In Friday’s (8/22) Buffalo News Lisa Khoury reports that police have arrested two men in the murder last week of violinist Mary Whitaker at her summer home in Sherman, New York. Whitaker had just finished a performance with the Chautauqua Institution Symphony Orchestra at the time of her murder. “On Friday, Jonathan Conklin, 43, no known address, and Charles Sanford, 30, of Erie, Pa., were arrested separately in Erie, law enforcement officials announced…. Authorities believe the two attempted to rob Whitaker early Wednesday in her home. Whitaker, 61, died of a gunshot wound to her chest and was also shot in her leg…. Whitaker lived in upper Manhattan, performed with the Westchester Philharmonic and worked as a freelance violinist in Broadway pit orchestras and other musical groups. The Greencastle, Ind., native earned a performance degree in violin from Indiana University and moved to New York…. Her friend Joshua Worby [executive and artistic director of the Westchester Philharmonic] … struggled to talk about Whitaker in the past tense. … ‘She commanded respect and admiration from everybody she touched.’ ”
Posted August 25, 2014
