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Friends say therapist wasn’t afraid before attack

NEW YORK (AP) — Kathryn Faughey was a caring counselor who helped her patients with a range of issues: online relationships, the stress of September 11, abusive partners.

But she had many interests outside work, including a love of Martin Guitars.

She kept in touch with fellow Martin enthusiasts on the Internet and even named her six string Little Anna, which she adoringly described in one posting on the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum as the archetype of the trusted friend, sister, confidante.

Faughey’s story has been front-page news in New York City this week after she was found hacked to death in her office with a meat cleaver. A colleague was also badly injured by the attacker, who has been the subject of a police manhunt. Watch a possible suspect

Faughey got involved five years ago with a group of fellow Martin enthusiasts, who kept in touch through a Web site and met for occasional conventions near C.F. Martin Co.’s headquarters in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

Faughey, 56, also took LittleAnna as her screen name in the online forum, which formed the basis for some fast friendships.

She was kind of a beginner, recalled club member Rhys Ord, of Florham Park, New Jersey, noting that some of the club’s other members included accomplished professional musicians.

But people took to Faughey immediately, he added, won over by her friendliness, intelligence and great sense of humor.

She was the kind of person nobody disliked, Ord said.

Don Hurley, a retired journalist in London who met Faughey and her husband through the forum and quickly became a close friend, called her a keen student of music whose skills improved steadily.

For a lady of intellect and stunning capability, she was kind of insecure about her own playing ability, but she really had no reason to be, Hurley said.

Faughey was at her Manhattan office Tuesday night when a man carrying two large bags arrived, sat for a while in a waiting area, then launched a savage attack with a meat cleaver that left the therapist’s suite covered in blood.

Police were still trying to identify the killer. It was unclear whether he was a patient or whether he even knew Faughey.

One member of the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum was questioned for several hours Thursday at a state police barracks near his home in Pennsylvania. Investigators released him, however, and have not identified any suspects.

The questioned man, musician William Kunsman, told The Associated Press that he had corresponded with Faughey quite frequently recently about some personal problems and that they had spoken on the phone the afternoon of the attack.

Faughey’s therapy practice on Manhattan’s Upper East Side was like many hundreds of others catering to the city’s endless stream of anxious, heartbroken or stressed-out residents, but with a modern twist.

She described herself on her Web site, as a specialist in issues of online intimacy, who could offer counsel to people in distress over Internet-based love affairs or talk people through the ways that instant-messaging, blogs and Facebook pages have made breakups more complicated. She also worked with some New Yorkers still unsettled over the September 11 terrorist attacks.

One former patient, Barbara Camwell, described Faughey’s therapy as having a spirituality and an intimacy to it, compared to some other analysts who left her cold.

When I talked to her about my feelings, she got it, Camwell said. She was one of those therapists who brought a piece of herself into her work.
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Former student kills 6 at Northern Illinois University, sparks ‘chaos’

DEKALB, Illinois (CNN) — A gunman dressed in black stepped from behind a curtain at the front of a large lecture hall at Northern Illinois University on Thursday and shot 21 people, six of them fatally, then shot and killed himself, said university President John Peters.

A lot of people were screaming. Everybody started running for the door, said student Zach Seward. It was just complete chaos.

Four died at the scene, including the shooter, and three later died at a hospital, officials said.

At least 22 people, including the gunman and a graduate student who was teaching an ocean sciences class, were shot, Peters said.

Late Thursday, dozens of students gathered on campus for a candlelight prayer vigil. Video footage showed students comforting one another and a young man playing guitar. Watch students gather and pray

Official school events and classes were canceled until further notice, Peters said.

Seven counseling areas were set up throughout the campus, and hotlines were established.

NIU senior Daley Hamilton, 21, said most students were heading home to their parents. My parking lot at my apartment is pretty sparse, she told CNN.

She said she and her roommate were planning to leave Friday. We are really on edge and just kind of want to get out, she said. Watch report wrapping up the NIU day of horror

Tributes were also surfacing online. A Facebook community called Pray for Northern Illinois University Students and Families had more than 14,000 members by late Thursday.

NIU student Amanda Hart Garner posted the school’s fight song, including the lyrics: Free, steadfast, devoted, true/We will always stand by you.

Seven of those wounded in the shooting were listed in critical condition.

Four of the fatalities were female, said Peters.

Most of the injuries are head and chest gunshot wounds, a hospital spokeswoman told CNN.

The gunman started shooting from a stage in the room shortly after 3 p.m. (4 p.m. ET) in Cole Hall, officials said.

Police Chief Donald Grady said authorities do not yet know of a motive.

They know the identity of the gunman but have not released his name, Grady added.

The shooter was a graduate student at NIU in the spring of 2007. Currently he was not enrolled there but, Grady said, He may have been a student elsewhere.

A preliminary investigation has not uncovered a police record on the gunman, and records showed he had no contact with NIU police while a student there, Peters said.

