Grieving family can say goodbye*
Pat Kimmi's loved ones will finally get to celebrate her life in Saturday funeral
By Barbara Hollingsworth / Topeka Capital-Journal
Created June 11, 2010 at 10:43pm
HORTON Even at a funeral, Pat Kimmi never felt quite right dressed up.
The day before she was snatched from her home, she attended the funeral of one of her daughter-in-law's fathers and lamented that she always struggled to find the right thing to wear in her closet. She wished, she told her daughter, she could just wear jeans.
"I said from the very beginning when we get to have a funeral I'm wearing jeans," said daughter Rita Boller, who will finally get that chance at services today.
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Boller remembers her mom thinking about various views and levels of heaven. "'I don't care,'" Boller remembers her mom quipping, "'if I'm even just in the outskirts of heaven, as long as I go to heaven I'm OK."
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Perhaps the paths of Roger Hollister and Pat Kimmi had crossed by chance in the past. Roger Hollister was acquainted with Pat Kimmi's ex-husband, Eugene Kimmi, [County Attorney Jerry] Kuckelman said.
"Mr. Hollister did some woodworking, had a woodworking shop at his farm, and Mr. Kimmi ran a sawmill," he said. "I think there was a business relationship there."
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Eugene and Pat Kimmi had a long, troubled marriage, remembers Sharon Blakley, who counted Pat Kimmi as a close friend for about 40 years.
In particular, Eugene Kimmi drank frequently and heavily almost daily, Boller said creating an often troubled environment at home. In March, he was charged in Brown County with a felony for driving under the influence.
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In May, the family sought to garnish two months of unpaid alimony payments from Eugene Kimmi totaling $4,500. The payments had stopped before Pat Kimmi's remains were found. Those remains still haven't been officially identified and the family doesn't have a death certificate.
Eugene Kimmi is seeking to end the alimony payments. Boller said he wants a return of the money he paid since Pat Kimmi's disappearance. That request, made on the heels of her mom's body being found, hit her like a punch to the gut.
"It's kind of like you think you've been through the hardest part of it, and then something else knocks you down," she said.
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[RoHo attorney James] Heathman said his client will plead not guilty to the Kimmi murder. Hollister also has denied the allegations in the case involving his wife, with his attorney calling the evidence "conflicting" in court documents. While the cases make their way through the system, Heathman said he has little he can say.
Kuckelman said he is still deciding if he will seek the death penalty and will consult the family on that decision.
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*MAJOR article including nine pictures, at
http://cjonline.com/news/state/2010-06-11/grieving_family_can_say_goodbye