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Boy's memorial fund now tops $36,000 Donations continue to pour in; final tally expected by week's end Thursday, October 05, 2000 By Johnna A. Pro and M. Ferguson Tinsley, Post-Gazette Staff Writers
A North Side community organization last night announced it had collected more than $36,000 in donations for a memorial fund in honor of Scott C. Drake, while police detailed other aspects of their investigation into the Sept. 24 killing of the East Allegheny 11-year-old.
Ernest E. Hogan, associate director of the Northside Leadership Conference, the group monitoring the Scott C. Drake Memorial Fund collections, said,"We have received a tremendous response from the community."
Hogan was at one of the group's regular meetings last night and said the fund money was last counted this past weekend, when it totaled $36,000. He said more checks have flooded in and more direct donations have been deposited at PNC branches since. Four volunteers will tally the total by the end of the week.
Having consulted Scott's family about using the money, Hogan said about $10,000 will cover the murdered child's funeral costs.
A portion of the rest will go into a college trust fund for Scott's brother, Joey, and for his cousin,Sheena. The remainder will begin a scholarship fund in Scott's name. That scholarship will help needy families send their youngsters to after-school programs, sports camps or church camps, Hogan said, "some of the things Scotty was starting to get involved in."
Hogan said he expects more money to come in from a rock concert set for Oct. 20 and a benefit ride to be held Oct. 21 sponsored by the Harley's Bar & Grill Motorcycle Riders Foundation in McKees Rocks.
Tonight, an event billed as a "community conversation" will be held at 7 at the Community House, 801 Union Place, Allegheny Center.
The session, which is closed to the news media, will be headed by counselors from Mercy Behavioral Health and will give people a chance to talk in depth about their feelings about Scott's death.
Tomorrow, a candlelight vigil will be held at 7:30 at East Commons Park, south of East Ohio Street near the swimming pool. In case of rain, the event will move to the Allegheny Center Alliance Church, 250 E. Ohio St.
Yesterday, while Mayor Tom Murphy was explaining how he happened to encounter Joseph Cornelius, the suspect in Scott's killing, city police confirmed that an Allegheny County Jail inmate initially confessed to the killing. However, detectives determined that his statements were those of a confused man, not the killer.
Pittsburgh homicide Sgt. Keith Andrews said that jail officials notified detectives on Sept. 26 that Mark Ridgeway, 42, a man picked up by Port Authority police earlier that day, had made alarming statements about killing children.
Ridgeway had been sleeping at a T stop in the South Hills around 2 a.m. Tuesday and Port Authority police took him to the jail after learning he was wanted on warrants for driving under the influence and traffic violations, according to Port Authority spokesman Bob Grove.
"He came in [to the jail] talking about killing kids. He was saying things like, 'I crucify kids. I killed that little boy,' " Andrews said.
Detectives interviewed Ridgeway around 11 p.m. Tuesday and eventually determined that his statements were not credible and that he could not be a suspect in Scott's killing.
"He was saying all kind of stuff that didn't make sense. Ultimately, he said he never heard of the little boy. We did follow it up and ruled him out based on the information we had," Andrews said.
Andrews said detectives followed up several other leads during the investigation, in which Cornelius, 47, is charged with murder, related sex crimes, kidnapping and abuse of a corpse.
"We did follow a couple of other tips, nothing concrete," Andrews said. "We didn't just go right to Cornelius. In fact, we questioned him and let him go once."
Law enforcement sources have said Cornelius told them that he strangled Scott after the boy tried to steal his radio following a sexual encounter and that he mutilated his body in order to make it look like the work of a pedophile. Police have said that Cornelius knew details of Scott's killing that others did not. They are still looking for a plastic bag said to contain the boy's body parts, the radio, a broken beer bottle and Cornelius' pants. The suspect told police he threw the bag off the Ninth Street Bridge, into the Allegheny River.
In addition, city and county police are trying to determine if Cornelius was involved in any other crimes, including the 19991 disappearance of William Majewski from McKees Rocks.
Majewski often was at the home of Helen Arlott, with whom Cornelius lived, and because of that connection, police are taking a new look at the case. Former McKees Rocks police Lt. Donald Panyko remembers Cornelius sitting with Arlott when police questioned her about Majewski, who was 8 when he disappeared.
County detectives also are trying to find Majewski's mother, Alice Stubenrauch, who left the area sometime after her son's disappearance.
"We're actively trying to locate her," said Detective Regis Kelly of the Allegheny County Police homicide division. "It would be of great help to us if Alice Stubenrauch would contact me."
City detectives have closed the file on reports that Cornelius propositioned two boys in Mount Oliver on Aug. 28 outside of Moik's Restaurant.
Andrews said that while detectives are certain Cornelius was there, investigators got so many conflicting reports from the people they interviewed that they can't say for certain if he made any sexual advances.
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