#farrar

Following the fire at the Farrar-Green family home that killed Tim and Kelly Farrar, the Eastern Kansas Multi-Agency Task Force was called in to conduct an arson investigation. The investigation was staffed by fire investigators and search teams from through the local area. They focused on finding the origin and cause of the fire, searching the rubble and debris for usable evidence and interviewing witnesses. A dog that was trained to detect the scene of accelerants was brought in to assist in the house search. The investigators quickly managed to rule out common causes of accidental fires, such as electrical panels and furnaces. They determined that the basement (which contained the furnaces) was not the point of origin, despite the fact that 2 small fires that were unconnected to the main had occurred down there. Accelerant pour patterns were found on the ground and 2nd floors, which showed that a flammable liquid had been poured there and covered much of the ground floor, blocking the stairway from the 2nd floor to the ground floor, and covering most of the hallway on the 2nd floor. The pour patterns stopped at the door of Green’s bedroom, but had soaked into the carpet in the hallway leading to the children’s bedrooms. Investigators were unable to determine exactly what accelerant was used but they did rule out a can of gasoline that was found in the family’s shed. The amount of accelerant used was between 3 and 10 US gallons (11 and 38L). All of this caused the investigators to rule the fire an arson attack, so on October 26 a 2nd task force was called in to focus on homicide. On October 27, the district attorney for Johnson County was told that the investigation was now criminal.

Whilst trying to find out who had set fire to the Farrar-Green home, investigators looked for any physical evidence of fire-setting on the people who had been in the house at the time. They suspected that, due to the use of the accelerant, the fire may have flashed over at the ignition point and singed/burned the fire setter. They tested the clothes of both Farrar and Green and took samples from their hair. Neither Green’s nor Farrar’s clothes showed evidence of having been in contact with liquid accelerant and Farrar’s hair showed no signs of being singed. However, Green’s hair, which had been cut twice between the time of the fire and the time of the samples being taken, showed significant singeing. Detectives remembered that Debora Green had denied being in close proximity to the fire at any point: she said she had left the house after seeing smoke and didn’t come into contact with the fire either on the deck outside her bedroom or in the process of coaxing Kate off the garage roof. Neighbours said that when Green had come to their door asking them to call 911, her hair was wet. The investigators suspicions began pointing towards Green, but they continued receiving tips pointing the finger at a number of people and the investigation continued with no statement about suspects.

When detectives found out that Michael Farrar may have been poisoned in the months before the fire, they investigated the origin of the castor beans that had led to police investigating the domestic dispute the previous September. The label on the seed packet  identified them as a product of the Earl May chain stores. An officer found contact information for the Olathe, Kansas Earl May store in Green’s address book. The detectives contacted Earl May stores nearby find out if any employees recalled selling castor beans (which were out of season in the fall). A clerk in Missouri remembered that in September a woman had come in and ordered 10 packets of the seeds, explaining that she needed them for schoolwork. The clerk gave the detectives a description of the buyer that matched Green and tentatively identified her in a photo lineup as the buyer. Store records showed that a purchase price that matched 10 packets of castor beans had been rung up on either September 20 or 22. No records were found of earlier purchases that would have matched the time that Farrar first became ill. Farrar needed surgery in November 1995 to treat an aneurism that his doctors believed was caused by the poisoning. Before surgery, he submitted blood samples to Johnson County’s crime lab to be tested for ricin antibodies.

Media reports in early November 1995 suggested that the list of suspects had significantly narrowed, first to those who knew the family and the house, then to one person. Based on the direction of the police investigation, news reports in the following days suggested that the poisoning of Michael Farrar was linked to the case but officials wouldn’t name the person suspected in either the arson or the poisoning. Debora Green was arrested on November 22 in Kansas City, Missouri, minutes after dropping Kate off at ballet practice. Green’s attorney had previously requested that, if arrested, Green be allowed to voluntarily turn herself in, the police and district attorney believed her behaviour was unpredictable and she was a flight risk, so they chose to arrest her without warning. Debora Green was charged with 2 counts of first-degree murder, 2 counts of attempted first-degree murder and 1 count of aggravated arson. In a press conference after the arrest, District Attorney Paul J. Morrison said that a “domestic situation” was the motive for Green’s alleged crimes. Green was originally held in a Missouri jail, before being extradited to Johnson County Adult Detention Center in Kansas, on $3,000,000 bond – the highest ever asked for in Johnson County.

