Tragic Tale: `He Was Nice To Her' In School

PERRYVILLE, Mo. - Sherry Ann Korando never forgot the boy who was nice to her when she was in high school.

Though she apparently never dated him, Korando, 25, often talked about Jeff Flentge. She had known him at Perryville High School, where she was a loner who was in classes for those with learning disabilities.

On Saturday, Korando showed up uninvited at Flentge's wedding. Armed with her father's handgun, she rose from a center pew and fired one shot at the ceiling of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church and another shot at the wedding party. No one was struck.

She then ran into the parking lot and fatally shot herself in the head.

Investigators found a yearbook photo of Flentge in her billfold.

"He was nice to her in high school when some of the others weren't," said Rev. J. Edward Wilson, the priest at Flentge's wedding. "Apparently she remembered that. Her mother told me she always talked a lot about Jeff."

Before the shooting, Korando wrote a letter to her parents, telling them that if she survived she didn't want hospitals using life-support measures to keep her alive, her family said. Details of the letter were not released.

Flentge told authorities that he had received a threatening call the night before the ceremony warning that his marriage would never happen.

Authorities were reviewing a wedding videotape to determine whether Korando said anything before shooting.

Wilson said Flentge, 25, told him that he knew Korando in high school and talked to her occasionally. The bride, Deena Petot, 25, was in the same class.

Flentge, who was on his honeymoon and could not immediately be reached for comment, told police he never dated Korando.

"I wouldn't describe it as anything more than a typical high- school crush, a more one-sided one where she was the only one who knew about it and he didn't," police Maj. William Jones said.

Korando, a cleaning woman at an animal hospital, lived with her parents in this town of 7,500 about 65 miles south of St. Louis. Family and co-workers described her as cheerful but quiet.

Roy Pohlman, who attended high school the same years as Korando, remembered her as a girl who sang in the choir, was in a class for students with learning disabilities and had few friends.

The wedding continued about 90 minutes after the shooting.

The bride's grandmother Flora Petot, 86, suffered an apparent heart attack at the reception and later died.