Murder victim packed her life with love, family and travel

Sandra Harris was making plans for her retirement during the morning of Nov. 18, 2016.

The Kennewick woman had retired from an almost 40-year career as an accountant for Boise Cascade.

She and husband Randy had just marked 30 years of their happy union. The couple was planning a monthlong vacation to Australia and New Zealand, poring through brochures in anticipation.

It was supposed to be a day where the couple started some of their golden years together.

It was the day a former prison guard from Connell came to Harris’ home, shot her, kidnapped her and murdered her.

Harris — Sandi to her husband — was warm and friendly and inspired the same in others, Randy Harris testified at a sentencing hearing Friday for her murderer, Theresa Wiltse.

Benton County Superior Court Judge Cameron Mitchell sentenced Wiltse to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the only option available after she pleaded guilty to aggravated first-degree murder and kidnapping.

Wiltse did not speak at the hearing. But Randy Harris and Theresa Kromm spoke at length, bringing the victim into focus after 15 months of legal proceedings centered on Wiltse.

‘I had to send it back’

Randy Harris described his wife as a loving daughter who didn’t hesitate to take her aging father into their home. She cared for him for 10 years, almost until his death at 98.

Sandra Harris expected to follow her father and life a long life. She banked on it, he said, electing to wait until she was 70 to begin receiving Social Security benefits.

Her first check arrived after what would have been her 70th birthday.

“I had to send it back,” Randy Harris said.

Harris also wanted to take Kromm’s boys to Disneyland someday, and throw a birthday party for her mother-in-law, who lived in Halfway, Ore. — population 270.

Everyone was invited to the party, Randy Harris said.

People were planning for Harris too.

He said employees at his Kennewick pawn shop had arranged for Sandra Harris’ children and grandchildren to arrive Dec. 14 for a surprise holiday gathering.

Talking to the devil

Randy Harris described the day when Wiltse, a customer of his pawnshop, took Sandra Harris.

Like any other day, he kissed Harris that morning and left for work.

Unusually, Harris called his cellphone some time later. He was surprised, but answered the phone by saying, “sweetheart”.

Harris said she had been kidnapped.

“I did not know at the time she had been shot,” Randy Harris said.

He ignored the kidnapper’s warning that he not call police, reaching out to a Kennewick detective he’d worked with for years.

He spent the rest of the day at the station, fielding the kidnapper’s calls from the his wife’s phone.

When Wiltse spoke through a device to disguise her voice, Randy Harris said it was like talking to the devil.

He called it a relief when the calls gave way to texts.

But those eventually stopped too.

Police told Randy Harris to go home at 2:30 a.m. the following morning. He needed to take care of pets.

He recalled the armed police escort and the horror of discovering that shots had been fired in the home.

Randy Harris said the Christian medallion a SWAT officer shared has been at his side ever since and is his most cherished possession. Prosecutors projected an image of the medallion during the sentencing.

It includes the Armor of God passage from Ephesians 6:10-12, on the reverse side.

‘The world stopped’

Theresa Kromm tearfully told the court she expected to grow old with her mother, that she would live to see her grandsons grow up, graduate school and marry.

Giddy at becoming a grandmother, Sandra Harris flew to her daughter’s side earlier than planned when the first was born.

Kromm’s sons adored their grandmother and always asked when they would see her next and if they could spend their birthdays with them.

They don’t bring her up anymore, struggling with the concept of “murder”.

Kromm described getting call from Randy Harris advising her that Sandra Harris had been kidnapped. She imagined her mother alone somewhere, waiting for help, injured or wandering.

Later, when Randy Harris called with the news that her mother’s body had been found, she went cold.

“The world stopped, right?” she said.

“And you,” she said, turning to Wiltse, “What you have done is unforgivable.”

This story was originally published February 23, 2018 at 8:12 PM with the headline "Murder victim packed her life with love, family and travel."