4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Saddest Parkway news: Lizzy Hafter, a 22-year-old UVA grad student from Columbia, South Carolina, is murdered and her body found October 1 on the Blue Ridge Parkway. A man driving her car, William Ashby, is shot and killed by police in Florida October 2. Ashby could be a suspect in five other homicides.
Most contagious: Six cases of the mumps had been reported as of October 3, five of which are UVA students.
Pickiest: The U.S. Army's appetite for warm bodies is quelled when three gay UVA students attempt to enlist September 27, and the recruiting office locks its doors and draws the blinds.
Fittest: UVA comes in #11 on the college fitness scale, according to Men's Fitness.
Latest setback for Jens Soering: The former UVA student is denied parole September 26. Soering is serving two consecutive life sentences for the 1985 murders of his then-girlfriend's parents, Derek and Nancy Haysom, in Bedford County.
Worst local shooting spree: Numerous shots are fired on Mallside Forest Court off East Rio Road around 5pm September 26, according to police, damaging an apartment and two vehicles.
Biggest shooting reward: Rental property owners put up $8,500 to find the suspects in a September 10 shooting of a UVA student who was sitting on his Wertland Avenue porch talking on his cell phone, which he surrendered to two black men before being shot in the abdomen.
Worst Sunday morning: A woman is abducted in downtown Orange around 9am September 24 by a knife-brandishing man who jumps in her car, forces her to drive to Louisa and attempts to sexually assault her, according to a Rob Seal story in the Progress. The woman escapes and may have stabbed the assailant in the upper leg. Police are looking for 6'2'-tall, 230-pound muscular black man who sports a teardrop tattoo under his left eye and a stud earring in his right ear.
Worst fire: Three families lose their homes when 12 apartments are evacuated in an early morning September 28 blaze at Trophy Chase Apartments on Commonwealth Drive, according to NBC29. (WCAV says four families)
Worst national psycho trend: Gunman have attacked three schools within a week, the most recent a one-room Amish schoolhouse October 3, where milk-truck driver Charles Carl Robert IV opens fire on a dozen girls before killing himself. At press time, five had died.
Worst email offender: Former Congressman Mark Foley resigns September 29 after sexually explicit text and instant messages he sent to teen pages are released, precipitating a Republican House leadership crisis because nothing was done when news of Foley's predilection surfaced over a year ago.
Best royal visit: Prince Andrew cuts the ribbon to open reconstruction of a distillery run by George Washington at Mount Vernon September 27, though demurring that he doesn't drink rye whiskey himself.
Best gift: Twins and NFL stars Tiki and Ronde Barber pledge $1 million to their alma mater to kick off UVA's $3 billion campaign.
Best literary discovery: A Robert Frost poem found by UVA grad student Robert Stilling in the Small Collection appears in the fall edition of Virginia Quarterly Review.
Most disconcerting: The co-writer of the 1960 pop classic "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini," Paul Vance, reads that he's died after an Ormond Beach, Florida, imposter, who had even duped his wife, actually dies, and she tells reporters her husband, Paul Van Valkenburgh, wrote the song.
Most dubious distinction: U.S. Senator George Allen earns his own game on Slate– the "George Allen Insult Generator."
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