Oregonian, The (
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Author: PHIL MANZANO
- of the Oregonian Staff
When the 17th comes around each month, Bingta Francke
braces herself.
Six months ago on Jan.
17th her husband, Oregon Corrections Department Director Michael Francke was
stabbed to death outside his office. But she also remembers the 17th because
her 21-month old son, Trey, was born
The 17th has come to
symbolize her life now, a struggle to balance the past against the future.
``It's a real hard
time,'' Francke
said during an interview from her home in the
``Six months isn't any
different from one month, two months or a year,'' she said. ``Some things are
better; some things are worse.''
Michael Francke, 42,
died of a stab wound to the heart in an attack that occurred about 7 p.m.
outside the Dome Building, the Corrections Department headquarters on the
The
Six months later, the
investigation continues with a core of six to eight investigators mainly from
the
Crouse, who was out of
the prison when Francke
was killed, was arrested April 2 on an unrelated charge. He was called a
suspect in the Francke
case in arrest warrants issued for him by the
Allegations that Francke was
killed because as he was uncovering a criminal element in the
Corrections Department have also been raised as a possible scenario for
the murder.
Marion County District
Attorney Dale Penn has said investigators examined those theories and while not
discounting them, they have found no evidence to support them.
Most recently, the FBI
said it performed limited assistance to the
Tom Bostwick,
a Marion County deputy district attorney, said Friday he did not expect any
``imminent'' developments in the Francke case. Penn, the main spokesman in the
investigation, is on vacation.
As the investigation wears
on, Bingta Francke, 30, said she has resigned herself to the
possibility that questions surrounding her husband's death may never be
answered.
``That's real hard to
live with,'' she said. ``The truth is very important to me, and the only person
I want to hear it from is Michael and I'm not going to.''
She has also steeled
herself to a life that has left her more guarded in her personal contacts and
more protective of what is left of her family.
She and her husband
always had guns in the house because of Michael Francke's work as a prosecutor,
judge and corrections chief. But now she has learned how to use them more
accurately and says she is more prone to use them if threatened.
``Someone violated my
family,'' she said. ``I will not allow that to happen again.
``I don't take much, I
have been through too much,'' she said.
``I'm not going to let
this or anything close to it happen again.''
Except for seeing a few
friends and her parents, Bingta Francke said she keeps to her
self and is quietly trying to rebuild her life.
She doesn't work outside
the home and she rents a lot of movies at the local video store where the
clerks know her by her first name.
``That says a lot about
my social life,'' she said.
She also avoids watching
the news on television and action movies, such as the latest
``I don't need to see
someone stabbed in the chest, I can imagine what they
did to Michael. That's very vivid.''
Despite the unanswered
questions about her husband's death, her mistrust and her heightened
sensitivity toward violence, Bingta Francke said
her life is moving on because of her son, Trey.
``It's been good for me
that I have him,'' she said.
The Franckes
were married for more than two years. Trey is their only child. Michael has two
other children by a previous marriage, and they live
in
``My son takes a lot of
my time,'' she said. ``My focus is still my son and my home.''