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| Ex-Illinois warden was among dead in Kosovo |
| By Post-Dispatch |
| Published: 04/26/2004 |
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One of the two American correctional officers shot and killed last Saturday in Kosovo while working with the United Nations mission there was the former warden of Shawnee Correctional Center in Vienna, Ill. Friends, family and former colleagues are mourning the death of Kim Marie Bigley, 47, who grew up in Greene County, Ill., and spent 19 years working for the Illinois Department of Corrections. Bigley was killed when a U.N. police officer from Jordan opened fire on a group of 24 officers leaving a prison in Mitrovica after a routine day of training. Two people were killed and 11 were wounded. The Jordanian officer who began firing was killed in a 10-minute shootout, authorities said. The other four members of his Jordanian police unit were placed under 30 days' detention last Tuesday by an international judge. An investigation is under way. Bigley was employed by DynCorp International, a unit of Computer Sciences Corp. of El Segundo, Calif., which contracts with the State Department to provide corrections and police officers in Kosovo. Kosovo, part of Serbia and the old Yugoslavia, has been under U.N. control since 1999, after a 78-day air war by NATO to stop Serbia from persecuting ethnic Albanians in the province. Kerry Camp, a friend and former colleague of Bigley at Shawnee Correctional Center, said Bigley had seen the assignment as a job opportunity and a chance to use her expertise in a part of the world where her experience was needed. The other slain officer was Lynn Williams, 48, of Elmont, N.Y. Another former Shawnee Correctional Center employee, Gary Weston of Vienna, and Janice Biggs of Ballwin, a former St. Louis County corrections officer, were among the 11 officers wounded. Family members expected Biggs to arrive in St. Louis today to continue her recovery at an area hospital. Bigley was warden at the Shawnee prison from January through October last year, and was one of nine Illinois prison wardens fired after Gov. Rod Blagojevich was elected. She and several of the others had sued Blagojevich over their dismissals. Department of Corrections spokesman Sergio Molina said wardens and assistant wardens serve at the pleasure of the governor and the director of the department. Bigley was active in Republican politics; Blagojevich is a Democrat. Bigley is survived by her parents, James and Janis Bigley of Greenfield, Ill., two sons, a daughter and a brother. |
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