Concern For Victim Bonds Two Families

A YOUNG WOMAN was kidnapped, viciously attacked and left for dead in early May near Kent. The assault left the victim brain-damaged and her family struggling to help her. The incident also deeply touched the passerby who found the woman - and probably saved her life.

KENT - Kirklan Fleming can't tell you exactly what made him take a walk that morning.

The 17-year-old Kentridge High School student remembers a combination of things: restlessness, an inability to sleep after a late-night job, the intoxicating smell of spring.

At about 5 a.m. on Mother's Day Sunday, Fleming - who doesn't remember ever taking a recreational walk before, let alone being up that early - set out to take an invigorating stroll.

His intention was to walk around the track at nearby Kentridge High School. But once on campus, he decided to cut the stroll short and walk around the school instead.

As he approached the portable classrooms to the east of the main building, something caught his attention.

At first, in the gray morning light, it looked like a fallen branch. As he got closer, it appeared to be a CPR dummy or a jogger resting.

But as he got closer still, Fleming realized he was looking at a critically injured young woman. Her head was smashed, her body was shuddering, she was lying in blood.

"She had a worried look on her face but she wasn't responding," said Fleming, who remembers trying to talk to the woman and ask her what he could do to help. "Then fear hit me. It was like a baseball bat to the skull. What if the people who did this are still around?"

In tears and with a pounding heart, Fleming ran home and woke his mother, who called police.

The injured woman turned out to be 26-year-old Connie Freeburn of Seattle, who was carjacked in front of her apartment just hours before Fleming found her. Freeburn was stabbed repeatedly in the head and body with a screwdriver, then left for dead on the school grounds.

In the months following the May 8 attack, Freeburn has struggled to survive, progressing from the intensive-care unit at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle to a full-time outpatient at a rehabilitation hospital in Boise, near her parents' home.

Freeburn's attacker, a Seattle man, has confessed to the crime and awaits sentencing.

A second suspect is set to stand trial in December.

And Fleming, who was unable to sleep for three nights and found it impossible for weeks afterward to erase the image of Freeburn lying helpless on the ground, said Freeburn has become a part of his life.

Before leaving for Phoenix in late June to participate in a national drama program, Fleming visited Freeburn three times at Harborview.

"There wasn't a day that went by that she didn't cross my mind," he said.

The first time he visited Freeburn in the hospital, she was still in a coma. He fainted.

By the third visit, Freeburn was in a wheelchair and was able to propel herself forward using one leg.

"It was a really positive visit," Fleming recalled.

Now in his senior year in high school, Fleming is planning to visit Freeburn in Eagle, Idaho, next month. He will go with his mother, Rosalyn Fleming, and possibly his younger brother, Brenten, the weekend of Oct. 14.

Depending on how Connie Freeburn is doing, the Flemings will either stay at the Freeburn home or at a hotel.

"I want to be re-acquainted with her," said Fleming, who kept informed of Freeburn's progress while he was away during the summer. "I feel like I play a part in her life. I want to be involved in her progress."

Fleming will never forget meeting Freeburn's younger sister, 23-year-old Christy, when he visited Connie at Harborview for the first time.

"She came over to me and hugged me," he recalled. "She told me: `You've got a family for life - whether you want to or not.' "

Connie's mother, Kathy Freeburn, said the Freeburns think of Kirklan as a hero: a young man who miraculously went for a walk that morning, found Connie and saved her life.

She said she has no doubt the two families will remain close.

While she and her husband, Denny, are not allowing house-guests right now because of Connie's condition, they are willing to make an exception for the Flemings if Connie is feeling up to it next month.

Fleming's experience, meanwhile, deeply affected everyone else in his family.

After Fleming left town in late June, Rosalyn Fleming, along with other members of the family, continued to visit the Freeburns at Harborview. When the Freeburns moved back to Idaho in midsummer, the two families stayed in touch by phone.

When Rosalyn went to Utah last month to see a new granddaughter, she spent a night with the Freeburns on her way home. And on their way to Seattle for a family wedding this past weekend, Rosalyn's oldest son and family stopped off in Idaho to see the Freeburns.

"It's just like we've known them forever," said Rosalyn Fleming. "(Connie) is just an important part of our lives. The whole family is."