‘It’s Just Not Fair’ : Murder of Boy Stuns Classmates

School began in silence Friday morning at Hewes Middle School in Santa Ana as students tried to comprehend the slaying of 13-year-old classmate Greg Anderson.

With the flag flying at half staff, Principal Julie Hume delivered a difficult address to the 750 students.

She announced for those who hadn’t heard that Greg had died and would be missed. She urged them to “take each day and make it count for something.” And then she asked them to “sit with eyes closed and be quiet for Greg.”

Meanwhile, sheriff’s deputies investigating the stabbing death of Greg in his Tustin home Thursday had taken over Hume’s office at 7 a.m. to interview students in a search for leads.

Greg’s sister found his body after school Thursday on their kitchen floor. A neighbor who saw the body said a knife protruded from the back of the boy’s neck. On Friday, the county medical examiner ruled the death a homicide and said the cause was loss of blood from stab wounds.

‘Taking Their Time’

Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Richard J. Olson said, “Investigators and forensic people were out there (at the home) all night, and they are just taking their time.”

Olson would not talk about the murder weapon or say whether anything was missing from the house.

At Hewes, which is in county territory between Tustin and Orange, the loud talking and mischief that usually accompanies between-class breaks was missing Friday.

“It’s been quiet, but a couple of people broke down,” a 13-year-old said. “I saw some teary eyes.”

In her address, Hume urged students to talk to each other, to teachers, to administrators or to the two psychologists on campus for the day.

Many of the students asked why such a crime was committed, Hume said, while others wanted assurances the killer would be caught and punished.

Throughout the day, psychologist Connie Golden spoke individually and in small groups to students who knew Greg or had classes with him.

Grief and Fear

“Most of the students were in shock,” Golden said. “Once they found out it was someone who was in their class and they knew him they went through grief, anger, fear, confusion.”

Golden said the students mostly asked, “ ‘Why? Why this person? Why to that particular house?’ This child was a good student, a friendly person, always responsible, just a good kid and their comments were, ‘It’s just not fair.’

“This was a hard one for kids to try to understand,” the psychologist said.

She said she told the students: “We don’t know why things happen and sometimes bad things happen to good people. We deal with the reality of it happening and we learn to take precautions.”

Some of the precautions discussed were student “buddy systems” for walking home from school and neighbors checking on each other’s children when the parents aren’t home from work yet.

A meeting was held at school Friday to discuss a memorial on campus for Greg, but nothing was decided, Hume said. One idea mentioned was a bench similar to those placed in memory of a student who died of a terminal illness and two others who died last year in skateboarding accidents.

The Andersons remained secluded in neighbor Matt House’s home Friday. They received visits from a Lutheran minister and awaited the arrival of relatives from Idaho and San Francisco, House said.

The family did not want to comment and possibly hamper the investigation, House said, but he added that the boy’s father, Andy Anderson, had told him: “I just don’t know what I’d say.” A memorial service is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday at Alders Gate Methodist Church on Irvine Boulevard in Tustin, House said.