'We're going to miss her'

YORKSHIRE, Friends huddled and wiped each other's tears Sunday as they placed flowers on the steps of Stacie Reed's home and remembered the slain teenager as "a polite, nice and outgoing girl."
"We're going to miss her, " said Candice May, a 16-year-old Manassas Park resident. "She was fun to be around. She was really easy to get along with, you could understand her and she could understand you."
Stacie, 16, was found dead Friday afternoon at her home in the 8000 block of McLean Street. Police said Stacie sustained multiple stab wounds during an attack that lasted several hours.
Her sister, Kristie Reed, 14, also was stabbed multiple times during the attack. She remained in fair condition at Inova Fairfax Hospital Sunday, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Police have charged Paul Warner Powell, 20, with murder, malicious wounding, abduction, rape, grand larceny of a firearm and three counts of use of firearm during the commission of a felony. Powell is being held at the Prince William-Manassas regional jail without bond and is scheduled to be arraigned today.
Flowers lined the three brick steps that lead to the front door of Stacie's home and a handful of balloons fluttered in the cold breeze Sunday. Friends also left greeting cards, letters and teddy bears.
"My heart goes out to her mom, " said Linda Finley, a school bus driver who used to drive Stacie to school. "I just want to hold her and tell her how sorry I am. What else can you do for her?"
Stacie was a student at Osbourn Park High School, where she was active in the ROTC program.
Kristie is a student at Parkside Middle School.
"It is so sad because you watch these kids growing up, " Finley said. "I have not had much sleep since Friday. I try not to be their mother, but it is so hard because I watch them grow. Stacie was a sweetheart."
Finley wrote a message to Stacie on a cigarette and left it in a bouquet of flowers. She then straightened the ears of a teddy bear and turned to comfort a group of teens from her bus route who had come to leave flowers.
"Stacie would always yell: 'Miss Linda, give me a cigarette, '" she said. "I always told her: 'You're not old enough.' She can have it now."
The slaying has rattled some teen-agers in the normally quiet neighborhood just outside Manassas Park.
"I was really shocked that one of my good friends was murdered right across the street from me, " said Sandy Whetsell, a 16-year-old Manassas Park resident who was involved in ROTC with Stacie. "She didn't deserve it and her little sister didn't either."
Camilo Gomez, 14, who attends Parkside Middle School with Kristie, said he has been worrying about his own safety since Friday.
"I thought Manassas wasn't like this, " he said. "I'm going to tell my mom where I'm going from now on."
Candice May said she hopes authorities punish whoever is responsible for her friend's death.
"I think the guy who did this should have the same thing done to him that he did to her, " she said.
Prince William Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert said Saturday he would seek the death penalty if Powell is charged with capital murder.