Attack is on mind of coach

BEIJING - In a hospital here, a family recovers. This is not simple because the details of the murder that shocked the Olympics are still too raw, too awful to describe in detail. But yesterday, Elisabeth Bachman McCutcheon was able to talk to her husband, Hugh, about the killing of her father, which she witnessed. And that alone was a small step forward.

"Clearly, Elisabeth is a victim in this too," United States men's volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon said last night of the attack at the Drum Tower, a local landmark, that killed Todd Bachman and seriously injured Elisabeth's mother, Barbara. "She physically is unscathed but having to deal with this incident has been hard for her. She's shown incredible strength and over the last couple of days we've been able to talk our way through it.

"There have been a lot of tears and a lot of hugs but the fact that she's able to address what happened is a testament to whatever you want to call it - her intestinal fortitude. Her strength is her character."

Still visibly shaken by the murder of his father-in-law, McCutcheon sat in a meeting room at a hotel, looking drawn and sad but still managed to speak warmly about his wife's family, especially Todd Bachman, whom he called "a man of great personal integrity."

"He stood for things and lived them," McCutcheon said.

Todd and Barbara Bachman had come to the Olympics on a tour package and brought along their daughter who was a member of the US women's volleyball team at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. The trio's trip to the Drum Tower was one of the excursions provided by the tour company.

McCutcheon, who has remained by his family's side, declined to give details of the attack because of the impending Chinese investigation. But he said it happened "quite quickly" and that it appeared to be unprovoked.

Chinese authorities identified the attacker as Tang Yongming, a 47-year-old man from the eastern city of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province.

McCutcheon said doctors from the US Embassy, the White House, and USOC have monitored Barbara Bachman's condition, which was upgraded yesterday from critical to serious. (Washington Post).