Toni Antonelli's search ends in death
The following appeared in The Olympian on Friday September 5th 1986 and was written by Virginia Painter:
About two months ago, Toni Antonelli and Sam Adams struck up a friendship. Adams, a 21-year-old Centralia College student studying psychology, was kind of a big brother, and the 14-year-old girl talked to him. "When I hear someone had been killed, I had this feeling," Adams said. "She would talk to anyone. She trusted everyone. She just liked people, and she loved to laugh. I think that's why she liked me. I could always make her laugh."
Toni Antonelli was found by teen-agers Wednesday near the town reservoir, up a winding, direct road a mile west of town. She had been badly beaten, and law enforcement officers suspect sexually assaulted as well. She was lifted by helicopter to St. Peter Hospital, where she died at 4:30 a.m. Thursday.
Authorities still are searching for her killer. The Thurston County Sheriff's office has identified a suspect as Monty A. Richardson, 29. Friends and acquaintances around Tenino and Rainier described Toni Antonelli as a girl searching for something. They say she was likable, outgoing, often in trouble with authority, eager to talk and have someone listen to her. "She used to walk up to me and talk," said Dorene Wheeler, a neighbor with children older than Toni. "She was afraid to walk to her house in the dark, and sometimes I would walk with her. She was afraid of the dogs around here."
"She was not a bad kid. She was a sweet little girl. She was searching, looking for attention," Wheeler said. She was the kind of kid who keeps school counselors awake at night. "I spent a few restless nights over her," said Paul Kerber, Rainier High School counselor. "It seemed sometimes like we would try everything possible to do something about her situation, and there would always be a roadblock. Every time it looked like things were falling into place, something new would happen."
During one of their short, interrupted stints in the district, Kerber said he worked with Toni, an older sister and the girls' father to keep the girls coming to school regularly. The girls were continually going back and forth between homes, between towns and between schools.
"Toni was a student who wanted a lot of attention," Kerber said. "But at the same time she wanted attention, if anybody got too close, she wouldn't trust them. You could help her to a point, then she would back away and totally do a 180." Rainer school records show her last enrolled there between September and December of 1985. She attended school in Tenino briefly in January, then transferred out in February. Neither district had seen her since.
School people said she had trouble sitting still in school. "She wasn't a particular discipline problem, but it was difficult for her," said Rainier Principal John Dekker. "She was a kid whose future you worried about." Sandy Marsten, Tenino counselor, said she had a lot of contact with Toni Antonelli on and off over the years. Antonelli scored high on standardized tests, Marsten said.
"She was an attractive young gal with spunk," Marsten said, smiling. "She was full of life. Wherever she was, something, was going on. She was outgoing. She was also looking for some answers." She was, perhaps, too trusting of people, friends said.
Adams said Toni had tried to get ahold of him Wednesday, but he had been working at his job at the college. When he heard of her death, he wondered why she had been trying to reach him. "She didn't like grown-ups very well," Adams said. "She didn't like pressure, and she felt like grownups pressured her and didn't listen to her." But she had a grandmother in town she felt close to, he said.
There have been conflicting reports about where Toni Antonelli lived. Adams said, "Toni lived where Toni wanted to live." Neighbors talked quietly as they passed in the street and sat sharing coffee in local eateries, while around them, the search for Antonelli's killer continued. The night before, the sudden sound of helicopters and sirens had sent neighbors out into the warm night.
"My husband said he was going to find out what was happening. He came back in awhile later and said, 'What is this world coming to, dear?' Dorothy Prater said as she and two friends talked over coffee at a Tenino restaurant. "He told me the girl had been killed." Prater, Donna Romano and another friend discussed solutions - a 10 p.m. curfew, someone to enforce it, neighborhood watches. Still on their minds is the murder of Roberta "Dee" Strasbaugh not quite a year ago. She was found dead in the Grand Mound area, and her killer has not been found.
"We'll be worried about our kids coming home," one of them said. They talked about how they had warned their own children about safety. "You just have to scare them," Romano said. "They have to know how dangerous it can be if they are too trusting of strangers."
Out on the street, a 30 year old coal miner and his wife were taking their baby daughter for a stroll. "A 14-year-old-girl. I just can't picture that," the man said, looking down over his baby's bonnet. "I hope they catch him, that's all. And I hope they give him the maximum." As word of the murder spread around school on the second day of the new year, some teachers took out time to let their students talk things out.
"When you hear them talking about it, you let them talk and guide the discussions," said Dave Whitmire, a fifth grade teacher. "You let them work it out, get it out, and when you see one kid not saying anything about it, that's the one you find a way to talk to later."
"We're not teaching just reading, writing and arithmetic at school any more," Whitmire said. "We're teaching them to handle their own feelings, too."
Daniel Pinna 
Denise Vermillion-Nedrow 
