By ELIOT SILL

Staff writer

When Duane McCarty got a call on Thanksgiving that he and Sergeant Larry Starkey should meet up with Marion Police Sergeant Mike Stone, he assumed it was routine business.

It was anything but.

Stone and his wife, Alicia, who works as an emergency dispatcher, had gotten word that Steve Janzen, whose son Steven works as a Hillsboro police officer, had died.

“He said ‘You know, it’d be a really good idea if we went by just for a little bit and let Steven know we all got his back,’” McCarty said.

The four of them, Mike Stone, Alicia Stone, McCarty, and Starkey, drove to St. Luke Hospital, where Steve had just died. The officers shared embraces with Steven and offered words of support. They remained there until the family left the hospital for the night.

Stone was a police chief in Florence for two years, where he became acquainted with the Janzens.

“You just get to know everybody,” he said. “One of my son’s football games recently, Mr. Janzen was there and we got to visiting about my son. Even though he was sick, he would give 100 percent of his interest, he was just a really good man.”

Stone said he had lost his mother a couple years ago and that was difficult for him to get over, so he understood somewhat what Officer Steven Janzen would be going through.

“Cancer doesn’t care who you are, unfortunately,” Stone said. “But people like that sit special in your heart no matter what.”

Alicia Stone worked as a dispatcher for Officer Steven Janzen, and she said they were very close.

Steve’s wife Phoebe Janzen noticed the officers and praised their support on social media. Stone said they weren’t sure whether Phoebe had seen them, as they didn’t want to impose on her in a time of such loss.

“It was a nice show of support for Steven, I think,” she said.

Stone said the gesture was part of the fraternal bond that comes with being law enforcement, as well as the bond of being part of a small community.

“It’s just being what this county’s about, what the community’s about, and that’s always being there for each other,” he said.