Memorial Service Held For Slain Women

Mon., Dec. 11, 1995

From Staff And Wire Reports

Only a framed photograph of Roxanna Kay Ellis and Michelle Abdill stood near where the two women should have been in church on Sunday.

A Christmas pageant at the Medford Congregational Church was postponed so that nearly 300 people could attend a memorial service for Ellis and Abdill, a lesbian couple shot to death last week.

Civic and church leaders, friends and family members packed the church, many wearing lavender armbands and pink buttons that read: “Medford … Hate Free Zone.”

Police were investigating the possibility that bigotry was a motive in the slayings of Ellis, 54, and Abdill, 42, both outspoken gay rights activists who were domestic and business partners.

Mayor Jerry Lausmann received a standing ovation when he declared Medford a “hate-free city,” then led the crowd in a prayer to “unmask the person or persons who are guilty of committing this terrible crime.”

The women’s bodies were found Thursday in Ellis’ pickup truck, parked in an apartment complex across town from a duplex that Ellis was to show Monday. Both women died of gunshot wounds but neither were sexually assaulted nor physically tortured, police said.

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