500 Mourn Slain Placentia Teen-Ager as ‘Truly Special’

Wendy Rachelle Osborn, her small white coffin covered with carnations and rosebuds, was mourned by about 500 people Saturday as a sweet, soft-spoken girl whose 14 years were filled with friendship, youthful innocence and good cheer.

The Placentia teen-ager, who was abducted on the way to school and found slain two weeks later in San Bernardino County, was remembered as “a truly special girl, always spreading joy,” by Minister Arty VanGeloof during services at Eastside Christian Church in Fullerton.

Members of the audience, including Osborn’s family and hundreds of her teen-age friends, bowed their heads and some wept as church leaders tried to make sense of the crime that ended her life. Police said Wendy had been strangled, sexually assaulted and possibly tortured.

“Some ask why, why did a tragedy like this have to happen?” said Senior Minister Ben Merold. “Where was God? That question deserves to be answered.”

As angry Santa Ana winds buffeted the church, Merold said there were no “simple answers,” but he stressed that Wendy, whose body was discovered last Sunday, would find peace in heaven. “To God, death is not the final tragedy,” he told the hushed audience. “We make it that.”

However, many who had come to pay their respects seemed inconsolable as they left the brief morning services. As she was comforted by her mother, 13-year old Carol Seddon held back tears and said Osborn’s brutal death “was not fair. It just wasn’t fair at all.”

The girl, saying she had never experienced the death of a friend before, described her schoolmate as “the kind of person who wouldn’t hurt a flea. I don’t know what to think. It’s just a terrible thing.”

Elsewhere, clusters of young girls embraced each other, watching in silence as the crowd poured out of the church. A few sat alone on the curb, staring at the pavement. Asked about her feelings, one simply shook her head and said, “I can’t believe any of this.”

Jack Osborn, Wendy’s father, requested privacy for the family during and after the services. But in a brief written statement, he thanked friends, neighbors and police officers for the help they had offered his family in recent days.

“From the paper-delivery girl who expressed her sympathy by paying our January subscription, to the lady who washed and groomed our dog free of charge, to our block neighbors who together gave us a very special card . . . to the hundreds who said, or sent a card to say, ‘I’m sorry,’ we sincerely thank you for your caring,” he said.

An autopsy showed that Wendy Osborn may have been alive eight to 10 days after she was last seen on Jan. 20 on her way to school. Police said the 5-foot-3, 93-pound girl may have been held captive, and had been dead at least 48 hours when horseback riders discovered her partially decomposed but fully clothed body in the Chino Hills.

Earlier in the week, police said Warren James Bland, a previously convicted sex offender, was being sought for questioning in Wendy’s death. In Riverside County, a complaint was filed charging Bland with murder in the death of Phoebe Ho, a 7-year-old South Pasadena girl who was also strangled and sexually assaulted.

Remains at Large

Bland, 51, was questioned Jan. 3 by Riverside County sheriff’s deputies about Phoebe’s disappearance, but he was not arrested. He remains at large and may be driving a stolen 1970 light blue Toyota Corolla station wagon with license plate 314 ASU, authorities said.

On Saturday, San Bernardino Sheriff’s Sgt. Bill Arthur said his department received more than 50 calls from people who said they had seen Bland in different parts of Southern California. Arthur, who heads a task force investigation that also includes South Pasadena, Placentia and Riverside police and the FBI, added that every call was being checked out.

“We haven’t accomplished much today beyond checking those calls,” he said. “We’re trying to put together a pin map indicating which route he (Bland) may have taken through the area.”

Minutes after Wendy Osborn’s coffin was wheeled into a hearse and whisked away for burial, a spokeswoman for an Orange County-based organization devoted to searching for missing children urged people throughout Southern California to help find the killer.

“People have to keep their eyes open,” said Pam Oedekerk, with the Adam Walsh Center. “He (Bland) is out there somewhere. Somebody’s got to see him somewhere.”