05112015 - News Article - Family, co-workers didn't foresee violence

Family, co-workers didn't foresee violence
POST-TRIBUNE NEWS
May 11, 2015
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-murder-suicide-folo-st-0512-20150511-story.html

Family and friends of Brianna Ballor saw no signs of the violent side of the man who beat her up and killed her late Saturday night before taking his own life.

"I asked her two weeks ago if she was scared of him," said Elizabeth Hefner, Brianna's mother. "She told me she was not afraid and that he wouldn't do anything to hurt her."

The couple were in the middle of a divorce proceeding, so Hefner wondered why Ballor still lived at the residence with her daughter and their 2-year-old child in Morgan Township, near the Porter County fairgrounds.

Hefner said Glenn Ballor had just been let go from his job with a steel fabricating company in Buchanan, Mich. She said Ballor was an assistant wrestling coach at Michigan City High School and previously coached at Portage High School.

Police told Hefner that her daughter suffered a black eye and a skull fracture before Ballor shot her at point-blank range with a shotgun, she said. "My only consolation is I hope she passed out from the blow to the head before he shot her."

Hefner said she didn't know Ballor kept loaded guns in the home, which is next door to her own home.

Allison M. Cox, director of the Porter County Juvenile Detention Center where Brianna Ballor worked as a supervisor, said she never mentioned problems at home. "Our hearts are aching. She was a huge part of our family," Cox said.

Glenn Ballor, who was a wrestler at Portage High School where he graduated in 1995, is listed as an assistant wrestling coach at Michigan City High School on its website. Officials there couldn't be reached for comment.

Ballor also worked as a wrestling assistant at Portage High until about two years ago, said Portage athletic director Kelly Bermes who said he was also previously an assistant coach at a Portage middle school.

Court records show Glenn Ballor pleaded guilty to burglary in 2003 and fraud in 2004. Both were felonies. Between 2000 and 2014, he had several brushes with the law that included 11 arrests. "Yes, we do criminal background checks," Bermes said. "The thing you're speaking of happened quite a while ago."

Bermes said she wasn't athletic director when Ballor joined the wrestling coaching staff.

"This is a tragedy, I never would have imagined it," she said.

Meanwhile, grief counselors and therapists met with staff members and kids Monday at the Juvenile Detention Center.

"We have lost a family member and we're reeling right now," Cox said. "Our hearts are devastated for Brynn," the couple's 2-year-old daughter who was home during the fatal shootings.

Cox said Brianna Ballor began work at the detention center as a detention officer in 2010. She was promoted a few times and worked as a daytime supervisor.

"She had a fantastic ability to work with at-risk kids," Cox said. "She always had a smile on her face, even on the hardest days."

Cox said the staff met with kids incarcerated at the center early Monday. "They're taking it hard, she's well-liked."

Grief counselors came in the afternoon to talk with staff.

"This is a family here, it's very tight-knit," Cox said.

The couple were married about three years ago after meeting during a wedding.

Brianna was the 2002 valedictorian at Morgan Township High School where she played basketball and ran track. She graduated from Purdue University and the University of South Carolina where she majored in criminal justice.

Her funeral is at 11 a.m. Thursday at Moeller Funeral Home in Valparaiso.

Arrangements for Glenn Ballor are pending at Edmonds & Evans Funeral Home in Portage.