August 25, 2010 - Though Tyler Wolfegang Savage admitted to investigators that he killed a 16-year-old developmentally disabled teen and then had sex with her corpse afterward, and led them to her body Monday, some friends insisted Tuesday that he was “polite” – “trustworthy” – “a good kid.”
On the day that he allegedly murdered 16-year-old Kimberly "Kimmie" Daily, charging papers allege Savage played play video games to help him forget what he had done. Click here for story.
Jenny Bertho, one of Savage’s neighbors, has a 15-year-old son. She said Savage was like other kids – he liked to watch movies and play video games.
“I trust him wholeheartedly,” said Berto, a neighbor of Savage’s. “This is throwing me for a loop. This is totally unexpected.”
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The Puyallup neighborhood is in shock, mourning Kimmie’s death.
Kimmie’s father, Cecil Daily, said at Tuesday’s vigil held for his daughter, “My heart just dropped. Kimmie is my whole world and now I don’t have it.”
“I have raised her alone since birth and now I don’t have that,” he said. He closed her bedroom door while neighbors opened their hearts to the developmentally delayed 16-year-old who loved biking, hugging, and competing in the Special Olympics.
Police arrested 18-year-old Tyler Savage Monday. He was arraigned Tuesday and has been charged with aggravated first-degree murder in Kimmie’s death. If he is found guilty Savage faces life in prison or the death penalty.
“I knew exactly who it was – I had a feeling,” Cecil Daily said.
Neighborhood in shock
After a non-productive week-long search, Savage led investigators to Kimmie’s body about 150 yards off 122nd Street East in an overgrown vacant lot not far from his home.
Residents in the neighborhood were in shock over the senseless murder of such an innocent girl.
Berto, 35, was nearly in tears Tuesday and said, “He’s like a family member. I accepted him [Savage] into my home.”
According to neighbors Savage was known throughout the South Hill neighborhood. He was going to be a senior this fall at Emerald Ridge High School.
Berto said Savage took her son to the South Hill Mall and out for pizza. He liked coming over to play video games and watch movies.
“He’s a good kid,” Berto said of Savage, who wanted to be a video game tester and inventor. “He’s a gamer.”
Savage's friend, Curtis Rhyner, wrote to Examiner.com Wednesday and said, "Tyler was a good friend and a good person. This horrible thing he is charged with...it's just not like him at all.
"Tyler was the epitome of 'goofball' and 'class clown'.
"I'd never seen him angry unless someone was working hard to make him so.
"He wasn't a saint or anything. He skipped class on occasion and juvenile rebellious thing of the like, but never, I mean NEVER, in the most extreme of circumstances, could I ever see Tyler doing something this horrible.
"Tyler was a kind-hearted friend, and nothing anyone says will ever change that for me."
Michael Von Gnatensky, the Savage family spokesman, said Savage is polite and has never been in trouble before. He has not used alcohol or drugs.
“These are decent people,” Michael Von Gnatensky said of Savage and his family. “You couldn’t meet a better family. … They are blue-collar, salt-of-the-earth, regular people.”
Savage’s parents declined to speak about their son or be identified. His stepfather said they “need more time.”
Tacoma attorney Jay Berneburg met with Savage before his arraignment in Pierce County Superior Court Teusday and said Savage is “respectful, polite, and soft-spoken.”
“If these allegations are true, knowing how well-mannered and respectful this young man is, the question becomes: How did this happen?” Berneburg said. “When you meet this kid, these allegations are really surprising.”
Kimmie is listed as one of Savage’s friends on his Facebook page.
Under the "Interests" heading on his Facebook "info" page, Savage lists "Pyrotechnics."
On his page, Savages says he likes Vampire Wars, Ninja Warz, Castle Age, and Vampyre Empire. His favorite activities include tennis, skiing, long walks on the beach, and bible study.
He lists his favorite music: 50 Cent, Shania Twaine, Bee Gees, and Kansas; and his favorite movies: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and FernGully: The Last Rainforest.
“I think it’s terrible,” said Joe Owen, 80, as he stood at the front door of his home across from the lot. “A little girl got murdered, and to dump her at my front door.”
“It’s senseless,” said Lisa Whitlinger, 40. “Everybody loses.”
Cecil Daily says he spotted Savage with his daughter last summer.
"He was standing there and took off and I said 'Who was that?' and she said just a friend," Cecil Daily said.
He warned Kimmie that it only takes a second for something to go wrong. And he had a message for Savage if he ever saw him again:
"How could you?" he said. "How could a person... she never did anything to anyone."
Cecil Daily told KOMO News he knows he has a lot of painful years ahead facing the suspect in court.
Last year, he could barely afford to bury his father, and Tuesday night, the community took up a collection to help him cover his daughter's funeral expenses.
Charged with first-degree murder, Savage could get death penalty
Pierce County prosecutors say Savage admitted to killing Kimmie and then to sexually assaulting her corpse afterwards.
They charged Savage Tuesday with aggravated first-degree murder in Kimmie’s death and said they are considering the death penalty. Click here for more details about the charges against Savage.
Click here to read charging papers.
Savage has no prior criminal history and pleaded not guilty.
His mother declined to comment and told KOMO-TV outside the family’s home on 113th Avenue East in Puyallup, “You’re not getting nothing, you just need to go.”
