LDS missionary slain in Russia

Stabbing was apparent act of random violence

Last updated 10/18/1998, 12:01 a.m. MT

      An LDS Church missionary serving in Ufa, Russia, was
stabbed and killed Saturday by a band of assailants in what
appears to have been a random act of violence.
      His companion, who was stabbed in the stomach, remains in
an Ufa hospital in stable condition. Ufa is about 750 miles east
of Moscow.
      According to officials of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, Elder Jose Mackintosh, 20, of Hiko, Nev., and
Elder Bradley Borden, 20, of Mesa, Ariz., visited an LDS family
in a high-rise apartment Saturday evening and left the home about 
8 p.m.
      The two rode down to the building's lobby in an elevator
and were crossing the lobby when they met a group of men
loitering there. According to witnesses, the men appeared to
have been drinking.
      Elders Mackintosh and Borden had partially made their way
through the group when the men attacked and stabbed Mackintosh
to death and wounded Borden.
      The Mackintosh family was visiting relatives in Provo when
they learned about the stabbing, said Douglas Miller, bishop of
the Hiko Ward. The assault happened at midmorning in this time
zone. Church authorities notified the family Saturday afternoon.
      "It's a terrible loss," Miller said of the stabbing. "He's
always had a special and cheerful spirit. It's a tragedy to all
of us. I've known him most of his life and I'm going to miss him
severely."
      Elder Mackintosh is the son of Jose and Rebecca Mackintosh,
Miller said. The family lives on a farm in Hiko, a southern
Nevada town of about 600 approximately 90 miles north of Las
Vegas. About 200 people belong to the Hiko Ward.
      Word of the death was starting to spread around the small
town Saturday night. John Lytle, 17, went to school with Elder
Mackintosh at Pahranagag Valley High School.
      "I just heard about it 15 minutes ago," Lytle told the
Deseret News. "I knew him pretty well. It's very shocking. He
was on the wrestling team, and he liked to hang out with his
friends."
      Richard Westergard, Elder Borden's stake president,
delivered the news to the family Saturday afternoon.
      "It was difficult to discuss something like this with
parents," he said. "(The Bordens) have a lot of family here
rallying around them, and they have a lot of support from
church members. They're handling it as well as parents could."
      President Westergard has known Elder Borden and his family
for years. Elder Borden graduated in the top 20 of his class at
Mesa High School. He has an academic scholarship waiting for him
at Arizona State University, President Westergard said.
      Elder Borden is a member of the Dana Ranch Ward in Mesa.
He has four brothers, one of whom returned from a mission a
couple of months ago.
      The assailants were still at large late Saturday, church
officials said.
      Robbery does not appear to have been a motive since no
money or valuables were taken. Whether the motive included
hatred for Americans or for Latter-day Saints is unknown.
      "It was a shock," said Elder L. Aldin Porter, a member
of the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, late Saturday. "We mourn for the parents,
for the families — and the whole church mourns."
      A witness to the attack called police and the missionaries
were taken to the hospital, according to church spokesman Don
LeFevre. It is unknown whether Mackintosh died at the scene or
at the hospital.
      Mackintosh, the senior companion, had been on his mission
just over a year and was due to be released next September.
Borden began his mission last January.
      Elder Porter couldn't say whether the missionaries of that
mission, the Russia Yekaterinburg Mission, would be required to
travel in groups of four instead of twos or spend more time in
their apartments — safety measures that have been taken in the
past following such incidents, including one earlier this year
when two missionaries were kidnapped in Saratov, about 450 miles
southeast of Moscow.
      Thirty LDS missionaries are currently serving in Ufa — a
relatively large city. Despite the well-publicized violent
encounters of late, Elder Porter said it is unlikely that any
missionaries would be pulled out of Ufa or, indeed, out of any
other place in Russia.
      There are currently seven LDS missions in the country.
      "Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our
missionaries, (but) this seems to us a totally isolated
situation," Elder Porter said.
      "It appears to be a random act. I think it would take a
great deal more before we pull missionaries out of Russia. . . .
The senior brethren will discuss the safety of our missionaries
there, but they always do everywhere. We simply have to know
more facts."
      Elder Porter pointed out that the approximately 59,000
young men and women serving as LDS missionaries throughout the
world are relatively safe compared to their contemporaries who
are not on missions.
      Nevertheless, serving a mission, by its very nature,
presents some risk. It requires being out mingling with the
populace — a populace that, necessarily, contains good and bad
elements.
      "It's so rare. The safest place in the world for young men
and women of that age is in the mission field," Elder Porter
said. "Even though they are not encased in a cocoon; they are
out among people."