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Show Sunday, September 7. 2003 m State Old-scho- Tom Wharton ' - TH KANOSH tomer by name. After one rings up a customer's order, I notice that she pulls out a well-use- d metal file box and writes something on the card. Amazed, I ask if the Kanosh Mercantile still offers longtime customers credit the way. The answer is a lot of penny candy. When the bananas get old, we sometimes give them away and people bring us back banana bread." Ponton and Rachelle Perkins are working behind the counter on this Tuesday morning. A number of small electrical appliances are perched on the shelf above their heads, providing just about anything anyone might need. That includes an eclectic mix of items from fresh produce to fountain drinks, from bolo ties to ammunition. There are pens, birthday cards, cowboy hats, toys, clocks, frozen goods, watches, school supplies, cooking utensils, pocket knives and video rentals. "We have about everything," said Perkins, This is a country farm store. ... It is a community gathering place. The men gather here every morning. We get quite the history." "If you want to know anything about this town, come into the store," added Ponton. Workers seem to know every cus seO ASSOCIATED PRESS The fire alarm stood on the shelf next to toe curling iron in the Kanosh Mercantile. Their position in the little store wi Main and Center in this small Millard County town could have been an accident. But judging from the wide variety of merchandise on the main floor and in the basement, little is left to happen- The mercantile is more than 100 years old and remains a throwback to the days before invaded rural America and put many p shops out of business. Children ride their bicycles to the steps of the white-frame-d building to buy penny candy. Farmers head downstairs to the cement basement where they can find all sorts of hardware and plumbing supplies, no doubt a kitchen sink or two. I did not see a sink down there in the midst of the garden supplies and fertiliz- Wal-Mar- ts mom-and-po- v "We have about everything. This is a country farm store. ... It is a community gathering place." Rachelle Perkins Kanosh Mercantile employee er, the rubber boots, duct tape, windshield wipers, paint, caulk, door knobs, toilets, tomato cages, tiles, farm tools, pipe, sprinkler heads and shovels, but I bet one of the store's friendly employees could have found one if I needed it. ' While shopping downstairs, you can hear footsteps on the creaky, dark' and well-wor-n wooden floors above. Country music plays softly in the background. "All the local people shop here," said employee Diane Ponton. "A lot of people don't drive or can't afford to drive. We get a lot of kids here in the summer. We ASSOCIATED PRESS BRIGHAM CITY More than 300 suspects later, the Box Elder Sheriffs office is no closer to closing a 1984 murder case. Investigators say they have examined hundreds of suspects and leads but haven't yet found enough evidence to charge anyone in the murder of : Brad Perry. , I would like to see that happen at Wal-Ma- hoped-fo- r BWi.lr,.jl.,.p,. Susan Levine WASHINGTON Over the years prosecutors narrowed the suspect pool , down to five people including a man who was charged with obstruction of justice after telling family members on a jail phone to quiet key witnesses. But the tapes were not al-lowed in court because of a change in the law and the charges were dropped. The statute of limitations nev I.U. ; which can't be closed without some kind of legal resolution. "cold Even unsolved, cases" are considered open. Perry's mother is doubtful justice wiU be served. "I doubt very much they will (file charges)," Claudia Perry said. "Without phy sical evidence not much will get done. Unless something else happens, it's over." THE ASSOCIATED PRESS . . half-doze- Zion park hilccr found dead THE ASSOCIATED ing Friday night when he did PRESS ZION NATIONAL PARK The body of a climber was found in a canyon at Zion National Park on Saturday, park officials reported. The climber had a permit t o descend Behunin Canyon on Friday. Friends reported him miss not return as expected. Searchers began looking for the man early Saturday. His body was spotted by helicopter around nooa He had apparently died in a tVia Matinnal Dark Marvin fall . r M .1.11, ..A. W4WIMH said. v His name and hometown A were not released. 1 , 1 rt. er runs out on murder cases, v - .J.- MOAB A narcotics task force in southern Utah has ' made its biggest drug bust ever with the arrest of 23 people in the Moab area. Authorities say the accused ran a marijuana and methamphet amine distribution ring. The suspects are in the Grand County jail awaiting " felony charges. ; n law enforce-- ; A ment agencies worked on the case for a year. Their work wrapped up r with the arrests early Friday morning. Task force agents say they have Warrants for additional suspects who eluded Friday's dragnet. j Of course, the Kanosh Mercantile does not advertise "always low" prices. And it is only open from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday.1 The store 6b-- . serves the Sabbath, staying closed on Sunday. Notices are pasted on the store's outside window, not far