Related:
Savage, says he killed then raped disabled teen, plays video games to forget
Body of missing 16-year-old disabled teen, Kimmie Daily, found; 18-year-old arrested
Sources:
The News Tribune
KOMO News
Facebook - Savage's page
Charging papers
Comments
End sex laws to curb people that feel the need to capitalize on people like cattle/sheep/duck/chickens. Politics is simple, when Oprah almost shut these laws down with her campaign to make prostitution legal in the 70″s a bunch of fascist rot, bought her and started a run, well your run is done along with sex laws, members are in the dirt too their eye lids. Nazi BS. It’s not a mental disorder to like sex as a child, the a mental disorder for making laws and manipulating a nation by media into thinking every household should line up & goose step when kids die at the rate of 90K per day and kids set up adults and other children, sometimes at the direction of other members of the family for fun/status/home ownership/money/deception/a new/God/Daddy/or? more time on stage at the local house of worship trying to impress #1 In the words of Stephen Hicks: Nazis thought socialism should control? not only economics but breeding, religion and other intimate details of life. I was chip as a child & again as n adult and met with military before I was 9 & the push for sex laws are as bogus as the legeslators that think they contribute to anyone
Sounds like you're upset you didn't get in on the fun.
Idiot.
Um...what? I don't care what you think of 'sex laws'...killing someone then RAPING THEM is by no stretch of the imagination something that should be tolerated by any society.
thank you for offering concrete proof why drugs are bad. mmkay?
Hang the fucker and make an example of him.
You know what, with all due respect(wait there is none). FUCK YOU. There are some cold hearted people who do sick shit their entire lives, some who kill for the joy of it, kill for some sort of sick pleasure they get from it, but Tyler is not that type of person. He screwed up big time apparently, and what he admitted to doing was incredibly wrong of him. The girl didnt deserve it, and neither did her family, but people like you are the same people who make communities around the world hurt even more when you say one sided bullshit like this. It causes even more pain for the family of the accused who definitely didnt convince him to do it or play a role in it directly in any way. So truly, fuck off and go man up and say that to someone he knew face to face. You would be put in your place.
Tyler was an incredibly nice person, i only knew him for around 6 months but he was never this type of person. I still dont fully believe that he did it, and i think he may in fact be covering for someone, but i no longer know. If he did fuck up this bad, then what ever he is sentenced is what he deserves, but to say something as cold hearted as this ass above me did shows nothing but straight up ignorance and arrogance.
If you see yourself as one who is in a place to decide such things, then i see you as being no different from a murderer yourself. The gallows are waiting for you to.
It wont be too long before they blame it on the video games.
How pathetic.
I wonder if they could cram in "He's a gamer" a few more times in that article like it was relevant to his actions.
"His favorite activities include tennis, skiing, long walks on the beach, and bible study. "
He reads the bible. Case solved. He has mental problems.
His brother stole his password and put that down. He can't play tennis, or ski.
They should do testing on his brain. Try to learn something about what might have triggered his actions. Hell one day maybe we can prevent stuff like this happening. Prison won't do shit, doesn't anyone else get this?
I agree
There was nothing wrong with him. He didn't care about his life so he did everything he could to ruin it. He doesn't deserve to live. All he is, is a waste of time, space, and money.
(A Little Piece Of Heven ) by Avenged Sevenfold Anyone? O.o
If u dont know what it is listen to it he was probably listing to this be for he did this.
The sad part here, is that we should be thinking about two families. What's done is done. This boy made a very bad choice. I see no speak of how this girl hated her Grandmother, never spoke of her Father, smoked and did who knows what else. There are more sides to the story than you know. That boy never left his house to hurt her. The paths crossed, something bad happened. May God support both families. They both have no clue what happened.
I knew Tyler. I road the same bus as him to school and had a few classes with him. Despite his politeness, I had no respect for him. He made absolutely no effort to create a future for himself. All he did in class was sleep, mouth off to the teacher, or play card games with his friends. He showered only, I would assume, once a week and never brush his hair and he smelt pungent. When I would ask him why he never tries in school, he would reply that he didn't care and that he planned on living with his parents for the rest of his life. Someone who wastes their time at school and not caring about getting a job is a WASTE of tax payer's money, having to pay for the schools and the welfare money he would eventually need because he wouldn't have a job to support himself.
We still are paying for him if he goes to jail, you realize that, right?
I went to school with Tyler Savage as well, though I didn't know him at all. I knew one of his friends, who I would always see him with. It's funny how the facts are skewed in all of these articles I've read about him; he wasn't "known throughout the community" as anything. He was a normal kid, who had fallen through the cracks in a growing city. Most people didn't even know who this kid was. Personally, as an outsider's point of view, it surprised me to hear there was a murder in my city. But, it didn't surprise me that it came from him--not necessarily him, but a person like him. He always seemed dark and unwelcoming to people that weren't his friends. And, excuse me for a lack of a better word..he was strange, and socially awkward. It's a possibility that there's something wrong with him mentally, something small that nobody has ever noticed. But seeing as how he is socially awkward, the possibility is there. When it comes to mental problems, it doesn't matter how nice the person is or how polite they are. Something could just trigger them, and bad things could happen.
I know we are still paying for him if he goes to jail, which is why I'm rooting for the death penalty.
Well now that you have all chimed in, I said sex laws. This guy says he murdered some one. The comment above says he wants to kill someone. which is better? someone who (like that garbage radio station keeps bringing that in 1981reached his hand under a desk and now they all want to prosecute an person for what is perceived to be an attempted sex assault by a teacher 30 years ago or a murder? End sex laws now you idiots.
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