Police Questioning Escapees In Killing Elderly Woman Was Beaten To Death, Then Robbed Over Labor Day Weekend

One of the teenage escapees being questioned in the murder of an elderly Spokane woman lived in the victim’s neighborhood before being sent to a juvenile detention center last year.

Court records indicate Simeon Terry, 17, lived in a house with his mother in the 700 block of West Shannon Avenue, six blocks from the long-time home of Mildred Klaus.

Klaus’ son discovered the 85-year-old woman dead Tuesday afternoon inside her house at 326 W. Mansfield.

Police say Klaus had been beaten to death then robbed sometime over the Labor Day weekend.

Neighbors said the victim was rumored to be from a “well-to-do” family and was known to collect antiques.

Terry and Vy Thang, also 17, were arrested Wednesday morning at a friend’s apartment on Shannon, police said. Detectives did not give the address.

Investigators staked out the apartment after finding evidence at the crime scene linking Terry and Thang to the murder, police said.

The teenagers have not been charged in the slaying.

Terry denies being involved in the murder, said his mother, Kathleen Carroll. Carroll, an English teacher at Shadle Park High School, said she planned to talk to her son Thursday evening and urge him to come forward with any information he has in Klaus’ death.

“I do still love him very much and hope that he was not involved in this,” said Carroll, who said she hadn’t heard from her son since his escape. “He’s had a lot of advantages in life. He’s just never appreciated them very much. I just hope to convince him to do the right thing.”

Carroll said a former friend of her son’s told police Terry and Thang were responsible for the murder.

“This informant has a long-standing feud with my son. They used to be partners in crime, but there’s some bad blood there now,” she said. “I hope this isn’t his way of getting back at Simeon, by making a false accusation.”

Detectives have refused to discuss details of the case.

Terry and Thang were wanted on fugitive warrants after walking away from the Kingdome Aug. 2. They were attending a Seattle Seahawks football game with other “honor” inmates from a state juvenile detention center near Centralia, Wash.

Terry was sentenced to 258 weeks in the Maple Lane center last April after pleading guilty to two counts of first-degree armed burglary, according to court records.

Prosecutors said Terry burglarized a house in north Spokane while armed with an SKS semiautomatic rifle.

Thang was convicted of first-degree burglary, first-degree robbery and residential burglary last February. Police in his hometown of Aberdeen, Wash., said Thang and another teenager brutalized a 69-year-old woman before robbing her and leaving her for dead.

, DataTimes