In a small community of just 800 people, word of what happened on Sunday is spreading quickly.
People say Dolores White lived in Kearney for most of her life and nearly everyone knew who she was.
“She went to most events that were happening,” says resident Edwin Gaupholm.
White lived at a home on Main Street. Neighbour say she ran the one room Catholic school for 14 years. She retired about 30 years ago.
“I know she used to be a school teacher, she taught my neighbour. He’s guessing she’s about 85 and lived on her own,” said one resident.
While the police aren’t saying how White was hurt, people in town are talking. They say she was attacked in the middle of the night, by a stranger with a knife.
“It’s the ultimate cowardly act by some young punk or something, it’s very unsettling. My wife is very unsettled,” said another resident.
A lot of people are feeling uneasy, residents don’t know if there is a suspect on the loose or if they should be worried about their own safety. What they do know is that they’ve lost a neighbour in a very tragic way.
“From what I understand she was alone. She had an alert button and apparently she had the alert button and her daughter got alerted,” says Bruce Spinney.
White’s daughter lives right across the street and on Monday no one in the family wanted to speak about what happened.
