Curiouser and Curiouser

Well, we knew the Tanya Kach case was going to get stranger as more details emerged. Claims and counter-claims are now flying back and forth, and it's hard to know who to believe.

But in stories last week by Jonathan Silver and others in the Post-Gazette, you could almost see the defense strategy emerging for her accused abductor, Thomas Hose:

• According to Silver, Kach had a reputation for being "sassy" and "argumentative," and was "reputed to have a penchant for older men."
• Contradictory reports in the same story paint the victim as both "naive" about the outside world, yet aware that she was listed on Web sites for missing children.
• Another man who was investigated in connection with Kach's disappearance in 1996 claims that he told police that she had "the biggest crush" on Hose.
• "For a woman said to have been hidden and held against her will for nearly a decade, Tanya Kach was visible to many in her neighborhood and downtown McKeesport during the past 10 months," wrote Silver and Cindi Lash in a story for the P-G on Saturday.
• Silver and Lash say Kach went shopping at the Foodland on Fifth Avenue and the drug store at the corner of Versailles Avenue and Evans Street, attended high school games with Hose, got her nails down at a nearby salon and talked to the mailman.
• And Kach's attorney now claims that former mayoral candidate Bob Sokol (ex-husband of the hairdresser accused of altering Kach's appearance to conceal her identity) sometimes drove Kach and Hose around.

I hate to make light of this tragedy, which is touching dozens of people and has the potential to ruin several lives, but I suspect it's moving into the realm of farce for many people.

I was originally thinking that this was a Lifetime Movie Event, but now, I'm not so sure. I think it could easily go on a network now. Maybe we should work on the casting next. (I'm thinking Perry King and Britney Spears in her first dramatic role.)

I can also imagine the liability suits that might soon be flying back and forth. Hose will be sued for allegedly holding Kach; the school district will be sued for employing Hose; the hairdresser will be sued in connection with her alleged role; and maybe Foodland will be sued for not stocking, "Help! I'm being held hostage" greeting cards.

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Eh, look on the bright side. Lots of good things are happening, too. Despite the cold weather of the last few days, spring is upon us, and the daffodils and tulips are starting to come out.

And the trees are budding in Renzie Park, where the kids will be hunting Easter eggs this Saturday, and catching trout in Lake Emilie the following Saturday. The first "lunch on the lawn" event of the year is only about a month away at Kelly Park across from the Masonic Temple. Things could be worse.

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In other local news: The tiny Ardara post office along Route 993 in North Huntingdon Township is indefinitely closed after someone tried to make it a drive-through last Thursday.

According to Paul Paterra in the Trib, a car collided with a school bus and then took out three of the four support poles holding up the front of the post office. No one was seriously hurt, but post-office boxes have been moved to the Larimer post office, also on Route 993.

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Finally, I was saddened to learn of the death of a former supervisor of mine, Dave Miller, recently retired from the Tribune-Review as a news editor. Another former colleague, Jen Reeger, turned in a fine tribute that must have been hard to write, since she also worked for Dave for several years.

You meet a lot of really cynical, unhappy people in the news business, but I don't think I ever heard Dave say an unkind word about anyone, or ever be cruel or nasty with a reporter.

Despite something like 40 years in the news business when I first met him, Dave was also still very, very capable of getting excited when you pitched a good local story to him --- and he asked great questions. My last week at the paper was the week of the terrorist attacks of September 2001, and Dave put in hours as long as anyone's.

I wasn't able to make it to the funeral home yesterday afternoon, but my deepest sympathies go out to his wife. Requiescat in pace, Dave.