Northpinellas: 'It's like we've lost a little sister'

'It's like we've lost a little sister'

Co-workers mourn a slain 20-year-old woman as her mother searches for dignity in her funeral, which is this afternoon.

By DEBORAH O'NEIL, Times Staff Writer

DUNEDIN -- Twenty-year-old Aimee Farrell, a security officer who was sexually assaulted and stabbed to death early Tuesday morning, will be buried today with an honor guard.

"She had no dignity in her death," said her mother, Elizabeth Farrell of Dunedin. "Maybe she will have some dignity in her sendoff."

Farrell was a criminal justice major at Florida Metropolitan University in Clearwater and worked as a communications officer in the operations center at Critical Intervention Services, or CIS, a Clearwater security firm. She was a licensed security officer and was planning to complete training soon to become an armed officer.

Her dream was to be a police officer.

Colleagues at the security firm where Farrell worked have been wearing black mourning bands across their badges, said Maj. John Arceneaux, Farrell's supervisor.

"It's like a family here," Arceneaux said. "It's like we've lost a little sister."

The company recruited Farrell after noticing her at a security training school. She worked there for a month coordinating the activities of security officers in the field via radio and computer.

At her family's request, Farrell will be buried in her CIS uniform. Officers from the company will escort Farrell's family to the funeral home in a procession of patrol cars.

And as a tribute to Farrell, the CIS honor guard will take part in her funeral, and her radio call sign, Adam 60, will be permanently retired, said K.C. Poulin, CIS president and chief executive.

"The most important thing in her life was to be a police officer," Mrs. Farrell said. "She got this job and thought her life for the first time was going so well. She never got a chance to be a police officer. I guess that's why I think this is important. She never got to fulfill her dream and this would give her the respect she deserved.

"I'm trying to do what I think she would want," Mrs. Farrell said. "I think she will be looking down from heaven clapping her hands."

Early Tuesday morning Todd Edwin Wadatz, a man Farrell hardly knew, called her saying he had an emergency. Farrell agreed to see him but was concerned enough about the 4:30 a.m. call that she phoned her mother to say he was coming over.

Farrell had met Wadatz through his wife, Christen, with whom she had once worked at a Clearwater beach hotel.

Family and friends say they believe Farrell allowed the visit because she was concerned something might be wrong with the couple's two little girls.

Police said Wadatz, 24, stabbed her to death in her apartment. They arrested him the same day on charges of first-degree murder, and police said he led officers to the spot on the Belleair Causeway where he had discarded the kitchen knife he used.

Farrell's mother found her dead in her apartment at 880 Mandalay Ave. about 5:30 a.m.

Services for Farrell will be today at Moss Feaster Funeral Home, 1320 Main St., Dunedin. A viewing will be from 1 to 3 p.m., immediately followed by a memorial service.

Farrell will be cremated and her family plans to scatter her ashes in the Intracoastal Waterway in the same area where they scattered the ashes of her father, Marvin Farrell, who died two years ago.

Officials at CIS say they are looking into whether they can provide Christmas toys for Christen Wadatz's daughters as part of their annual toy drive. Mrs. Farrell said she wants to give the children a set of Lincoln Logs she bought for her daughter as a Christmas gift.

"I know that's what she was worried about that night," Mrs. Farrell said. "She loved children and she would worry about them."