in the community support the Whites as much as the Harpers and the family of the others injured in the attack. That family is not identified, in accordance with The Virginian-Pilot's policy against naming the victims of sexual assault.

The White family could not be reached for this story.

Camelot Civic League president C.C. Hawkins, who spoke at a memorial service after the attack last year, has written White three letters in jail, encouraging him to keep up his spirits and to pray for God's forgiveness. He also sent White money as a Christmas gift.

``I actually haven't written to him in eight months,'' Hawkins said. ``I owe him a letter.''

White has never written Hawkins in return. Hawkins said he was neither surprised nor disappointed.

While Hawkins has visited the White family, he has not recently visited with the Harpers. He means to visit them soon.

To him, the Whites deserve compassion as much as anyone. Hawkins knows what it's like to see a child taken away to prison. His daughter is in jail on drug-related charges. His son recently got out of jail for a similar offense, he said.

``That young man (White) wasn't a bad little fellow,'' Hawkins said.

Hawkins said he doesn't want to judge White - or any other young person accused of a crime.

``I know all the little guys,'' Hawkins said. ``The fellows on the street that people say are bad, I know them all. I knew them when they were in diapers. Not the first one has ever insulted me. They see me on the street, and I always get a hello.''

Camelot recently has been troubled by violence just a few blocks from the Harper home. A teen-ager was shot in the leg Aug. 17 while driving his car, Chesapeake police spokesman Dave Hughes said.

Church congregations also have supported all three families, said the Rev. O.L. Cromwell of Trinity Baptist Church, who organized a community service after the incident. Michelle Harper worked at his church's day-care center, although her family attends Willow Grove Baptist Church.

``There's still some mourning, but the community through Jesus Christ has pulled together,'' Cromwell said. ``When you're dealing with Christian people, they feel not just for the victim, but for the person who did it. They also have a soul and a spirit that we'd like to lift up to the Lord. We're praying for his family also.''

There's one young man, however, who is not praying for White. For the young man who said he fought off White, and was stabbed repeatedly in the struggle to save his sisters, his Gold Valor Award has not entirely eased his feelings of guilt. Or anger.

He has never been very religious, and his experiences last August have not inspired any new faith.

The young man now avoids his neighbors, unable to stand their prying or their gossip.

``I just go to work and come home,'' he said. ``I pretty much keep to myself.''

Everything about his house still reminds him of that night.

``We remodeled the kitchen, but it don't make no difference,'' he said, looking at the knife rack on the counter. White, he said, used those knives to stab him and the others.

He has not spoken to the Harpers, he said, because ``I didn't want them to feel like it was my fault they lost their daughter.'' ILLUSTRATION: Michelle Harper

Curtis Lee White II

MOTOYA NAKAMURA/The Virginian-Pilot

Ronald and Betty Harper have relied on their religious faith to help

them cope with the Aug. 23, 1996, killing of their 17-year-old

daughter, Michelle.

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