A pretrial show cause hearing in the Green case started in January 1996. Green was represented by Dennis Moore and Kevin Moriarty. They claimed that the fire had not been set by Debora Green but by her son Tim Farrar, who had once been caught by the local police setting off Molotov cocktails. The defence also tried to attribute Farrar’s poisoning to Tim, who did most of the cooking in the household. Michael Farrar underwent surgery in December 1995 to treat an abscess in his brain that was caused by the poisoning. Fearful that he would not survive the surgery, and knowing that his testimony was vital to their case, prosecutors videotaped his testimony beforehand. The surgery, however, was successful and Farrar managed to testify in person. He recounted Green’s issues with alcohol and the breakdown of their marriage. Under cross-examination by Green’s defence, he admitted that both he and Green had contributed to the problems in their marriage and that his relationship with his son had been so explosive that they had occasionally come to blows. Witnesses called by the State supported Farrar’s and the prosecutors’ claims that police had been called to the home a month prior to the fire, and also that Green’s behaviour had been concerning at the time, even confirming that Farrar had turned castor bean packets into the police at that time. The Earl May store clerk who identified Green as the buyer of these seeds testified to that effect. Medical evidence concerning Farrar’s illness was presented that stated the illness did not fall into the parameters of any known disease, but its presentation did match the symptoms of ricin poisoning. An FBI criminologist testified that he had tested for ricin antibodies in Farrar’s blood approximately 2 months after his last serious bout of the illness, and found antibodies in such large amount that he could state with confidence that Farrar had indeed been subjected to repeated exposures to ricin.

A police officer (the first responder to the fire) testified that when he arrived on scene in the early hours of October 24, he found Kate Farrar to be “very frantic” with worry over Tim and Kelly, but Debora Green showed little or no emotion or concern. The defence argued that the psychiatric medications Green had been taking since her hospitalisation in September could cause blunted affect (a condition of reduced emotional reactivity), which could have led to firemen and police officers to report that Green appeared unemotional. Arson investigators testified about how they had found the origin and cause of the house fire, pointing out that the multiple unconnected, small fires they had found in the home’s basement were evidence of the fire having been set deliberately and the burn patterns on the home’s floors were evidence of a liquid accelerant being used to start the fire. The living room floor contained the largest amounts of accelerant and ended at the door of Green’s bedroom, which had been open while the fire burned. The state of the bedroom door contradicted Green’s statement that her bedroom door had been closed and she had only opened it briefly to look into the hallway. Detectives that had spoken to both Green and Farrar the night of the fire testified as to Green’s bizarre demeanour during the interview, and a videotape of the questioning was played, which included Green’s statements about having urged Tim Farrar to stay in the burning house and her references to her children in the past tense. The State rested their case on January 31, 1996.

Defence testimony focused on the theory that Tim Farrar, whilst angry at his father, set fire to the house. Tim’s friends testified that Tim had a fascination with fire and had told friends he knew how to make bombs. A neighbour also testified to once catching Tim burning some grass in his yard. A former nanny of the family said she had heard Tim speak about wanting Farrar dead and planning to burn down the home, catching him setting or preparing to set a fire multiple times. Upon cross-examination, she admitted that she had not seen Tim Farrar for years and confirmed she had not reported Tim’s alleged pyromania to his parents or to the police after expressing it to her. The defence rested on February 1. The presiding judge ruled that probable cause had been shown to hold Green for trial and her arraignment date was set for February 8, with her trial set to start in the summer. As the crime involved more than 1 victim, the prosecutors decided to seek the death penalty at trial. Faced with this possibility, Green’s defence team brought in Sean O’Brien, a representative of a Missouri anti-capital-punishment group. A series of legal movements on both sides took place in the late winter/early spring of 1996. Defence attorneys asked that cameras be banned from Green’s eventual trial, but the request was denied. Green was judged by court-appointed psychiatrists to be competent to stand trial and denied a bail reduction. The presiding judge ruled that Green would stand trial once, for all of the charges against her, rather than being tried separately on each count. Her defence team began its own investigation, hoping to disprove the State’s witness testimony that the fire was arson. They discovered that accelerant had, indeed, been used to cause the fire and that a robe belonging to Debora Green had been on the floor of her bathroom, burned in a way that suggested it had been worn while one of the unconnected fires was set. According to Ellen Ryan, when confronted by the evidence, Green admitted setting the fire that destroyed her home, but denied any clear memory of the event. She then continued claiming that Tim Farrar had been the one who poisoned his father. Green agreed to place an Alford plea (a plea that admits the prosecution has enough evidence to convict, while still maintaining innocence) of “no contest.”

January 23. 1897 the Opera „Königskinder“ from Engelbert Humperdinck was premiered. The second version has his Worldpremiere at the The Metropolitan Opera in 1910 with Carl Jörn (1873-1947) as the King‘s Son. Here we see a Original Castlist from one of the first performances at the Met.

December 13. 1912 was the first performance in The Metropolitan Opera New York from the Intermezzo “The Secret of Suzanne” from the Composer Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948).