Brenda Gere Remembered -- Former Classmates Mourn Sixth-Grader Slain In 1985

BOTHELL - The teenagers sitting before Charlene Richardson at Brenda Gere's memorial service were the same ones who sat in Richardson's classroom six years ago - in the days before their 12-year-old classmate was murdered.

But the friends who had hung out with Gere at shopping malls, and later joined the search for her body, were hardly recognizable yesterday as the children in Richardson's photos of the class.

Young women who remembered Gere from slumber parties now talked of weddings and jobs. Former classmate Mark Medici, about to start college in Bellingham, towered over his former sixth-grade teacher as he helped her shovel dirt onto the roots of a spruce tree planted in Gere's honor.

Gere's remains were found Aug. 4 on the Tulalip Indian Reservation, ending six years of doubt surrounding her disappearance. Hundreds of teachers, classmates and parents from her school searched for the seventh-grader after she vanished on Sept. 19, 1985.

Former University of Washington football player Michael Kay Green awaits trial on charges of beating and stabbing the girl to death. Green has a history of attacks on women and was a prime suspect in Gere's disappearance. But he could not be charged until the body was found.

Gere's mother, Elaine Gere, and two brothers now live in Idaho. Her father, Joe Gere, committed suicide three years ago.

The family held a private funeral for her shortly after the bones were found, said Richardson.

Yesterday's memorial service at Canyon Creek Elementary School north of Bothell was arranged by Gere's friends and teachers, many of whom had joined the weeks-long effort to find her.

"We thought we needed an opportunity to gather and end this process," said Judy DeSantis, a family friend. "I've tucked all my feelings about it away and never finished dealing with it."

About 35 people gathered on a patch of lawn next to the school parking lot for the tree-planting. Standing by Gere's picture, which was propped on a table, Richardson read from Gere's sixth-grade diary and played music on a portable tape-player.

With an unsteady voice, she read from a list of rules for living Gere had once compiled for a class assignment.

"All people must have a horse; everyone must go out for pizza on Fridays; there should be firecrackers on Christmas," she read.

Classmates told of Gere's love for animals and her exuberance. "Brenda was the warmest person. I'll never forget her," said Crista Crownover, 19, of Monroe.

"It was just after the first week of junior high that she disappeared," said Annie DeSantis, 18, daughter of Judy DeSantis. "She was into clothes, makeup, music and soccer. She loved to run."

Afterward, the teenagers gathered over photo albums of field trips they'd taken together, pointing out pictures of Gere, a tall girl with braces, laughing with other students. Many recounted having dreams about the disappearance and mistaking strangers on the street for Gere years after she disappeared.

"When I saw they'd found her . . . I thought, `Oh good. Now there's no doubt any more,' " said former classmate Medici, who remembers long afternoons he spent searching the swamp behind Gere's home when she disappeared.

"Whenever I'd hear of someone's remains being found, I'd think, `I hope it's her,' but at the same time I'd hope it wasn't," said another classmate, Kristi Coulter, 17.

"It's nice at least to know she's been found," said Crownover. "Now people can rest."