from where a row of mail boxes or newspaper holders hang on the south wall. One particular sign catches my eye: "Free Quackers: Muscovy Ducks." Residents may hot be able to purchase live animals at the Kanosh Mercantile, but it's nice to know that "free quack-- , ere" are available somewhere else in ' town. row inmate hears the words: We found killer Ex-dea- th THE But the case is still under investigation, County Attorney Amie Hugie said Friday. Hugie said she has asked investigators to check out other leads, and while there may not be enough evidence to charge anyone now, that could change. : Perry was stabbed 15 times with a screwdriver and his skull was crushed while he was at the family gas station in 1984. ' ' yes.. Sheriffs office frustrated with 1984 murder case THE Drug task ! force finishes investigation! Millard County store survives modern pressures ol POST At a Burger King on Maryland's Eastern Shore Friday, Kirk Bloodsworth sat down with the prosecutor who helped send him to death row for the rape and murder of a girl Nearly two . decades later, Ann Brobst told him, DNA had identified the man who had really done it. "We got a hit on a guy," he remembers hearing, in the immeasurable fraction of a moment before he began weep-inrealizing the words' import, realizing that the state at last considered him a completely imicicmt mm Beside him, his wife, Brenda, broke down and wept, too. "You know how long IVe waited to hear you say that?" Bloodsworth asked Brobst, who twice persuaded a jury to convict him of Dawn Hamilton's brutal death and who Friday apologized for how that had shattered his life. But there was more. The sus; pect, Brobst went on, is already in prison in Maryland, senhalfway through a r tence for burglary, attempted rape and assault with intent to murder. His name: Kimberfy Shay Ruffner. "My God," Bloodsworth said, "I know him." In a plot twist few involved could have imagined, the Baltimore County state's attorney's office now believes the killer in the 1984 slaying has been bidding behind bars since a month after the crime. Prosecutors announced Friday that Ruffner, 45, had been identified by a stain of semen analyzed for the first time this spring and then entered into state and federal DNA databases. It was the same kind of evidence that in 1993 led to Bloodsworth's ex- oneration after almost nine years of incarceration. During several of those years, he and Ruffner lived only one floor and a couple of cells apart tatte state's maxi-- ; y - i v ; ' g, . 45-yea- - . ANDREA BRUCE WOODAUThe Washington Post was wrongly convicted in a 1984 slaying. Prosecutors believe the killer is a Maryland prison inmate. Kirk Bloodsworth mum security prison in Jessup. "He lifted weights with us," Bloodsworth said. "I spotted weights for him." The two never talked about why Bloodsworth was in prison, but the former Marine and Eastern Shore waterman is sure Ruffner knew. From the day of his arrest, Bloodsworth maintained loudly and vigorously that he had no involvement, that he had been nowhere near the woods, just east of the Baltimore line, where the girl disappeared in July 1984. Two boys fishing in the area that morning told police they had seen her walking.with a strange man. After a suspect's composite was publicized, a hotline tipster suggested that police check out Bloodsworth, who recently had moved up from Cambridge to try to save a failing marriage. He was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death His sentence was overturned in 1987, but he was convicted again and given life without parole. After his pardon and release his was the first DNA exoneration in this country of someone who had been on death row a growing cadre of supporters urged Baltimore Coun- - - Benjamin Clark enjoys some ice crtam during I the annual The delay in doing so, coupled with prosecutors' repeated hedging on Bloodsworth's innocence, infuriated many. Friday, those supporters exulted with him. "It must be a huge burden lifted," said Peter Loge of the Criminal Washington-baseJustice Reform Education Fund, a group Bloodsworth has worked with as an outspoken death penalty opponent. At the same time, Loge focused on the "troubling questions" the case continues to raise. "The data was there," he said "Why wasn't it run before? What if it had already been destroyed? ... This speaks to the broader reform that is needed, laws requiring DNA evidence (to be taken) and requiring its preservation and testing." But on Aug. 28, 19 years to the day after Ruffner was arrested after trying to rape a young woman in the Fells Point section of Baltimore, the state police reported back that they had found a positive match for Hamilton's killer. Tnvvery happy that the case is solved," O'Connor said. ; cSkep Cenfcp 150 S. State Liridon 785-28- 41 Air' I 50 years experience making Utah homes beautiful. The latest in BYU Sports online New and replacement windows Custom hardwood doors Custom Moldings & Trim Interior Hardware it our low prices... Haircut-$8.5- 0 L Color-$29.9- 5 .'. t 227-030- 3 OREM 1277 S. 800 224-328- 4 OXEM 882 N. State Street . , E. PLEASANT GROVE 314 State ....785-310- 0 374-002- 4 PR0V0 350 N. 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