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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

17-Year-Old Focus Of Investigation

From Staff Reports

Authorities have collected hair and blood samples from a teenager being questioned in the fatal beating of an elderly Spokane woman.

Jail nurses and detectives took the samples from 17-year-old Vy Thang on Tuesday, according to court records.

Investigators want to see if they match evidence collected in the death of Mildred Klaus. The 85-year-old woman was found murdered and robbed in her north Spokane house over the Labor Day weekend.

Thang and Simeon Terry, also 17, were arrested Sept. 3 at an apartment just a few blocks from the victim’s home. The pair escaped from the Maple Lane juvenile detention center a month before and were wanted on fugitive warrants.

They since have been charged as adults in a South Hill burglary. Police have not arressted the teenagers in the Klaus murder.

But Terry told witnesses the day before the victim’s body was discovered that Thang “had broken into a house, kicked an old lady and took some money,” according to a police affidavit.

“Simeon Terry also told witnesses that Thang had blood on his shoe,” Detective George Benavidez said in the affidavit.

Thang was sent to Maple Lane after pleading guilty to assaulting an elderly Aberdeen, Wash., woman - robbing her, then leaving her for dead. Terry was serving time for armed burglary.

, DataTimes