Ex-Kirkland Resident Found Slain In Idaho

Police in Nampa, Idaho, say they have no motive for what they call the ``execution-style'' slaying Tuesday of a former Kirkland resident who taught music at a Christian school in Nampa.

A memorial service is scheduled today for Marlene Friesen, 37, whose body was found in a spare bedroom at her Nampa home Tuesday night by a friend who became concerned when Friesen didn't answer the phone.

``Good solid information seems to be lacking,'' said Nampa Police Chief Marshall Brisbin, who said his entire eight-person detective staff is working on the case.

Detectives are checking reports that Friesen, who lived alone, may have been harassed by one or two men who were phoning her, but police do not know their identity, Brisbin said.

He said there was no indication that the woman was attacked sexually, and no evidence of a forced entry into the home.

Brisbin said the killing appeared to ``execution style'' because Friesen died of a single small-caliber gunshot wound to the back of the head. Her two telephones had been disconnected.

Friesen, raised in Kirkland, graduated from Northwest Nazarene College in Nampa and stayed in the southwest Idaho town after graduation, said a close friend, Ginny Cowley.

``She was a precious, precious, beautiful woman'' whose life revolved on church-related activities, Cowley said.

Friesen taught at the nondenominational Nampa Christian Schools for 11 years and was an accompanist to the choir at the Nampa First Church of the Nazarene.

Brisbin said detectives are checking a report from neighbors that Friesen spent part of Sunday sitting in her parked car outside her home because she did not want to answer telephone calls from men who were bothering her.

Brisbin said Friesen ``may have been a little naive'' and was known to spiritually counsel troubled people, sometimes in her home.

He said Friesen had reported several incidents of vandalism in the last few years, when rocks were thrown at her car and home.

Brisbin said the killing shocked the town of 28,000 people, which has only two or three homicides a year. Nampa is located 20 miles west of Boise, the state capital.

Friesen's funeral will be held today in Nampa. Survivors include her parents, Buno C. Friesen of Federal Way and Lorayne A. Friesen of Seattle, brothers Dennis Loris of Kent and John Friesen of Pearl City, Hawaii, and sisters Alice Fay Friesen of Nampa; and Della Rogers of Missoula, Mont.