Dennis Murphy Correspondent • Profile

MOUNT CLEMENS, MICH. - In the front of the mom-and-pop comic book shop were bins of the fantasies: Spidey, Hulk and X-Men. In the storage space in back was the ugly reality.

One of the shop owners -- the woman – was on the floor, ominously still.

No super-hero had come to her aid, just some customers. Regulars.

Lenora Ward: Most of the time we were there on Friday nights.

It was a Friday the 13th a long time ago, July 1990, when Tom and Lenora Ward walked into the suburban Detroit strip mall shop to browse for their usual, a new comic, to be followed by dinner out.

The lady in the shop, Barb, always made comic-buying a pleasure.

Lenora Ward: She knew our names. Immediately when we would walk in, she would light up with a smile. Many times, she would actually come around the counter to greet us.

But not on this early evening, just after 6 p.m. Tom and Lenora had thumbed through the bins and found their comic, but no one was there to take their money, not Barb or her husband Michael, the co-owner. Some teenagers in the shop weren't being waited on either.

Tom Ward: It wasn't uncommon that someone wouldn't be at the cash register. But this was a longer than normal time. So we thought we would stick around, just to make sure, you know, because we liked her.

The teenage customers were itchy to go. They peeked into the back room. They were the first to see Barb.

Lenora Ward: They cried out, "There's somebody back here." And at that time, Tom and I rushed to the back storage area and found Barb -- on the floor.

Tom Ward: We thought she perhaps had fallen backwards and hit her head.

Lenora Ward: I noticed that she was blue around her mouth. Her pupils were dilated and big. And I could not find a pulse.

Lenora happened to be a nurse and took charge. She noticed only a small amount of blood and concluded that Barb had suffered a heart attack or a seizure. She told her husband to call 911, while she began administering CPR.

Lenora Ward: I had never done CPR on someone that I knew and loved. It was, "Please God, let this be OK. She's a mother."

As the ambulance rushed Barb to the hospital, Lenora Ward felt she'd done her professional best, but she wasn't at all sure her prayers would be answered.

Lenora Ward: I knew that she was medically in dire straits.

The woman rushed into the emergency room that evening was 32-year-old Barbara George. She'd put on weight after having the two children, but she was physically fit, an enthusiastic softball and volleyball player.

Doctors and nurses began working feverishly to get a pulse, thumping the woman's chest in rapid bursts.

But after 15 minutes, it was all over. A doctor pronounced Barb George dead. It fell to the nurse to clean up the body for the family to view. That's when she saw it.

Kris Kehoe, ER nurse: when we were straightening up her hair-- we noticed some blood on the top of her head. I noticed there was a small hole. My first thought as a nurse was there had to be a bullet hole there.

The nurse notified the Clinton Township Police Department, where the dead woman's shop was located. The police called on a very surprised pair of comic book fans: Tom and Lenora Ward.

Lenora Ward: There was a detective that came to our house. And said, "You know, please I have something to talk to you about. Because Barbara had been shot in the head." And --

Tom Ward: And our jaws just dropped.

Lenora Ward: We just -- we were shocked.

Tom Ward: We just couldn't believe it.

Lenora Ward: We were shocked. Barbara shot in the head. It didn't seem like it could happen to such a good person.

Barbara George had been shot to death.

And her friends and family still arriving at the comic book shop that night were unaware that Barb's planned surprise birthday party for her husband Michael, amidst his cherished Marvel and Action comics, wasn't going to happen.

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