November 15, 2009
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Spooky Foreshadowing
…or maybe just a simple case of premeditated suicide by cop.
It’s a two-part story. The second part occurred in the Wasilla area yesterday, November 14. A man called 911 and said that Nora Jean York, “out of control,” had been threatening him with a shotgun. State Troopers responded.
According to Troopers,
During the call, dispatchers could hear York talking in the background as she walked in and out of the room. “(She) threatened several times that, now that he had called the police, she was going to try to get the cops to kill her,”
…
When troopers arrived at the cabin… York was already outside with a shotgun in her hands. Troopers could see a semi-automatic handgun in her pocket.York refused to put down the guns. Troopers tried three times to zap her with Tasers, but seconds later she pointed the shotgun toward two troopers, Holloway said.
Troopers fired on her at 2:15 a.m. as she stood on the porch. York was pronounced dead at the scene.
The other part of the story began for reporter Julia O’Malley about six weeks previously and fifty miles or so away in Anchorage, while running on the Coastal Trail, when she noticed that something new had been added to a trailside cross.It sits at the head of a small rock-covered mound on the other side of a chain-link fence near a city sewer building. It carries three names. The first two seem like pets: “Missy, 1977-1992, Gone but not forgotten;” “Missy Too, 1996-2009, a special baby, RIP.”The last is different. It says “Nora Jean York, 1951-2009,” written in permanent marker. Underneath that, it says, “ALONE.”
I visited the cross six weeks ago on a day when thick fog hung over the inlet. I could tell someone had been there recently. A daisy had been placed on the mound.
Later that day, I searched for an obituary for Nora Jean York but found none. I tried a couple of phone numbers but they didn’t work. I put her name in a public records database. Little came up except a name change record from 1993. That wouldn’t have been a big deal except Nora Jean York used to have a male name, Johnnie Uhl. It appeared she was born a man, but some time in the early ’90s began living as a woman.
Julia O’Malley investigated further and turned up more info on Johnnie Uhl/Nora York, that goes further toward explaining her fatal Saturday morning confrontation with Alaska State Troopers than does any of the information released by Trooper spokesmen. It can be found here.
Comments (14)
That is one god damn scary story, SuSu.
I wonder what the man in the wheelchair who was disabled from a war, would have to say about all of this.
Sad story, alone.
What a sad commentary.
How terribly sad.
@forwhomthebelsentolls - He is apparently the one who called the troopers. I suppose that someone will eventually interview him and we’ll learn more.
Wasilla seems to get a lot of media attention. Do unusual people congregate there?
R I P
The ending doesn’t satisfy my curiosity about what led up to this. I hope there’s more info to follow, some how, some day.
Maybe she wrote it?
How very sad.
Hello SuSu,
I don’t visit your site often, don’t write on my own often really. I couldn’t sleep, got online. There was no reason I can think of that I decided to visit your blog just now.
I am deeply moved by this story. God bless the reporter who wrote it up and saw that it was a story that needed to be investigated, checked out, and told. I have no doubt that Nora Jean/Johnnie was ready, past ready, to go. Most people who are suicidal fight those feelings for a long time before they finally act on them. I sit here and think…what finally breaks a spirit is exactly that, that one word…”ALONE”. If not physically alone, then isolated in suffering, or not understood, not seen or noticed.
There was a lady in our small town who died a few years ago. She had been in an abusive marriage for many years. When she was finally somehow able to extricate herself from that marriage and situation, she was alone, no children, no family, and no real friends. Her husband had effectively isolated her and taken any self-confidence from her long ago.
The first job she got was a babysitting job, caring for a baby while the parents were at work during the day. She had never worked outside the home, no college degree. I knew the grandmother of this baby very well. She later told me that they’d all become very fond of this lady, had all thought her a wonderful person.
One day, as normal, she put the baby down for a nap. She was in the habit of checking frequently…when she went back, the baby had died. It was ruled a SIDS death.
Exactly two weeks to the day after the baby had passed away, this precious lady, whose name I never knew…whose name too many people never knew! died at home. Her doctor was in our adult Sunday school class at church. His voice broke as he said that in his opinion, she had died purely of a broken heart. He said that she had blamed herself for the baby’s death. The family of the baby was so overwhelmed in their own fresh grief that they had withdrawn.
How can any of us learn about people who are reaching that point of desperation…after tragedies in my own life in the past year, I too have felt desperate and alone, but even tonight I had very, very kind comments left for me on my blog…each one made a difference for me tonight. So many people in our town bewailed the death of that poor lady. Many said they wished they had known of her situation.
If we keep our eyes open and pray for paths to cross, then we can all help each other…no one should ever, ever feel that alone. I will pray and light a candle for the soul of Nora York. I’m so glad that you posted this story. Maybe it will save a life, who knows.
@guypithecus - I don’t think the people in Wasilla are any more interesting or unusual than in the rest of Alaska. It is one of the biggest towns in Southcentral Alaska and Sarah Palin’s hometown. The latter accounts for most of its recent publicity. I mention it frequently because my Old Fart has his business there, and it is where I go to shop.
Kathy, you may not know that I see it this way, but you were there for me when I felt very alone. I look back now and those seem like very dark but distant days when I kept trying to make sense out of nonsense and you, of course, knew that was impossible.
I think your writer was right about crossing paths. Sometimes those paths are obvious and sometimes not. I don’t know exactly what I feel about fate these days… or faith for that matter. Still, I know there must be something bigger than ourselves that guides us. But if that is true….then why not for Nora? Perhaps she chose her fate after all.
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