Mormon
woman
dmits to
drowning
daughter
BARNSTABLE, Mass. (AP) - A
woman who tried to become a Mormon
eacon said she was asked by church
diers in an interview, "Did you ever
kil anybody?" and startled them by
confessing she drowned her daughter 10
years ago, a prosecutor said yesterday.
Nlancy Cross, 41, of Acton, was indic-
ted: Monday on a first-degree murder
charge in the death of Wendy Lynn
Cress, 8, who drowned Sept. 20, 1973, off
Nauset Beach on Cape Cod, authorities
said.
At the time the drowning was ruled
cidental. Although police noticed a
discrepancy of two hours between the
time of the drowning and the time it
was reported, the case was closed.
"Apparently the girl was very sweet
and gentle, and the mother just carried
her out to the beach and held her under
the waves," said State Trooper Michael
McComiskey.
"She told police then that a wave took
her out," he said. "But she told up that
he was afraid her own child would be
used.
"She was abused as a child herself,
and she had such serious emotional and
psychological problems, she didn't
want the same thing happening to her
daughter," said McComiskey.
He said the mother told authorities
she took the child out to the deserted
beach late in the afternoon and held her
under the water until she stopped
moving.
Cross told authorities she wanted to
come a deacon in the Mormon Chur-
ch, and said she made her admission
during an interview with church elders.
They advised her to tell legal
authorities, according to Cape and
Islands First Assistant District Attor-
ney James O'Neill.
District Attorney Philip Rollins told a
news conference yesterday that the
elders asked her the direct question:
"Did you ever kill anybody?" Rollins
aii she made the admission at that
int.
It was not immediately clear why
church officials granted Cross an inter-
view, since women have never been
allowed to hold any priesthood offices in
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-
day Saints. Deacon is the lowest of
several offices in the priesthood struc-
ture.
Cross came forward to the district at-
torney's office with a written statement
SA months ago, authorities said.
Rollins said Cross will undergo
psychiatric evaluation. When asked if it
was possible that Cross was motivated
by guilt over an accident, he replied,
"IS it a guilt trip? You'll see for your-
self when you see her in court."
She is scheduled for arraignment
April 16. Until then she is "out free,"
said Assistant District Attorney Don
Carpenter.
tourt throws
out Ferency's
speeding
gicket
LANSING, Mich. (UPI) - The
Michigan Court of Appeals - in
dismissing a ticket challenged by ac-
tivist Zolton Ferency - ruled yesterday
that radar speedmeter evidence must
meet certain standards of reliability.
The ruling reversed Ferency's
Gratiot County conviction for driving
65 mph in a 55 mph zone.
THE COURT said standards are
eeded to protect motorists' legal
' ghts in proceedings involving the use
of moving radar speedmeters.
Under the standards, the officer
using the device must have adequate
training and experience, the device
must be in proper working condition,
road conditions must leave a minimum
possibility of distortion and the speed of
the :patrol vehicle must be adequately
verified.
The court also said the speedmeter
ust be retested at the end of the of-
ficer's shift, the vehicle must be in the
range of the radar beam and the unit
mush be certified for use by a qualified
agency.
Ferency said the state guidelines on
radar speedmeters were supposed to be
used by all officers, but have been
"abused in the process.
"Many, many police officers were
writing and testifying on radar tickets
who had not adhered to those
The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, April 4, 1984 -Page 5
Indian boards
Soviet rocket
AP Photo
Octopulling
A motorboat pulls an inflatable octopus down the Charles River in Cambridge, Mass. yesterday. The advertising stunt
brought morning rush-hour traffic to a halt as motorists stopped for a better look at the "monster."
Students question computer merger
From AP and UPI
MOSCOW - A Soyuz T-11 rocket blast-
ed off from the Central Asian desert
yesterday, carring India's first
cosmonaut - with his own supply of
curry, guavas and mangoes - and two
Soviets to the Salyut-7 space station.
Soviet television showed the
spacecraft roaring off in a fiery blaze at
8:08 a.m. EST from a launchpad at the
Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakstan,
1,200 miles southeast of the capital.
IT WAS THE first televised launchi
since a Soviet-French mission 22 mon-
ths ago.
The 160-foot rocket rose into a
cloudless blue sky and the first stage
fell away two minutes after ignition.
Mission control reported all systems
were functioning normally on the 55th
manned Soviet space flight.
India's first man in space, Rakesh
Sharma, 35, and Soviet cosmonauts
Yuri Malyshev, 42, and Gennadi
Strekalov, 43, were shown briefly
during liftoff braced against the force
of gravity.
THE SOYUZ capsule is carrying a
supply of curry, guavas, mangoes and
other tropical Indian food for Sharma.
As usual, foreign reporters, including
Indians, were banned from the space
center. But the rare live television
coverage showed the white rocket with
its fiery tail roaring into the purple
evening sky.
Sharma and the two Soviet
cosmonauts will join cosmonauts
Leonid Kizim, Vladimir Solovyev and
Oleg Atkov. The international crew is to
return to earth on April 10.
THERE HAS been no word on how
the three men will return. But previous
missions of this kind have used the
Foyuz capsule with the space station.
The 11th flight of the U.S. space shut-
tle, with five astronauts, is scheduled to
begin Friday from Cape Canaveral,
Fla. The 11 men in space after that
launch will be a record.
Soviet space officials said last week
that the Indian-Soviet crew will conduct
43 experiments in space, including an
extensive photographic survey of In
dia.
Sharma will do an experiment aimed
at determining the effect of yogaon
weightlessness, moin sickness and the
psychological pressures of prolonged
space flight.
"Leaving on the space mission, I am
taking with me portraits of the leaders
of my country, a handful of soil of my
native India and the national flag,"
Sharma said before the launch.sr
He told the government newspaper
Izvestia that he had no problems during
his training for the flight "besides the
language" - which he appears to
speak correctly. "We work well . . . and
can understand each other without
words," he was quoted as saying of his
Soviet colleagues.
Sharma and -the other cosmonauts
will talk to Indian Prime Minister In-
dira Gandhi in a space-Earth linkup
planned for tomorrow night.
(Continued from Page 1)
Angell Hall, and engineering students
take their courses in the East
Engineering Building. Frieder said that
the middle wing of East Engineering
should be renovated by May 21 to make
room for students in the new depar-
tment. '
Three years from now, the depar-
tment will have a new building on North
Campus, Frieder said.
DANIEL Atkins, associate dean of
engineering, said at the meeting that
attempts to offer computer education in
three departments created redundancy
and confusion. "Because our computer
programs were so diffuse," Atkins said,
"we found it hard to be ranked as a top
computer department, and it was also
difficult to get funds because com-
panies were unsure what (computer
department) would be using the
money," he said.
But although the University may at-
tract more funds with the merger, some
students, like engineering sophomore
Kathy Kedzior, left the meeting un-
satisfied. "They don't know what the
curriculum is going to be, requirements
and all," she said.
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