Jordan: U.S. teacher stabbed to death by teenager

Cheryll Harvey, a teacher from Plainview, Texas, who was teaching English to students in Jordan, was murdered Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2012. Police say a teenager who was robbing her apartment confessed to the crime. / International Mission Board

(CBS/AP) AMMAN, Jordan - A Jordanian teenager stabbed to death a Texas woman living in the kingdom during an argument that broke when she caught him stealing from her apartment, police said Friday.

The 17-year-old confessed to the Tuesday night killing of Cheryll Harvey, 55, in her fourth floor apartment in the town of Barha north of the capital Amman, said police official Abdul Wali Shakhanbeh.

Harvey, a native of Sudan, Texas, had been teaching English in Jordan for the past 24 years, according to police records. The U.S.-based Baptist Press said her teaching was in connection with the Jordan Baptist Society. Church officials did not answer repeated calls for comment.

Violent crime is rare in Jordan, a country closely controlled by the security forces that also has tight-knit family connections.

Shakhanbeh said the alleged killer used to accompany his father, a maintenance worker, to Harvey's apartment for repair work. He then started coming regularly to help her with chores and bring her groceries, receiving payment.

On Tuesday, the boy came to her house and wanted to steal money, the policeman said. "When she found him looking through her purse in her bedroom, she began to shout at him."

"He was scared the neighbors would hear her screaming. So, he grabbed a knife from the kitchen and stabbed her 10 times, including three fatal wounds to her neck," he added. The boy then took Harvey's car keys, locked the apartment door, leaving behind her dead body lying in the living room, he said. No money or other items were found missing.

He said neighbors and friends called police to say Harvey was missing.

Shakhanbeh said the boy could not be named until he is put on trial for premeditated murder. No trial date has been set, he added.

Adult convicts are usually sentenced to death, but juveniles usually receive a lighter sentence of life in jail.

"This is a tragic incident involving a woman who had considerable respect and admiration and great achievements in her host community," Shakhanbeh said.

Harvey was a member of College Heights Baptist Church in Plainview, Texas, and grew up attending First Baptist Church in Sudan, Texas according to a posting on the International Mission Board website.

"Cheryll was greatly loved by both our personnel in the Middle East and by her many students," IMB President Tom Elliff said in a statement. "We are faced once again with a sobering reminder of the brevity of life and the importance of faithfully serving the Lord to the very end of our time on earth. Cheryll has left for us a great example that we should follow.

Elliff said that Harvey "will always be remembered for her quiet and unassuming spirit, as well as her passion for sharing the Good News."

Robert Roecker, pastor of First Baptist Sudan, which Harvey had visited in recent years presenting slideshows of her work in Jordan, said his church is in a "state of shock."

It was not immediately clear if she would be buried in Jordan, or if her body will be repatriated to the United States.

The U.S. Embassy in Jordan expressed its condolences, spokesman Silvio Gonzalez said.

[ksmit2]

This is really sad when a kind, selfless person loses their life due
to a senseless, tragic scenario. Living in Jordan is safer than living
in most parts of the US. Crimes like this happen anywhere. I worked
in Riyadh in the late seventies, working with folks from Egypt,Jordan
and of course Saudis. They all spoke English pretty well. It didn't occur to me that we had people flying in from thousands of miles away
to teach English especially today. With all due respect to this poor
lady, and "good intentioned" missions, I would hope that more help
could be concentrated in parts of the world that need clean water
development, agriculture technique, epidemiology and immunization
initiatives as compared to teaching English in the increasingly
modern middle east city of Amman. Good luck, and condolences to the
family.

[bbarnes5557]

Why is this news??? Come to Orlando Florida and watch the local news for a week and you will see more murder and mayhem that is never on a major news source web page////

[maz_beachbum]

I hear ya . . I lived in Orlando for 20 some years and it was really bad when I left there. I retired to Mazatlan Mexico where life is good and I feel much safer here than I did driving on OBT.

[ToolMangler1]

If you are a 'Gringo', Lotsa luck!!!!! LOLOL

[dajezzeny]

Anyone to take a tragic story such as this to push their agenda is a very self-serving person...and you've picked the wrong place to push your platform.
This woman came to Jordan twentyfour years ago to unselfishly teach people the English language. She did this and ends up losing her life because someone that she accepted into her apartment wanted to steal from her? This is wrong....I don't care where you come from...how you were raised....wrong is wrong. Now there is one less decent person in Jordan and there are others that will be effected by the loss of her, for this I grieve. It was senseless.

[NoGods49]

She loved her money more than she loved serving her god. "Her quiet and unassuming spirit" wasn't present, and didn't serve her, in the end. Even as a non-christian I would have had compassion and understanding for a young man who felt he needed to steal money from me, especially if he saw me living so much better than him and his family.

[Aine57]

I have no idea how well he and his family lived. There is no indication in this article. Nor is there any indication that this teacher lived a lot better than he did. He may not have "needed" to steal at all. He'd done chores for her numerous times and been paid for them. Don't assume "she loved her money more than she loved serving her god." She may have been more upset by the betrayal of this young man whom she had trusted in her home so many times than by the loss of any cash.

[vielmann]

What a ridiculous comment, nogods. Religion aside, this is completely unacceptable approval of what happened to her. You should be ashamed.

[formerlyluvnut]

Boo hoo. She should be teaching english to the street urchins HERE in America. Poop happens, NO sympathy here.

[vielmann]

You must be a victim of a meaningless life. Thank goodness I wasn't raised like that.

[earth5695]

Well FormerlyLuvNut,

The nut is not formerly when it comes to your character.

[John782011]

Sorry for the lady, but as the article reads, it sounds neither politically or religiously motivated. So let's let the jordanian justice system do its work and morn for the victim.

[rwsmith29456]

Yeah, this could have happened anywhere so it's not really a news story.