St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page B001

JOIN US ONLINE STLTODAY.COMMETRO E-MAIL US COMMUNITY A LOOK BACK For six lean years of the Depression, mayor's party was a holiday tradition. Page B2 YEAR IN REVIEW obituaries of note in the st. louis area in 2010, page bs Shocking attacks at ABB inc. Disgruntled worker killed his boss and two others in one of several major crimes; hopes were raised for a redesigned Arch ground and progress in other downtown projects. Family is tormented by mystery Teen disappeared in 1995; man believed to be abductor died in '08.

FROM STAFF REPORTS ARCH REDESIGN NOW HAS A DESIGN Decades of yearning for a better link between downtown and the Gateway Arch SMOKING UNDER ATTACK Kirkwood's new ban on smoking in indoor public places took effect on Jan. 2, and on July 1, Clayton joined in with its new ban. Lake Saint Louis followed suit on Oct. 1. During the year, city boards in Brentwood and Creve Coeur also approved bans to take effect in January 2011.

Also kicking in then are St. Louis' new ban and a countywide prohibition in St. Louis County. Meanwhile, supporters of a ban in O'Fallon, turned in enough signatures in November to trigger a citywide vote in April. BY LEAH THORSEN 636-937-6249 UNION Mary Klein remembers exactly what her 14-year-old daughter, Jessica Kinsey, wore the last day she saw her.

Her straight hair was pulled back in a pony-tail. She wore new dark green Levi's jeans with a green sweatshirt over a white turtleneck. inspired a design competition to create sweeping changes in the riverfront park. Boosters created CityArchRiver2015 to oversee the competition, with a goal of completing work by Oct. 28, 2015, FILE PHOTO MVVA's winning design features a widened cobblestone levee and a landscaped lid over Interstate 70.

the 50th anniversary of topping the Arch. On Sept. 22, the group announced that its judges had chosen MVVA, headed by Michael Van Valkenburgh, from 49 entries. MVVA is preparing a budget, due in January. Plans include a landscaped lid over Interstate 70, a widened cobblestone levee and trails through wetlands on the East St.

Louis riverfront. Jessica Kinsey ABB SHOOTING LEAVES FOUR DEAD It was a frigid morning with blowing snow when Timothy Hendron arrived at work at ABB at 4350Semple Avenue in St. Louis, and opened fire with some of the four weapons he carried. His more than 100 It was Dec. 26, 1995.

Jessica, a seventh-grader, left that morning to spend the day at a friend's house. She was supposed to call at 5 p.m to let her mother know whether she'd be home for dinner. She didn't call. By the time Klein realized her daughter was gone, Jessica had left the state with a 23-year-old man named Jimmy Hopkins. His travels would take him to Tennessee and California before he returned to Missouri, without Jessica.

Fifteen years later, her mother still prays every day that Jessica will come home. A FILE PHOTO A person is brought out on a gurney from the ABB Inc. building on Jan. 7 in St. Louis.

GOP WINS SENATE SEATS IN MISSOURI, ILLINOIS Jimmie Hopkins shots killed three people including Cory Wilson, his boss and wounded five at the sprawling electrical transformer plant. Co-workers knew the 30-year ABB employee resented management, but Hendron, 51, of Webster Groves, killed himself without revealing exactly what made him snap. Republicans, taking advantage of voter unrest, took the top two prizes Nov. 2 in Missouri and Illinois, with Roy Blunt in Missouri and Mark Kirk in Illinois winning open U.S. Senate seats.

(Kirk's win was for the seat formerly held by President BarackObama.) FIDELIS DECLARES BANKRUPTCY; OWNERS ARE FILE PHOTO U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, gives a thumbs-up after casting his ballot. Democrats took solace by keeping the governor's mansion in Illinois. Pat Quinn won a close contest that wasn't decided for three days.

In Missouri, Republicans won a record 106 seats in the House. SUED After halting sales of its controversial extended auto-service contracts in December 2009, Wentzville-based US Fidelis filed for bankruptcy on March 1. After creditors pored over the company's books and found little money, an independent FILE PHOTO Darain Atkinson's mansion on Lake Saint Louis was auctioned in November for $4.75 million. GATEWAY INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY CLOSES Gateway International, opened to great promise in 1997, faltered when Indycar owners removed the track in Madison from their schedule. It survived on stock car and drag races but never landed a top-tier NASCAR event.

Parking was poor at the cramped site, along Interstate 55-70 at Route 203, and courts nixed a plan to condemn neighboring land to expand. With the recession gutting fans' wallets, owners locked the gates Nov. 3 and put the place upforsale. management team sued the firm's owners brothers Darain and Cory Atkinson -accusing them of pilfering more than $101 million. In September, the brothers agreed to a settlement requiring them to surrender virtually their entire fortunes.

An investigation into possible criminal wrongdoing continues. Union police detective still has a big box of police reports relating to her disappearance, but he lacks any leads that might tell him where she is. "I don't want to believe my daughter's dead, but it's easier than believing that she's being hurt and I can't help her," Klein said. TRAIL GONE COLD Police learned that Hopkins had paid another man, Mark Henderson, to drive them away on the day she disappeared. Hopkins told Henderson that he and Jessica were going to Niagara Falls to get married, police reports say.

