Slaying of CPS official stuns town

Posted on Sun, Apr. 02, 2006

Slaying of CPS official stuns town
By JACK DOUGLAS JR.
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

VICTORIA -- Sally Blackwell was a former college cheerleader, a proud single mother, an avid gardener and, as regional director of Texas Child Protective Services, one of the most highly regarded people in town.
Michael Buchanek was something of a hometown hero: a 26-year veteran of the Victoria County Sheriff's Department, commander of the SWAT team and one of the first American law enforcement officers to go to Iraq to train security personnel.
Blackwell and Buchanek lived two blocks from each other. A welcome sign greets visitors at his front door; a wooden swing hangs from a tree in her front yard.
On March 15, her strangulation shook the peaceful neighborhood called Cimarron.
Two police bloodhounds, Quincy and James Bond, were called in to pick up the scent of a nylon rope tied around the neck of Blackwell's body, which had been found in a field near her home.
With police officers in tow, the dogs followed the scent.
Quincy and James Bond did not stop until they reached Buchanek's home.
No arrest has been made in a crime that has stunned this placid town of 60,000 residents, 30 minutes from the Gulf Coast. And authorities insist they are investigating several strong possibilities that are unrelated to Buchanek. One theory is that Blackwell, 53, may have angered someone through her job at an agency that protects children from unfit parents.
But the only visible suspect, identified in the media and in a police affidavit, is Buchanek, 52. He has told investigators he used to date Blackwell.
The badge was gone, as was the police macho, when Buchanek answered his door last week. He was shirtless, his belt buckle was undone and his lips quivered when he spoke:
"I don't mean to be disrespectful, but I just don't have anything to say."
A dangerous job
A 16-year veteran of CPS, Blackwell led a force of 46 caseworkers who investigate reports of child abuse and neglect in the region.
"She reiterated that it was really up to us to keep children safe," said Brad Irvin, a friend of Blackwell's who is now a CPS supervisor in nearby Cuero. Her death, Irvin said, has reminded caseworkers just how dangerous their jobs can be: They enter homes -- always unarmed and seldom with a police escort -- to deal with parents accused of being unfit.
"We make a lot of people angry," Irvin said.
That was never more apparent than on March 8, a week before Blackwell was found dead, when a man and woman walked into the lobby of the CPS office in Victoria, demanding to speak to Blackwell about an "open case" filed against them. When told that she was in a meeting and unavailable, the man raised his voice and said something like "the lawsuit is back on" and "we're going to get her job for this," said Patrick Crimmins, a CPS spokesman in Austin.
Blackwell was reportedly upset when told of the outburst. And Crimmins said an e-mail was immediately sent to caseworkers, urging them to take extra precautions as they do their work in a "business of inherent conflict."
Local and state law enforcement investigators are trying to learn whether that episode is connected to Blackwell's death. They have also examined the contents of her home computer, a report says, after it was learned she had been dating online.
There are a half-dozen "persons of interest" in the investigation, said Victoria County Sheriff T. Michael O'Connor, and no motive or suspect has been firmed up. Officers hope blood and DNA test results will prove vital in identifying the killer, he said.
The awkward part of the probe is the sheriff's relationship with Buchanek.
"He trained me," O'Connor noted. "I've been under his command."
A career officer
Buchanek began his police career in 1977 in the small Texas town of Shiner. He became a Victoria County sheriff's deputy in 1980, rising to the rank of captain before he left in January 2004 to train security forces in Iraq.
Before his departure, Buchanek was quoted in the Victoria Advocate as saying, "I've had the privilege of being an American police officer for 26 years, and I felt like [going to Iraq] was an opportunity to share with people who have never experienced American criminal justice."
Buchanek returned to Victoria in 2005, telling people he had been injured by a bomb, and he was allowed to settle back in as a reserve sheriff's deputy -- a position he held until he was implicated as a potential suspect in Blackwell's death.
She was known as highly energetic and always dependable. So on March 14, when Blackwell failed to show up for a second job at a counseling clinic, friends and co-workers began to worry. Then police discovered evidence suggesting that Blackwell had been forced from her home, leaving one of her two dogs trapped in the garage.
"This was very unusual as Blackwell treated this dog like a child and ... it was considered one of her 'babies,'" said an affidavit later written by police to justify their search of Buchanek's house and car.
The next day, in a field, Blackwell's purse was found. It contained her driver's license, cash, credit cards and cellphone.
"Judging by the exact location of the purse in the field, in relation to the road, it appeared the purse had been discarded from a moving vehicle," the affidavit said.
Then, as panicked family members were printing out missing-person posters, Blackwell's partially clad body was found in the field.
Hours before the dogs were called out, a Victoria police detective went to Buchanek's home after being told that Blackwell had gone out with him.
"Buchanek advised that the last date that he went on with Blackwell was sometime during the end of December 2005," the affidavit said.
That outing was cut short, the report said, when Blackwell began receiving calls from work. The next time Buchanek contacted Blackwell she told him "she had met someone else," according to the affidavit.
It said the detective who conducted the interview was "bothered" because Buchanek seemed "emotionless, had no reaction to the disappearance of Blackwell, did not seem concerned and did not offer to assist in anyway."
On the trail
According to police, Quincy and James Bond, in dog years, are almost as experienced in law enforcement as Buchanek.
"Quincy has been trailing since November 1997. She has run 845 felony trails. ... James Bond has been trailing since November 2004. He has run 100 felony trails," the affidavit said.
The dogs first sniffed clothing samples from Blackwell's body and the rope wrapped around her neck, and then they nosed around the area where her body was found.
"The bloodhounds then began to follow the scent ... directly to the residence of Michael Buchanek," the affidavit said. "The bloodhounds walked up the front walkway ... then alerted on the car in the driveway as well."
Residents in the Cimarron subdivision say they can't believe it -- one neighbor dead, another a suspect.
"He always seemed like a friendly guy, " said Brian Polzin, who lives next door to Buchanek. "He's always waved."
Two blocks away, at the house next to Blackwell's, Sheila Hoffman said, "There's a sadness in the neighborhood, especially on this end of the block.
"I wish it were a nightmare," Hoffman added, fighting back tears. "And I'd wake up. And it was over."

Jack Douglas Jr., (817) 390-7700 jld@star-telegram.com
source: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/14245684.htm