Author Topic: Sadness for Kelly ~ TAR  (Read 4275 times)

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Offline Texan

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Sadness for Kelly ~ TAR
« on: April 28, 2005, 04:15:53 PM »
This article was found durning some research on Kelly.  THsi girls sounds like a good friend of Kelly's.  i wonder if she will talk about this when she interviews.  This should have happened either right before she left or during her time on the race...can someone tell me the start date.  Must be hard to find out about a friend after you have been competing in a race.  This reminds me of The girl from Survivor, Tanya i think when her dad died.


http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/10236629.htm

Posted on Sun, Nov. 21, 2004
 
 
Slain ex-beauty queen remembered as ‘sparkly, high-energy personality’

2002 Miss South Carolina contestant was stabbed, killed in California home

By LAUREN LEACH

Staff Writer


When Leslie Mazzara left South Carolina for California last spring, friends figured it would be only a matter of time before she made a name for herself.

When she did, the circumstances were anything but joyous. The 26-year-old and one of her roommates were stabbed to death Nov. 1 at their Napa home in an incident that has drawn national attention. No arrests have been made.

Mazzara attended high school in Anderson County. Just before she moved to California, she worked less than a year in a Columbia law office.

“I could picture Leslie setting out in life with a new career,” said Andrew Kuharsky, director of the Greenville Ballet, where Mazzara once studied. “Then, poof, it’s all over.”

Kuharsky choreographed a dance Mazzara performed when she competed in the 2002 Miss South Carolina pageant as Miss Williamston.

The bodies of Mazzara and Adriane Michelle Insogna were discovered on the second floor of a Napa house they shared with a third woman, who managed to escape and call police.

No weapons were found, but there was evidence of forced entry into the house, police said.

Kuharsky characterized Mazzara as “positive, happy and ready for a good laugh and fun time.”

She didn’t have the height that made for the “perfect ballerina body,” he said, but “worked hard and accomplished a lot.”

That seemed to be the case with anything she did.

“She was a fabulous young lady with a beautiful smile and dancing eyes,” said Danette Hanks, former co-director of the Miss Williamston pageant, which was discontinued after 2002. “You couldn’t help but just love her.”

Although Mazzara has been labeled in news reports as the beauty queen who was violently killed, friends said the Miss Williamston pageant was one of only two she ever entered.

She began taking ballet lessons as a youngster and continued into high school.

At Belton-Honea Path High School, she was a popular student and member of the National Honor Society and Beta Club in Anderson County, said principal Jimmy Ouzts.

“She was very bright, very attractive, all the things you would expect,” he said.

Former classmates at the school, which has about 1,000 students, want to start a fund in her honor and are discussing how the money should be spent, he said.

While in school, Mazzara lived with her grandmother, Judy Harrington, whom she called “Grammy.” Mazzara, who had two brothers, spent summers in Alaska with her mother, Cathy Harrington.

Judy Harrington recently had surgery and was unavailable for comment. Other family members declined to comment.

One of her closest friends was Kelly McCorkle, Miss South Carolina 2002. McCorkle is out of the country and unavailable for comment, said her mother Brenda Cisson, who knew Mazzara well.

The two first became acquainted years before through their participation at the Fine Arts Center in Greenville, the Greenville Ballet and the Governor’s School for the Arts, said Cisson, of Greenville.

Before meeting McCorkle, Mazzara attended the Governor’s School for the Arts one summer. McCorkle had planned to attend that year, but did not. Mazzara’s seat was next to one bearing McCorkle’s name tag. When they met later, Mazzara joked to McCorkle that she had sat next to her at school all summer, Cisson said.

“She said, ‘I think this means that we’re always supposed to be side by side.’”

The two visited each other’s homes, and Mazzara often spent weekends with McCorkle and her family, Cisson said.

One summer was especially memorable because the young women stood in line in the middle of the night in New York to get tickets to the “Late Show with David Letterman.”

When Letterman came out to meet audience members, Mazzara caught his eye. She told him her grandfather used to shop at the same Indianapolis store where he bagged groceries years ago, Cisson said. Mazzara ended up participating in the show wearing a top she had borrowed from McCorkle, who couldn’t wait to call her mother.

The message: “My pink shirt is going to be on David Letterman.”

Besides wearing McCorkle’s clothes, Mazzara also tried on her friend’s pageant crowns for fun before McCorkle became Miss South Carolina.

“Leslie would put Kelly’s crown on and wear it around. She said, ‘Give me one of those crowns. How can you wear two? Kelly told her, ‘No, go get your own,’” Cisson said.

McCorkle, who was Miss Golden Corner, persuaded Mazzara to enter a pageant. That’s when she won Miss Williamston 2002. She next competed in the Miss South Carolina pageant against McCorkle.