But Henderson said Jessica only sat quietly in the back seat with her head down. They stayed in a hotel in Cloverdale, that night Henderson in one room, Jessica and Hopkins in the room next door. Henderson told detectives that he heard loud noises coming from their room that sounded like a body hitting the wall, police reports say. When he knocked on their door to ask what happened, Hopkins dismissed it as "rough sex," the report says. When Henderson awoke the next morning, Hopkins and Jessica were gone.

So was his car. Later that day, Hopkins pawned his grandmother's wedding ring 300 miles away in Paris, Tenn. Less than two weeks later, the car was found abandoned in Compton, Calif. Detectives learned that Hopkins worked at an ice cream shop not far from there and interviewed people who said they had seen a girl matching Jessica's description with him. "We believe she made it to California," said Lt.

Kyle Kitcher, the Union detective assigned to the case for the last six years. But they don't know what happened to her next. In April of 1996, Hopkins returned to Missouri. He bounced around in the following years, spending time in Union and Joplin. Police reports say Hopkins gave police and his family members varying accounts of where Jessica was, including one story that she was living with a man named Capone somewhere in California.

He said they were living in a hotel that police learned didn't exist. Jessica's mother said Hopkins taunted her, even shouting across parking lots that Jessica was dead and she should get over it. Kitcher kept track of Hopkins and approached him at least once a year in the hope of getting him to talk. Hopkins always demanded a lawyer and refused to say anything, Kitcher said. See KINSEY Page B4 ALISA MAIER ABDUCTED, THEN FOUND OLIN MOVES EAST ALTON JOBS The Olin Corp.

promised seven years of job security to ammunition makers in East Alton if they would accept a pay freeze and reduced benefits two years into their three-year contract. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers members rejected it Nov. 2 in a 593-470 vote. The next day, the company announced it would move 1,000 jobs to its Oxford, plant, in a right-to-work state. The transition might take years, the company said.

Olin was expected to keep its 800 chemical division workers in East Alton. Everybody in the St. Louis region was looking for a missing girl after 4-year-old Alisa Maier disappeared July 5 from her front yard in Louisiana, Mo. But it was the discovery of what seemed to be a little boy 26 hours later in Fenton that got her back. The kidnapper PROGRESS MADE ON BALLPARK VILLAGE, KIEL FILE PHOTO Roy Harrison holds his 4-year-old granddaughter Alisa Maier after she was found.

had changed Alisa's appearance and freed her. Evidence led to convicted sex offender Paul S. Smith, who killed himself at home in Hawk Point as police closed in. Detectives also linked him to the murder of a businessman in Hawk Point during one of a series of burglaries. One long-awaited downtown project gets a new promise, anotherfinally gets started on a renovation.

On Dec. 3, Cardinals president Bill DeWitt III said the club had arranged financing for Ballpark Village, subject to tax subsidies. The development was promised 10 years ago ATM SOLUTIONS HEIST FILE PHOTO Mayor Francis Slay (left) gets a progress report on the renovation of the old Kiel Opera House. in the pitch for the new Busch Stadium. No date has yet been set for construction.

But work is under way in old Kiel Opera House, where curtains fell in 1991. On July 12, Blues owner Dave Checketts completed a $79 million deal to restore it. The deal includes money from Peabody Energy which bought renaming rights. Four masked men overpowered two guards at ATM Solutions before dawn, hauling an estimated $9 million in cash from the office at 3721 Grandel Square in St. Louis' biggest cash holdup.

The next day, police caught a man with $1.25 million in his car trunk, beginning a series of arrests of A DIFFERENT VIEW More photos and story on PageB3 LAST OF THE TOW CASE SENTENCINGS FILE PHOTO Heavily armed officers approach a house along Page Boulevard near Sarah Avenue. potential suspects who were held on other charges. One escaped from jail and was recaptured. Later, two teens said to be related to a robber were kidnapped for ransom and released unhurt. Three people have been charged with hiding ATM loot but no one has been charged with the heist itself.

Cop-gone-bad Kevin Shade was last of four men sentenced in the case of Parking Systems, a company accused of cheating the city and owners and buyers of cars impounded for police, and bribing at least one officer. Prosecutors said the investigation collapsed when Shade FILE PHOTO Lawyer Sanford Boxerman (left), with William Bialczak (center) and his brother, Ken Bialczak. BLAGOJEVICH CONVICTED OF LYING TO FEDS Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat who had been indicted in a corruption scandal that led to his impeachment, was convicted Aug. 17 in federal court in Chicago of one count of lying to investigators.

A jury deadlocked on 23 other corruption allegations. Although a majority of jurors voted to convict Blagojevich on most of the counts, one juror refused to go along, saying that although Blagojevich seems "rambling" and "narcissistic," he didn't seem guilty to her. The government plans to retry him in early 2011. stopped helping the FBI. He got 27 months in prison for fraud, tow company manager Gregory P.

Shepard got 10 months for fraud and bribery, and company owners William and Kenneth Bialczakgotayeareach for tax evasion. Questions remained about whether other police officers took bribes or favors. DAWN MAJORS A North County image captured on an iPhone 4. 1 7j ONLY $99 -f (regularly $199) 140 lbs in 40 Days Dr. Williams hCG Waist Loss Program s'0 $1000:: Final Two Days Sale ends December 27, 2010 Get a start on your New Year's Resolutions www.doctorsdietsolution.com (use coupon code: Christmas) Also Available at our office location.

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