Gunman ‘just started shooting’

Kevin McEnery said he was in the classroom when the gunman, dressed in a black shirt, dark pants and black hat, burst in carrying a shotgun. See photos of the scene

He just kicked the door open, just started shooting, said McEnery, who was in the class at the time. All I really heard was just people screaming, yelling ‘get out.’ … Close to 30 shots were fired. Watch a student describe the chaos at the scene

There are about 162 registered students in the class that met in the large lecture hall.

A student described the classroom as having four exits — two at the front and two at the rear.

Witnesses say someone dressed in black came out from behind a screen in the front of the classroom and opened fire with a shotgun, Peters said.

At 3:03 p.m., NIU police responded, and four minutes later, the campus was ordered into a lockdown situation, Grady said.

At 3:20, an all-campus alert went out via the campus Web site, e-mail, voice mail, the campus crisis hotline, the news media and various alarm systems, he said.

The message basically was: There’s a gunman on campus, stay where you are; make yourself as safe as possible, he said.

Rosie Moroni, a student at the school, told CNN she was outside Cole Hall near the King Commons when she heard shots coming from the classroom she was heading to.

The shot was followed by a lot of people screaming, then people ran out the doors yelling, He’s got a gun, call 911, she said.

It was complete chaos. It’s very scary here right now.

By 4 p.m., DeKalb police had swept the area and determined there was only one gunman and that he was dead.

Grady said the man used three guns: a shotgun, a Glock handgun and a small-caliber handgun, and was still on the stage when he turned one of the guns on himself. The small-caliber handgun had not yet been recovered, he said.

The gunman started shooting with a shotgun, then switched to a handgun, said Grady.

Security around campus was increased in December when police found threats scrawled on a campus bathroom wall that included racial slurs and references to last April’s Virginia Tech shootings. Learn about other recent school shootings

One of the threats said things will change most hastily in the final days of the semester.

Peters said there is no evidence that points to a link between the December incident and Thursday’s shooting.

Grady said it was unlikely authorities could have prevented Thursday’s tragedy.

As much as we do, it’s unlikely that anyone would ever have the ability to stop an incident like this from beginning, he said.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich declared a state of emergency, which will open the governor’s disaster fund to reimburse local government entities for extraordinary expenses related to the response in NIU DeKalb and will allow the state Emergency Management Agency to provide assistance, the governor’s office said in a statement.

Eighteen victims were taken to Kishwaukee Community Hospital, its Web site said.

Of those, seven were in critical condition and were flown to other hospitals. One fatality, a male, was confirmed — but was not the gunman, the hospital said. Two were admitted, and eight others were discharged.

Nate Llewellyn, a spokesman for Advocate Good Samaritan, said it had received two female patients and one male: Nineteen-year-old Unnum Rahman was in serious condition and in surgery after receiving gunshot wounds to her right eye and arm; Maria Ruiz Santana was in surgery and in critical condition; an unidentified male shooting victim was in surgery and in critical condition.

The 113-year-old school is 65 miles west of downtown Chicago and has an enrollment of more than 25,000. The campus covers 755 acres. See a map of where the shooting took place E-mail to a friend

CNN’s Kevin Bohn contributed to this report.

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Slain therapist’s friend questioned, released

NEW YORK (CNN) — Police on Thursday questioned a man in Pennsylvania about the grisly murder of a therapist in her Upper East Side office on Tuesday night.

William Kunsman, who said he met the victim five years ago at a guitar camp, denied involvement in hacking to death Kathryn Faughey with a meat cleaver.

I hadn’t even known what happened before I went in this morning, Kunsman told CNN outside his home in Coplay, Pennsylvania. Through the questioning, I kind of pieced the puzzle together, and I realized they were talking about Kathryn. Later on at one point, they let me know that she was murdered.

Kunsman was picked out of a photo lineup by a second victim of the attack who survived with serious wounds, according to a New York Police Department source.

Kunsman told CNN he was at home with his wife Tuesday night. He said he was released after 10 hours of questioning once police confirmed his story.

NYPD Assistant Chief Michael Collins said that the man they questioned did not make any incriminating statements and that he spoke with investigators for a time before requesting a lawyer and refusing to answer additional questions.

Collins said police were able to track the man to a Pennsylvania residence using e-mails found on the slain woman’s computer.

I’ve been unemployed, so I haven’t been able to see my own doctor lately, Kunsman said. She e-mailed me with her phone number and said I could call her, and I’ve been talking to her about some personal issues.

He said he last spoke to Faughey on Tuesday.

Faughey, 56, was found in her Upper East Side office with several stab wounds to her head and torso. The attacker used two knives and a meat cleaver, police said, and Faughey died at the scene.

A second therapist, Kent Shinbach, 70, was seriously injured when he came to Faughey’s aid.

Police are still interviewing a number of witnesses in their investigation of the attacks, Collins said.

The man attacked Shinbach for 10 minutes, police said. He pinned the therapist to the wall with a chair, slashed him repeatedly in the head and torso, then stole his money, police said.

Shinbach was able to call for help through an open window. The building’s doorman heard the cries and called police.

Shinbach was in serious condition at a hospital Wednesday, according to New York Police Department Commissioner Ray Kelly.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne, describing Faughey’s office, told CNN that blood was splattered on the walls and floors, and books and papers were strewn about.