Miss South Carolina directors were stunned that McCorkle would encourage someone as attractive as Mazzara to compete against her, Cisson said.

“Kelly said, ‘It’s just Leslie. We’re friends.’”

When McCorkle won, she moved in with the family of organization president and CEO, Joe Sanders III. Mazzara was a frequent visitor at their home, he said.

“You just couldn’t find a more pleasant individual to talk to than Leslie Mazzara,” Sanders said. “She was a real bright young lady, was full of life and just fun to be around. I’m just at a loss as to why this could occur to two women in a quiet town in a quiet neighborhood. Why were those two targeted?”

After the pageant, Mazzara went to the University of Georgia, where she graduated in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy.

She then took a job as a legal secretary at the Kennedy & Price firm on Lady Street, attorney Robert Price said. At one time, she considered attending USC law school, he said.

“She was a very attractive young lady,” Price said. “She was not an airhead. She was a very intelligent reflective young lady. ... She was an asset to this organization and would be an asset to any organization where she decided to hang her hat,” Price said.

After less than a year with the firm, Mazzara left in the spring for California to spend time with her mother, who had been attending school in Berkeley, and to check out opportunities, he said.

“She was seeking to improve herself,” Price said. “She wanted to broaden her scope and see what was out there on the horizon. She had the world before her.”

But a few months after Mazzara arrived, her mother left to pastor at a Unitarian Universalist church in Ludington, Mich., family spokesman John Hurley said.

Meanwhile, Mazzara settled in a house on Dorset Street with a roommate. When that woman moved, her two next-door neighbors asked Mazzara to move in with them, Napa police Commander Troendly said.

In March, she was hired as a concierge in the tasting room at Niebaum-Coppola Winery in Rutherford, said winery spokeswoman Kathleen Talbert. She was promoted to tour coordinator, then sales and marketing assistant.

Talbert, who works in New York City, met Mazzara once at a sales meeting. She immediately detected why the young woman was so well-liked by her co-workers.

“I could just see she was a sparkly, high-energy personality.”

Troendly said investigators recovered the suspect’s blood at the scene and are comparing it with DNA in state and national databases.

“It will take some time,” Troendly said. He said the last homicide in Napa was in 2001, and the last double homicide was in 1999.

Co-workers and friends of Mazzara are struggling to move past their grief. It has been nearly three weeks since she was slain, but her friend Hanks has a tough time accepting it.

“It’s hard to imagine she’s gone. It’s hard to imagine someone would do that to her. I can’t stand to think about how she died.”

Reach Leach at (803) 771-8549 or leleach@thestate.com.
 

Offline puddin

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Re: Sadness for Kelly ~ TAR
« Reply #1 on: April 28, 2005, 04:35:13 PM »
 :':') this is just to much to take in Texan , nice find but so hard to read through  :':')

according to Wikipedia
The Amazing Race 7 is the seventh installment of the popular reality television show, The Amazing Race. This installment premiered on March 1, 2005.

Filming began on November 20, 2004 and finished on December 17, 2004.

Also I read they are sequestered for a few weeks before the race begins .


Offline FreddynKendrafan

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Re: Sadness for Kelly ~ TAR
« Reply #2 on: April 28, 2005, 04:42:21 PM »
OH my god, that's horrible! So, she was on TAR when this happened..do you think they told her..like was she contacted in TAR to be told about his..omgsh..You're right it is really hard to read.. :':')

Poor Kelly..
FREDDY AND KENDRA WIN TAR6 I LOVE YOU GUYS! YAYA !

"4 continents, 24 cities and more than 40,000 miles, Freddy and Kendra, you are the official winners of The Amazing Race!"
TAR7- BEFORE SHOW PREDICTIONS- I LOVE Bianca and Debbie..wahoo..their gonna be TAR7 WINNERS! *So lovable*

Offline Ottopart

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Re: Sadness for Kelly ~ TAR
« Reply #3 on: April 28, 2005, 06:17:40 PM »
Kelly's friend was murdered Nov. 1 and the furneral was Nov. 10th which Kelly attended.  Kelly was interviewed on FOX News on Nov. 5th about the murder.  She was also interviewed on Good Morning America Nov 12th regarding the murder.  She left for the race after that.  TV Guide also had an article about it in March after the race started.  Kelly said she was dedicating her run in the race for her murdered friend Leslie.  Hard stuff to deal with. 

Offline Texan

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Re: Sadness for Kelly ~ TAR
« Reply #4 on: April 29, 2005, 09:06:20 AM »
Thanks Ottopart....I had not heard this, I wonder if they will ask her about this when/if they are booted?

So sad to hear.