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One mourner had a familiar face

By TIMES WIRES
Published February 1, 2007

HUDSON

The choir of St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church gathered Friday to mourn a young member's death.

They had braced for Alison Matera's passing since they learned of her cancer. Among the mourners was a stranger who looked strangely familiar.

She said she was Matera's sister. But she looked and sounded exactly like Matera.

And the people wondered: Was it all a trick?

According to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, this is what happened:

Matera told some of her closest friends in the choir about the cancer last February. She gave them frequent updates on her treatment.

Near the end of last year, at the age of 27, she said she was giving up and entering hospice care.

Jan. 18, a woman who said she was a nurse called choir director Timothy Paquin and told him Matera had died. He spread the news and planned the memorial.

After the service, a choir member called the Sheriff's Office. A deputy visited Matera's apartment in New Port Richey that night. According to a Sheriff's Office report, she confessed to faking her sickness and death.

She was not arrested.

Sheriff's spokesman Doug Tobin said she did not commit a crime.

She told the deputy she has attachment problems rooted in childhood trauma.

After she gained several close friends in the choir, she said she had cancer to drive them away.

TAMPA

Library's reading room to honor activist

When 91-year-old civil rights activist Ellen Green died, her Port Tampa neighbors were divided on how to remember her.

Some wanted to rename the local library after her, but others were opposed - they had labored less than 10 years ago to name it the Port Tampa City Library, commemorating the neighborhood's historic roots as an incorporated city.

The Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library Board compromised. They'll dedicate the library's first-floor reading room to Green. Her family and friends are pushing for a May dedication to coincide with her birthday.

INVERNESS

Couey defense again seeks to delay trial

With mounds of new evidence to investigate, defense attorneys for the man accused of killing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford are appealing to a higher court.

John Couey's lawyers filed multiple motions Wednesday asking Circuit Judge Ric Howard to stay the proceedings so it can challenge his latest ruling to the 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach.

On Jan. 24, Howard rejected the defense's request for additional time to prepare for the Feb. 12 trial after the prosecution provided more than 1,000 pages of fresh evidence and about a dozen new witnesses.

DUNNELLON

Ex-Cardinals pitcher Lanier dies at age 91

Dunnellon resident Hubert "Max" Lanier, a former pitcher with the St. Louis Cardinals and other teams, died Tuesday (Jan. 30, 2007) at age 91.

Mr. Lanier pitched 12 seasons with the Cardinals, including the 1942 and '44 teams that won the World Series. Mr. Lanier's son, Hal, also was a major-leaguer who played for the San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees and managed the Houston Astros. The funeral service will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at Roberts Funeral Home in Dunnellon.

[Last modified February 1, 2007, 00:58:29]