Slain Bellevue Family Remembered -- Friends Honor The Happier Memories

BELLEVUE - There were stories about burning cookies, raising kids, cruising late at night and telling jokes that kept the whole office laughing for days.

There were many tears shed and, every now and then, a bit of laughter that cut into all the grief.

And for some who attended last night's memorial service for the Wilson family - found slain in a quiet Bellevue neighborhood earlier this month - there was closure.

About 200 people gathered at St. Louise Catholic Church in Southeast Bellevue to remember William and Rose Wilson, and their daughters, Kimberly and Julia.

William, 52, Rose, 46, and Julia Wilson, 17, were found beaten and stabbed to death in their Woodridge home. Kimberly Wilson, 20, was found strangled at a neighborhood park a few blocks away.

On Thursday, police arrested 17-year-old Alex Kevin Baranyi.

Although the deaths have left an indelible mark as the city's worst homicide, family and friends last night chose to focus on lives instead of deaths.

"We will not speak of them in the past tense," said the Rev. Gary Barckert, who co-officiated at the service.

Barckert described William and Rose Wilson as a good match for each other: Rose's exuberance for life and penchant for spontaneity balanced Bill's calmer "peacekeeper" personality.

From this couple, Barckert said, "you get a Kim who is known for her baseball cap on backward, and you get a poet out of Julia."

Friends talked about each of the Wilsons' goodwill and compassion toward people.

"Rose and Bill, they had this way of enveloping people without suffocating them," one of Rose Wilson's close friends said.

The friend, who declined to give her name, said Rose Wilson was part of a close-knit group of college roommates who had shared a boarding house at Western Washington University and who had kept in touch for the past 28 years.

William Wilson was a compassionate man with a great sense of humor, friends and co-workers said.

"You could talk to him about anything," said Jim Ingraham, a family friend.

Connie Blakely, who used to work for Wilson at GTS Drywall, talked about the time Wilson stumbled upon a new employee who was living in his car.

"The next thing I knew, (the new employee) was in a hotel," Blakely said. She said her boss was the kind of guy who would provide a place to stay for anyone who needed it.

Friends described the Wilson family as strong, close-knit and loyal.

"We knew that we could call them any time, night or day, and they would come to help us," Blakely said.