Slain woman was dedicated to Judaism, children say

The son and daughter of the Jewish Federation employee who was slain Friday said their mother was a vibrant and gracious woman who loved her family, friends and dogs, and took to her adopted religion with an intense passion.

"I called her 'Super Jew,' " Nicole Waechter Guzman, 36, said of her mother Pamela Waechter. "She embraced it wholeheartedly. She dedicated her life to it. Her whole life was Judaism. And she was killed for it."

Pamela Waechter, 58, died Friday after Naveed Afzal Haq forced his way into the Federation's office in downtown Seattle and shot six women, police said.

In the aftermath of their mother's death, Guzman and her brother, Mark Waechter, spoke Sunday afternoon of her warmth, and of their loss.

Guzman, an interior decorator, said she regularly spoke with her mother four or five times a day, and that her mom was her best friend.

Guzman was at her office in Lynnwood on Friday afternoon when co-workers called and said there'd been a shooting at the Federation office. Guzman looked on the Internet, called Harborview Medical Center, then drove there.

Eight hours later, she finally learned her mother had died.

"I thought 'Oh, God, what the heck happened here?' " Guzman said through tears during a news conference at her home in North Seattle.

Guzman's brother, Mark, 33, who drove up from Phoenix after hearing about the shooting, said his mother was the best at everything she took on. He also said she would have wanted something good to come of the shooting.

But emotions were still too raw Sunday for either child to see what that might be.

"I can't think of anything positive right now," Mark Waechter said. "It's too new."

Said Guzman, "If it wasn't her [who was killed] she'd see [a way] through this."

Craig Welch: 206-464-2093 or cwelch@seattletimes.com