Slaying suspect taken to Kansas

Steven Papen, a Kansas man who was found unconscious on a Seattle beach in August, has been returned to Wichita to face a charge of first-degree murder in the death of his girlfriend.

Papen landed at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport on Tuesday evening aboard a Sedgwick County, Kan., sheriff's transport plane, after he was extradited from the King County Jail by authorities in Kansas.

Yesterday afternoon, Papen was advised via closed-circuit television of the charge against him, said Kim Parker, Sedgwick County deputy district attorney. His bond was set at $1 million "because of the flight from his jurisdiction and the removal of evidence," Parker said.

A hearing was set for Nov. 29, when prosecutors will lay out their case.

Papen, 37, was found unconscious on a beach by a passer-by in Discovery Park on Aug. 15.

He was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he was placed on life support, suffering from acute-respiratory-distress syndrome, a form of sudden and severe lung failure.

Two days after Papen was found, the body of his 29-year-old girlfriend, Dana Anderson, was discovered in the trunk of her car at a Colorado airport. She had last been seen at work at a Wichita-area hospital Aug. 10.

An autopsy performed in Colorado Springs found she had been beaten and suffocated.

Later in August, prosecutors in Sedgwick County filed a first-degree murder charge against Papen, who lived in Wichita with Anderson and her 12-year-old son. The boy was with his grandparents when his mother disappeared.

Papen was unconscious on the beach for two days, said his mother, Lorraine Papen, adding that his exposure to the elements caused some atrophy in his legs, which required doctors to remove some muscle tissue. That has made it difficult for him to walk, she said.

She said he spent weeks in a coma and asked for Anderson after he awoke.

Lorraine Papen said that she is "relieved he's back in Kansas" and that "I'm with my son 100 percent. The charges they made against him are just not true. He's incapable of that."

Joshua Robin's phone number is 206-464-8255. E-mail: jrobin@seattletimes.com.