From surveillance video in the building, police know that the attacker entered the East 79th Street building around 8 p.m. and chatted for a while with a patient waiting to see Shinbach. Watch what the cameras saw

After the crime, the attacker went down the front stairway and left the building through the basement. Police described the attacker as a man in his 40s wearing a three-quarter-length green coat, a baseball cap and sneakers.

The attacker carried two bags that he left in the basement. One held nine knives, and the other contained women’s clothing, slippers and adult disposable diapers, Browne told CNN. Three other weapons — two knives and the cleaver — were found in Faughey’s office.

Evidence was removed from Faughey’s office Thursday, and police say DNA tests will be done on the samples.

Police have released no motive behind the killing.

Faughey’s 20-year-old practice focused on relationships, depression and anxiety. According to her Web site, http://www.adaptation.net/, she paid special attention to managing relationship problems with the Internet.

She described her treatment on her Web site: My sessions move quickly. I am interactive, and I give feedback. Very practical and to the point, I practice cognitive psychotherapy effectively — in a warm, clear, and lively manner.
found here.

Slain therapist’s friend questioned, released

NEW YORK (CNN) — Police on Thursday questioned a man in Pennsylvania about the grisly murder of a therapist in her Upper East Side office on Tuesday night.

William Kunsman, who said he met the victim five years ago at a guitar camp, denied involvement in hacking to death Kathryn Faughey with a meat cleaver.

I hadn’t even known what happened before I went in this morning, Kunsman told CNN outside his home in Coplay, Pennsylvania. Through the questioning, I kind of pieced the puzzle together, and I realized they were talking about Kathryn. Later on at one point, they let me know that she was murdered.

Kunsman was picked out of a photo lineup by a second victim of the attack who survived with serious wounds, according to a New York Police Department source.

Kunsman told CNN he was at home with his wife Tuesday night. He said he was released after 10 hours of questioning once police confirmed his story.

NYPD Assistant Chief Michael Collins said that the man they questioned did not make any incriminating statements and that he spoke with investigators for a time before requesting a lawyer and refusing to answer additional questions.

Collins said police were able to track the man to a Pennsylvania residence using e-mails found on the slain woman’s computer.

I’ve been unemployed, so I haven’t been able to see my own doctor lately, Kunsman said. She e-mailed me with her phone number and said I could call her, and I’ve been talking to her about some personal issues.

He said he last spoke to Faughey on Tuesday.

Faughey, 56, was found in her Upper East Side office with several stab wounds to her head and torso. The attacker used two knives and a meat cleaver, police said, and Faughey died at the scene.

A second therapist, Kent Shinbach, 70, was seriously injured when he came to Faughey’s aid.

Police are still interviewing a number of witnesses in their investigation of the attacks, Collins said.

The man attacked Shinbach for 10 minutes, police said. He pinned the therapist to the wall with a chair, slashed him repeatedly in the head and torso, then stole his money, police said.

Shinbach was able to call for help through an open window. The building’s doorman heard the cries and called police.

Shinbach was in serious condition at a hospital Wednesday, according to New York Police Department Commissioner Ray Kelly.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne, describing Faughey’s office, told CNN that blood was splattered on the walls and floors, and books and papers were strewn about.

From surveillance video in the building, police know that the attacker entered the East 79th Street building around 8 p.m. and chatted for a while with a patient waiting to see Shinbach. Watch what the cameras saw

After the crime, the attacker went down the front stairway and left the building through the basement. Police described the attacker as a man in his 40s wearing a three-quarter-length green coat, a baseball cap and sneakers.

The attacker carried two bags that he left in the basement. One held nine knives, and the other contained women’s clothing, slippers and adult disposable diapers, Browne told CNN. Three other weapons — two knives and the cleaver — were found in Faughey’s office.

Evidence was removed from Faughey’s office Thursday, and police say DNA tests will be done on the samples.

Police have released no motive behind the killing.

Faughey’s 20-year-old practice focused on relationships, depression and anxiety. According to her Web site, http://www.adaptation.net/, she paid special attention to managing relationship problems with the Internet.

She described her treatment on her Web site: My sessions move quickly. I am interactive, and I give feedback. Very practical and to the point, I practice cognitive psychotherapy effectively — in a warm, clear, and lively manner.
found here.

Bank of Japan keeps interest rates unchanged

TOKYO, Japan (AP) — Japan’s central bank kept interest rates unchanged Friday amid growing worries about a global slowdown.

The unanimous decision, which came at the end of a two-day Bank of Japan policy board meeting, had been widely expected.

With the Japanese economy battling weak housing investment and cautious corporate sentiment, the market had anticipated that the target for a key interest rate would be kept steady at 0.5 percent.

The market is awaiting for signs about the future direction for monetary policy from comments by outgoing Bank of Japan Governor Toshihiko Fukui expected later in the day.

Much of last year, the question had been on when the BOJ would raise rates.

But the global economic turmoil set off by the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis has scotched that view. Watch candidates for the next BOJ governorship

Now, some are starting to speculate the central bank may start cutting interest rates instead.
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