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Double murder spurs lawmaker
Staff writer
chriscam@observer-reporter.com
A Florida couple with ties to the area whose son was murdered while trying to help a friend hope new legislation will protect others from being victims of dating violence.
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Authorities say the Ruschaks' 22-year-old son Michael, a student at the University of Central Florida, and a friend, 19-year-old Tiffany Barwick, were murdered Sept. 24 by Barwick's ex-boyfriend Andrew Allred, 21. Ruschak and Barwick were not dating.
Chuck Ruschak is a 1972 graduate of Washington & Jefferson College. His sister, Barbara Ruschak, lives in Mt. Morris and is a teacher in Central Greene School District.
Investigators say Michael Ruschak was trying to be a friend when he became a victim of Allred's violent outburst over the breakup of his relationship with Barwick. They give the following account of the murders:
The breakup had left Barwick without a place to live, so Ruschak offered to let her stay at his place. And he told Allred, whom he'd known since middle school, that he wanted to remain friends with both of them.
Allred did not take the breakup well. He began making threats against Barwick and posted "I am a whore" on her MySpace page. He purchased a gun and posted a photograph of it on his own Web site, along with a doctored photograph of a bullet-ridden Barwick.
On the morning of Sept. 24, Barwick noticed that money had been drained from her bank account. Certain that it was Allred - he had personal information including her Social Security number - she contacted Seminole County, Fla., police.
Later that day, Allred sent Ruschak an e-mail that read, "The next time I see you, I'm going to kill you."
Alarmed, Ruschak and Barwick went to police and reported the threats. Police advised them to obtain a protection from abuse order but said they could do nothing about the threats unless they witnessed Allred actually typing them on a computer.
That was about 7 p.m.
A little more than three hours later, they were both dead.
Allred drove to Ruschak's home, rammed Barwick's car with his truck and broke into the home by shooting out a sliding glass door. Once inside, he shot Ruschak twice. Another man, Eric Roberts, tried to wrestle the gun away from Allred but was shot in the leg. Barwick was hiding in the bathroom. Allred broke in and shot her dead. On his way out of the apartment, he came upon Ruschak, who was still alive, and shot him two more times, killing him.
Allred was caught hours later. A grand jury determined he should be held for trial on charges of homicide, attempted homicide and aggravated assault. He has pleaded not guilty and is being held in a Seminole County jail.
The families of Barwick and Ruschak now struggle to understand why and how this could have happened. In a bizarre twist, Allred was ordered not to have contact with either family last month after sending Barwick's parents letters about how much he missed their daughter.
It was a statement from a public information officer that Florida law did not allow police to act differently in such cases that led Kelly to get involved.
Kelly has sponsored House Bill 313, which would provide victims of dating violence the same rights as domestic violence, such as offering professional counseling. In such cases, a crisis intervention specialist is called to aid victims and can help them find another place to stay.
It is possible that such provisions could have saved the lives of Barwick and Ruschak, Kelly said.
"I think once the domestic violence folks become advocates for these victims, they'll be more likely to call the police and the police be more apt to take action," he said.
In Pennsylvania, stalking, including by electronic means, is a crime. Attorney Lois Fasnacht, a criminal justice training specialist and legal advocate with the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said part of her job is training local police on the law and their response. A good resource is the state police computer crimes task force, which specializes in technology crime and can show police how to place a stalker at a computer.
Cyberstalking is becoming more commonplace as electronics such as global positioning systems and computer spyware are used to track the whereabouts of victims.
"It's a whole new arena. It's the same crimes, but a whole new arena," Fasnacht said.
Since proposing the legislation, Kelly has spoken at several college campuses and is amazed at the number of times young women tell him about being stalked or harassed.
"There's more of this going on than we've been wanting to talk about," he said.
The Florida Legislature will meet in March or April to consider the bill.
"I'm trying to do something right," he said. "If I get this passed, there's going to still be an emptiness in this particular situation. My hope is we can give hope to others going through this."
