85-year-old grandmother shot and killed while watching TV on Christmas Eve is remembered
At 85, Patricia “Pat” Panijan was still running a business, doting on her grandchildren and caring for her husband of more than half a century.
The couple began building a life in Kansas City, Kansas, decades earlier. They were devoted church-goers, members of the Croatian Fraternal Union and local property managers.
More than 50 years ago they bought a house in the 2800 block of North 73rd Place. It was their home as they built an affordable housing business, welcomed grandchildren and as Panijan tended to her husband following a series of heart problems, their daughters said.
“They made a good family,” said their daughter Gina Dorough. “They made a good life.”
On Christmas Eve, as Panijan and her husband, Joseph Panijan, watched TV in their home, a spray of bullets broke through the windows and walls of their front room.
After someone heard the gunshots and called 911, officers arrived to the home at 9:22 p.m. and found the wounded couple.
Panijan was killed in the shooting. Her husband was injured and hospitalized, but has since been released.
“This woman is missed by so many, and it’s really senseless murder of an innocent elderly woman,” Dorough said.
Leaning on a cane for support Monday evening, Joseph Panijan carried himself to the steps of his and his wife’s home. At least a dozen bullet holes remained.
Laid at the stairs were a dozen flower-filled vases and a small crop of lit candles poking out of the dirt, beside figurines of a bunny, cow and duck.
At least 100 had people gathered in the yard, including neighbors, family, friends and police officers, to remember Panijan and demand justice in her “senseless” killing.
“It’s a terrible thing,” a man said nearby.
“I just don’t understand,” a woman replied.
Kansas City, Kansas, Police Chief Karl Oakman and Mayor Tyrone Garner were in the crowd.
“You shouldn’t live 85 years and your life have to end violently like this,” Oakman told The Star. “No one in the community should tolerate this. No one in the community should put up with this.”
Oakman said the police department and community need to come together to solve this homicide. Police have not announced any suspects in the case.
The police department is asked anyone with information on what happened that night to call the anonymous TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).
This story was originally published December 28, 2021 at 12:37 AM.
