Cyanide-Poisoning Victims Called Unlikely Targets -- Caring, Helpful People Mourned

Friends, relatives and co-workers of the Sudafed cyanide-poisoning victims say Kathleen Daneker and Stanley Frank McWhorter were unlikely targets of any deliberate crime, much less murder.

Both Daneker, 40, and McWhorter, 44, had long-term relationships and good relations with their co-workers and children.

Daneker, a Tacoma resident, had dreams of getting a good clerical job with the state to help support her three sons.

McWhorter, of Lacey, Thurston County, was considered a whiz in the commercial real-estate field, according to his former boss, as well as a passionate ``people'' person and country-music fan.

Friends say Kathleen Daneker's life revolved around her three teen-age sons - 14-year-old twins and an 18-year-old - and her church. She was committed to helping the underprivileged. Three days before she died, she remarried Ken Daneker, the father of her children.

The Rev. Daniel Johnson of the First Assembly of God Life Center Church in Tacoma said Daneker, her children and Daneker's mother were regulars at church.

Johnson said Daneker was a volunteer in the church's mission work with children from Tacoma's Hilltop area. ``She was very concerned with all the young people we were working with,'' he said. Daneker worked with the youngsters and visited with their parents, which required a once-a-week time commitment on the part of a woman who had three teen-age sons of her own.

``She just felt like they deserved a chance,'' said Johnson. Daneker also went to Mexico for a missionary program.

Dave Langford was Daneker's supervisor last summer during her two months as a temporary receptionist in the Division of Developmental Disabilities in Tacoma. Langford said Daneker was hired because of her ability to get along with people.

Langford said that Daneker came back for a going-away lunch three or four weeks after her job ended. ``Her teen-aged son came along,'' Langford recalled. ``I was impressed that she had the kind of relationship with him that he felt comfortable having lunch with a bunch of adults.'' Langford said that Daneker hoped to get a full-time clerical position with the state.

When Daneker decided to get re-married, she called the office, Langford

said. ``She was quite excited about it. She wanted to make sure everyone knew they were invited.''

Stanley Barney, a neighbor of Daneker's, said Daneker was a neat housekeeper who put a flag in the window in support of the troops in the Middle East. ``She was just a nice solid person taking care of her children,'' he said. ``She took the boys out whenever she went shopping. She didn't go out running around. She took good care of them.''

Barney said that Daneker's mother lived with them and that Daneker had taken a computer course to further her chances of getting a state job.

``She told me she and her husband were trying to reconcile their problems,'' said Barney. ``They were trying to get back together for the sake of the children. They were remarried before she died. I saw the fellow standing out there in a tuxedo.''

Barney said it was inconceivable to him that anyone would want to harm Daneker, adding: ``When my wife and I heard, we were so shocked, we didn't even speak to each other for five minutes.''

McWhorter was a New Mexico native. His mother, Georgia Garcia of Aztec, N.M., said her oldest son served on the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk during the Vietnam War. He had a degree in business from a college in San Diego, where he met Jane, his wife of 20 years.

Garcia said her son recently returned to Olympia because he had found a better job with Frank Kirkbride and Associates, a commercial real-estate consulting firm.

McWhorter had two sons, Kenneth, 25 and Brandon, 18. Garcia said the family returned to Olympia in part because the family had lived there once before and because the oldest son, who graduated from high school there, still lived and worked there.

Frank Kirkbride said he first met McWhorter 12 years ago when McWhorter was general manager of the Capitol Mall in Olympia.

McWhorter moved around the country in the mall-management business until a year and a half ago, when Kirkbride offered McWhorter a position back in Washington state.

Kirkbride said McWhorter was a whiz at figuring out the relationship between development projects and the customers and businesses who used them. ``He was very people-oriented,'' said Kirkbride. ``It was infectious.''

McWhorter loved to fish and to play country music on his guitar. His mother said that McWhorter and his brothers and sisters played in a country-Western band in New Mexico for several years. ``He had one of the most beautiful voices I ever hoped to hear,'' said Kirkbride.

``I like to think he was my best friend,'' said Kirkbride. Even after McWhorter died, Kirkbride said, ``I kept expecting him to call in for messages. I guess it just didn't sink in.''

Members of McWhorter's and Daneker's immediate families declined comment yesterday.