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Two suicide bombings in Russia raise questions about security at Sochi Olympics. 2
The Texas Longhorns faced the Oregon Ducks at the Valero Alamo Bowl. 8
Alamo showdownOlympic safety concerns
TuesdayDecember 31, 2013
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Volume 103, Issue 249
Police seek suspect in woman’s death37-year-old Valerie Jimenez found in car parked on Water Street Monday
The downward spiral
HIGH COST of METH
Coming Wednesday
Editor’s note: This is the third part in a weeklong series on meth and its effects on our community. Read the full series at www.dailytimes.com.
HIGH COST of METH
Your feedbackShare your opinions, information, personal stories with meth and proposed solutions by emailing [email protected].
Woman turns her travails into service to others
On her 34th birthday in 2007, Grace Matuska found herself skinny from constant methamphetamine use and barely able to walk from an untreated infection in her knee. It was the lowest point in her life.
Just a few days earlier, Matuska had asked her mother to finance her admittance to La Hacienda Treatment Center for detox and therapy. But shortly after Matuska’s mother dropped her daughter off at the center, Matuska left with a meth cook from Harper, because all she cared about at that point was getting free drugs and escaping from the chaos of her mind.
Story by Sean [email protected]
Photo by Nathan [email protected]
Matuska recalls waking up on her birthday in a dingy, flea-ridden trailer outside Harper, among other slumbering addicts, to the sound of a neglected puppy crying
somewhere in the home. “I thought, ‘Either me or the dog is dying on my birthday tonight,’”
Matuska said. “I thought back to the 33rd birthday, when I was with my family and nieces, and they were making me a cake and singing, ‘Happy Birthday.’ And here I was now with this puppy crying, or dying, or something. I was just like, ‘How did I get here? This is not who I am, living in filth, doing pretty scary stuff and feeling like I’m dying.”
An underlying problemIn 2007, Matuska was making $50,000 a year as a star manager
of a high-end retail store in Austin, yet even then, she was unable to pay her bills, due to constant partying, alcohol and drug use.
“I was addicted to not feeling the way I was feeling,” Matuska said.
Matuska shares the belief of many local chemical dependency counselors that most drug addicts and alcoholics have an underlying problem even before they begin drinking and using, and chemical dependency often is how people unwittingly self-medicate to treat co-occurring disorders.
Matuska said she has post-traumatic stress disorder, resulting from
Local licensed chemical dependency counselors say people use meth for a variety of reasons but that chronic use can result in psychotic behavior and symptoms including paranoia, hallucinations and delusions, among other side effects.
Vonnie Nealon, counselor at the in-patient Archway Recovery Center in Kerrville, said women often will initially take meth to help stay thin. One of meth’s many side effects is decreased appetite, increased metabolism and variants of the compound have been used to treat obesity.
Bill Barnes, another counselor at Archway, said some people initially use meth to stay more alert and work longer hours. The U.S. Air Force uses a variant of the chemical to help pilots stay awake during long missions, and German soldiers in World War II were known to have been issued a version to aid in combat.
The Hill Country Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, a nonprofit out-patient drug addiction treatment center that receives state funding, recently hired a licensed professional counselor because so many of its clients were exhibiting signs of mental illness.
Why people use meth
➤ Care for inmates: A look at the costs to meet the health care demands for Kerr County jail inmates dealing with drug and alcohol detox.
See Meth, page 12
By Sean BaturaStaff Writer
A 37-year-old Kerrville woman was found dead in a car parked on Water Street Monday, and police are searching for whoever may have killed her.
About 1:20 p.m., police were dispatched to the 1200 block of Water Street after someone reported an unresponsive woman in a parked car. The woman was identified as Valerie Jimenez and she was declared dead on scene by Justice of the Peace Kathy Mitchell who has ordered an autopsy.
Paul Gonzales, police spokesman, said investigators are treating the death as a homicide, although he declined to say exactly how Jimenez is suspected to have been killed, citing a need to protect an ongoing investigation.
“We are working on some leads on a suspect involved in this case,” Gonzales said, but he declined to say more about the person other than he or she lives in Kerr County and no motive is known.
Gonzales said officers likely will be working throughout the night on the case.
Gonzales asked anyone with information about the incident to call police at 257-8181 or Crimestoppers at 896-TIPS (8477) or 877-491-2189. Anonymous tips also can be submitted at www.tipsubmit.com or by text messaging “KERRCRIME” to CRIMES (274637). Crimestoppers guarantees tippers anonymity and offers as much as $5,000 for tips leading to an arrest.
Former city manager headed to Bellaire
From Staff Reports
Former Kerrville city manager Paul Hofmann has been hired to be the city manager of Bellaire, a small city in Harris County within the Houston metropolitan area.
According to reports, Hofmann, 54, was selected for the job ear-lier this month. Hofmann will be required to live in Bellaire, ac-cording to reports.
Hofmann served as city manager of Kerrville from 2005 to 2008. He spent a year working in the private sector before being hired as the city manager of Castroville in 2010.
Prior to coming to Kerrville, Hofmann was assistant city manager in Sugar Land, Alvin city manager and spent 15 years in various administrative posts with the city of Austin.See Recovery, page 12
From Staff Reports
A killer’s releaseLocal families who have children who grew up in the
1980s know the story of convicted child killer Genene Jones all too well, and the latest new is the mandatory early release that could see her go free.
According to the Texas Department of Corrections, Jones is expected to be released in 2018, after serving only 33 years of her 99 year sentence, and could get out sooner with time for good behavior. The early release is under the state law at the time directed at addressing prison overcrowding.
A few years after Jones was sentenced, the laws were changed, and today a jury would have the option of sentencing a murderer to life without parole. That law does not apply to Jones.Jones was convicted of killing 15-month-old Chelsea McClellan and is suspected in the deaths of nearly 50 infants and children, mostly in a San Antonio hospi-tal, and poisoning many more, including six children in Kerrville.
Mooney to soar againFor nearly 62 years, Mooney aircraft rolled off the
assembly line at the Kerrville airport, flying off for ad-ventures and destinations across the globe.
That stopped in 2008 when economic conditions forced the company to mothball operations and lay off more than 400 employees. Planes were left on the fac-tory floor in various states of completion.
Next year, those planes will again be flying high after an investment in the company will kickstart produc-
tions starting in January. For Kerrville, the immediate impact will be 100 new
jobs between now and the beginning of the year. Offi-cials with the company say they will be looking to hire for numerous posts, including many skilled craftsmen who will work assembling new planes.
Arts and Crafts Fair ends 41-year runAfter 41 years as the official Texas State Arts and
Crafts Fair, the foundation that runs the annual event filed court documents to dissolve the organization.
Volunteer members of the foundation said the deci-sion was reached after years of declining attendance and after revenues from the last event left them unable to pay off creditors.
As of the end of the year, the fate of the fair was still unclear after the Hill Country Arts Foundation in Ingram announced it would seek to take over operation of the event; however, the groups plans called to move the fair and possibly change it to a fall event.
Hunt ISD arms teachersHunt Independent School District teachers were giv-
en permission to carry handguns on campus effective May 10.
Hunt and Medina school districts began reviewing concealed handguns in January as a security option fol-lowing the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in New-town, Conn.
Teachers are required to have a CHL to possess a gun on campus, but anyone wanting to carry a firearm
A look back at some of the top headlines of 2013Year in Review
Mooney aircraft sit unfinished in the Mooney facility at the Kerrville Airport campus. The plane manufacturer is expected to resume production next year.
See Year, page 12