Family and friends remember short life of Elizabeth Wagoner

Elizabeth Wagoner was a fourth grader at Hoover Elementary.<br/><br/>She was found murdered Tuesday night, just blocks from her home.<br/><br/>She was an honor roll student, on the student council and

Wednesday, March 29th 2006, 4:02 pm

By: News On 6

Elizabeth Wagoner was a fourth grader at Hoover Elementary.

She was found murdered Tuesday night, just blocks from her home.

She was an honor roll student, on the student council and had just received the schools highest honor: the Hoover Award.

News on 6 reporter Jennifer Loren talked with Elizabeth's friends and neighbors.

Elizabeth's family has lived in the neighborhood as long as she's been in school. The suspect in her murder lives there too, just a block and a half away from her house.

Neighbors say they're in shock.

People who knew her called her Libby, a bouncy 10-year-old who was always out playing in the neighborhood.

"A unique little girl. She's her own person," says one neighbor. "She liked to take walks. So she took walks a lot and rode her bicycle around the block."

At school, which is just down the street from her house, her principal says she was a model student, part of Hoover's gifted and talented program.

Principal Chris Clark says, "Elizabeth was an outstanding student. She was well-liked by her classmates and teachers. She was just a teacher's dream."

People in this neighborhood say they're shocked that this could happen here. They say this is a very quiet neighborhood full of kids."

"We've never had a homicide like this that I know of and I've lived here since 1971," says neighbor Jim West.

Other neighbors are furious that the suspect is also their neighbor.

"I can't handle people like this," fumes neighbor Candy McGee. "I can't. You know, I got three daughters and I think I'd... I'd do away with him."

Charlene Poyndexter visits her mother every day on 26th Place. She's upset because her 5 year old sister, who also lives there, has played in the yard right next door to the suspect.

"It makes me feel nervous. He could have done it to her. He could have done it to him. He could have done it to anyone around here," she says.

A quiet Tulsa neighborhood, now aching with sorrow and disgust.

We've also learned one of Elizabeth's neighbors says she's heard rumors of some recent and scary incidents here. She says children in this neighborhood have reported a man trying to coax them into his car.

No word if those incidents were reported to police.