SKATING STAR NANCY KERRIGAN LOSES FATHER IN...

Nancy Kerrigan, the skating star whose run-ins with Tony Harding almost cost her a silver medal in the 1994 Olympics, mourns the loss of her 70-year-old father, Daniel, who may have been killed by her 45-year-old brother, Mark, in Stoneham, Massachusetts. Daniel was found unresponsive at his home on Sunday morning and died later in the day. Today Mark is in court, charged with assaulting the elder Mr. Kerrigan, although a cause of death won't be determined under a pending autopsy is performed by the state medical examiner's office. Police were called to the family home at 1:45 a.m. on Sunday morning--Mark Kerrigan said that he "struggled with his father and put his hands around his father's neck and his father fell to the floor," according to the filed police report. After arresting Mark on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon on an elderly person and causing bodily injury, the police took him to Melrose-Wakefield Hospital for an undisclosed medical issue. Sources say that Kerrigan was drunk and very belligerent towards the police who arrived to assist Daniel. Mark was released from the hospital around 4 P.M. and Daniel was pronounced dead at 3:40 A.M. Nancy Kerrigan was America's sweetheart, a skating star who took her medals and walked off into the sunset, to have a successful entertainment career and a happy domestic life with a seemingly loving family. How does it all go so wrong? Is the determined support of one child over another always going to cause dissension and anger somewhere down the road? Domestic violence, particularly when it ends as tragically as this situation has, is never a laughing matter. What drives someone to such reckless and horrific actions? And what causes the foundation to crack in a life that previously seemed to have it all under control? Skating star or not, Kerrigan is surely going to have the emotional challenge of her life getting through this awful occurrence.