Wife-Killer Loses Suit To Children Mother Had Abandoned Them, Father Told Three Youngsters

The children of a man who killed his wife and then told them their mother had abandoned the family have won a $14 million judgment in a wrongful-death suit against their father.

The children, ages 18, 14 and 4, had asked for $15 million to compensate for the loss of their mother, Elvira Long, 38.

She was choked to death in 1993 by Steven Alan Long, who dumped her body in a deserted ravine and lied about her absence for three years.

Long, 41, was convicted in February of second-degree murder and first-degree perjury. The perjury charged stemmed from Long’s claim in divorce papers that his wife had abandoned her family.

Long, who led authorities to his wife’s remains after his arrest last September, is serving a 21-year prison sentence.

In a written order, King County Superior Court Judge Sharon Armstrong found that the children were damaged by the slaying and by Long’s “fraud and dishonesty.”

“I’m very pleased,” William Bailey, the children’s lawyer, said of Wednesday’s judgment. “Hopefully this will have symbolic value for (the children), where once again, the legal system has pointed its finger at Steven Long and said, ‘What you’ve done is very wrong.”’

Bailey said he didn’t expect Long to be able to pay the full amount. But the judgment makes the children legally entitled to Long’s assets and any money he may earn in the future.

Long, a former computer engineer, had $55,000 in cash on him when he was arrested in Canada, where he had fled. He has filed for bankruptcy, but still owns his Mercer Island home, with an assessed value of $207,600.

Long’s two oldest children had testified how their mother’s slaying and father’s lies hurt them, saying their father’s acts caused them to withdraw from friends, miss school and become sullen and angry.