Hotmail
The crossbow incident
When a woman is killed by an arrow, her husband insists it was an accident
 | Video |
 |
Dateline NBC |
Sign up for the newsletter |
|
It is, need it be said, beyond bizarre, the sort of scrapes people get themselves into. Odd accidents, freakish, improbable. Lightning striking twice... Still, it does happen, doesn't it? Though sometimes, in the wounded wake of an incident especially strange, a question darkens the mind: Was it really an accident?
Take, for example, this, on a warm sunny day in October, 2006, in a sweet little town by the sea. Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Robert Katz: She came in the store and was kind of chuckling about it.
Robert Katz owns a jewelry store in Virginia Beach. He and Charlene, his wife, are transplanted New Yorkers, and close friends of the injured party.
Robert Katz: 'She says, "He tried to shoot me with a crossbow." I said, "You're kidding." And she goes, "nah." And I said, "Really? What are you talking about?"
Shot with a crossbow and she was smiling?
The customer whose lighthearted remark so confused Jeweler Katz was a woman: Anna Creamer. The shooter, her husband, Kenny. The location of this unfortunate mishap: the two-car garage at the front of the Creamers’ comfortable suburban home.
Robert Katz: And she said, "No, it was an accident. And he was trying to load it or something, and the thing went off." And it grazed her evidently. And she said, "It's nothing. I put a Band-aid on it. Don't worry about it. It's fine."
The whole business was little more than embarrassing, really. Anna said she didn't want to go to the hospital. It was Kenny who apparently panicked, called 911... There was a rush to the hospital to treat a small wound, just a nick, really, on side of her breast; two or three stitches.
But of course, on that 911 call, authorities heard the word 'crossbow,' and so down here at the hospital, Kenny found himself in the company of Virginia Beach's finest.
|
Robert Katz: And then he got arrested. So. (laughter) And then she wouldn't press charges. It was ridiculous. He didn't try to shoot me, come on, it was an accident. And... End of conversation. I mean, and he was released.
They'd bought the crossbow together, for recreation, Anna told them. And they'd both tried it out, but after that close call, they were getting rid of it.
Robert Katz: He was giving it to his wife to give to another one of the other teachers she worked with. And, you know, get rid of it.
But of course, the Katz's couldn't have any idea back then what would soon happen to that crossbow... and their good friends, the Creamers. Especially, said their friends, when they thought about what lovely people the Creamers were, what a loving couple.
The Katzes: I mean they just seemed good together. He worshipped the ground this girl walked on. I mean they just, they, they kind of loved each other. (laughs) And it, it would show.
The Creamers were quite a bit younger than the Katz's, but, as transplanted New Yorkers, had a lot to share.
Charlene Katz: They were like as close as family could be without being family.
Robert Katz: They were there, you know, Christmastime, you know, for dinner. They were there, Thanksgiving, they were at our house.
They brought the boy, of course. He was 11 then. And the light of their lives. He was shy. He had a few learning issues perhaps. A little trouble socializing. But, oh, how the Creamers doted on that boy.
Charlene Katz: Oh, he was the sweetest thing.
Robert Katz: Adorable.
Charlene Katz: He was brilliant.
Kenny and his son were virtually inseparable. Kenny even turned up most days at his son's school to have lunch with the boy. Just because the child seemed to need it.
Kim Choate: I thought it was absolutely wonderful, to be quite honest.
|
Kim Choate was a friend of the Creamers, too. And her own son was also shy, so she understood and appreciated Kenny's constant presence at school.
Kim Choate: And he'd bring stuff in, and made him laugh and smile all the time. And he welcomed my son. A relationship that actually just - it kept growing.
Kenny was an insurance agent till he went on disability after a car accident, so he was the stay at home dad. Anna taught school - had to work - so Kim saw her at... Well, she can explain where.
Kim Choate: I had started a Bunko group about eight years ago.
Keith Morrison, Dateline Correspondent: What's a Bunko group?
Kim Choate: (laughs) Bunko is like a dice game. It’s where a bunch of women get together and you talk stuff about the husbands and stuff, you know? (laughs)
That's how Kim heard the story - from Anna herself - that the first incident was purely an accident, involving not her husband, but her son. That it was the boy who handed the crossbow to her.
Kim Choate: She told me that they had gotten the bow and everything, and Avery was handing the bow to her. And she didn't grab it quick enough. And the bow hit and the bow went off.
Keith Morrison: So she blamed herself and it wasn't her son's fault.
Kim Choate: No, no, no, absolutely not. You know, I can't even imagine, you know, a child even thinking that they almost hurt their mom- and they did.
Most of Anna's stories were happy back then, said Kim. Like the one about their wedding. Kenny had a way of doing things with flair. When he and Anna got married, he put on a giant, fairy tale wedding.
He actually rented Jackie Onassis's yacht for the reception.
Kim Choate: She never had anything negative to say about kenny. I've always thought that they had a perfect marriage.
But... you know and I know that nobody's perfect. No marriage is ideal. Sometimes, with a little distance, you see things.
Randall Howes: We weren't friends. We were neighbors. That's how I like to put it.
Right next door to the Creamers, no more than a couple of tract house walls and a strip of grass apart, lived a man who saw the Creamers through a less rosy lens.
This is Randall Howes. Retired naval officer. And, well, it was something about the chemistry with Anna. Wasn't good. Especially after an altercation over Howes’ dogs.
Randall Howes: And she said, 'Your dogs, they bark, bark, bark, bark.' And then she got really mad. And so I said, 'Ok, Anna, we're not going to have this conversation right now. And I turned and walked away. And that made her really mad. And after that, I never spoke to her.
So there was tension across that strip of grass. And then Howes got the idea that maybe Ken had some trouble with Anna's temper, too. Since Ken gave Howes the cold shoulder when Anna was around, but was friendly to him when she wasn't.
Randall Howes: He asked me what the problem was with his wife. I said, 'So what I do is I just ignore her.' So he said, 'It’s probably the best thing,’ cause he said 'she has a hair trigger.'
But the Creamers did seem to get along, said Howes. Except for that one time, when he overheard all that yelling.
Randall Howes: Got her in car, started it up, started to back out. And saying 'Mommy don't go, don't go, you don't have to go.’
Still, everybody has fights sometimes. So, it hardly seemed likely that this neighbor - and what he saw - were about to move centerstage in our strange drama. Because of what happened on another fine morning, a Sunday it was, about three months after that bizarre crossbow accident.
Almost beyond belief, really. And, if you haven't guessed already, the reason we're telling you all this. What did we say? Lightning striking twice?
- Discuss Story On Newsvine
-
Rate Story:
View popularLowHigh - Instant Message
MORE FROM CRIME STORIES |
 Crime stories Section Front |
| Add Crime stories headlines to your news reader: |
Sponsored links
Resource guide