Florida woman stabbed was spending summer in London

TALLAHASSEE — A woman who looked forward each year to traveling with her husband as part of Florida State University's study-abroad program was the victim of a London knife attack earlier this week.

Darlene Horton, 64, of Tallahassee was killed Wednesday night in London's bustling Russell Square, just blocks from the FSU Study Centre. It was hours after the university's semester in London — where her husband, Rick Wagner, was teaching for the summer — had come to an end. The couple was preparing to return home, and her friend Mary Alice Linzy was looking forward to playing a doubles tennis match with them at Killearn Country Club here.

Then Linzy saw reports on Facebook of an American woman killed in the attack that also wounded five others and prayed that it wasn't her close friend of 15 years.

“We’re just a small little town here, and we have this small tennis community,” Linzy said. “What’s the odds? I know it can happen anywhere to anyone, but what are the odds?”

Florida's capital city is home to just shy of 200,000 residents.

Horton, a retired special-education teacher, never made it to the hospital. She died at the scene after paramedics tried to save her.

Two women and three men — another American, an Australian and Israeli and British citizens — also were injured in the attack that Scotland Yard said came from a knife-wielding 19-year-old Norwegian national of Somalian origin. Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said police so far have found no evidence of radicalization or anything that would suggest that terrorism motivated the teen.

"Whilst the investigation is not yet complete — all of the work that we have done so far, increasingly points to this tragic incident as having been triggered by mental health issues," he said. "At this time we believe this was a spontaneous attack and the victims were selected at random."

Zakaria Bulham, 19, of London was charged Friday with murder in connection with Horton's death, according to Metropolitan London Police. They also charged him with five counts of attempted murder, and he has his first appearance Saturday in Westminster Magistrates' Court.

The random, brutal killing of Horton devastated those who knew her. Many friends were too bereft to talk about her passing.

University officials rushed to assist Wagner, who remained in London.

Janet Kistner and Wagner started their careers as psychology professors around the same time at Florida State. Each had children, and the families became fast friends, commiserating over the struggles of parenthood.

Kistner, the university's vice president for faculty development and advancement, remembered Horton as a bubbly, vibrant person deeply involved in her tight-knit family.

“Darlene for me was just a bright, inquisitive person,” Kistner said.

Wagner and Horton were devoted to the study abroad program and had been traveling overseas for several years, Kistner said.

“They were a terrific couple, and a lot of us were quite close with them,” she said. “We are a faculty that knows everybody as family. It’s very much a loss for all of us.”

Horton was a longtime educator in Thomasville City Schools, about 30 miles northeast of Tallahassee in Georgia. She began as a special-education teacher in 1984.

Jocelyn Thompson of Thomasville met her two years later when they were both teachers at Balfour School for Young Children in Thomasville. She recalled Horton’s gentle, loving nature toward students.

“She was just pleasant, loved her students and was eager to do whatever she had to do. She would go beyond the extra mile to what she could for her students,” Thompson said. “She had a vibrant personality. That’s been so many years ago, but I remember it like it was right now.”

Horton and Wagner are admired in the psychology and education world. Their philanthropic efforts, which extended to the Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Foundation, Opening Nights Performing Arts at Florida State and the Leon County Humane Society did not surprise friends.

Jane Marks remembered Horton as a devoted, family-oriented mother and educator. A neighbor of Wagner and Horton for more than a decade, Marks said the couple and their two adult children were the epitome of a happy family.

“When you hear the term, fine family, they’re what I think of,” Marks said. “She is absolutely lovely. Just one of the nicest, sweetest family-focused people who is very happy in her space and place.”

Horton’s tennis partner Linzy and several others gathered as usual Thursday at the Killearn Country Club tennis courts, but it was hard to play. Something was missing.

“I’m just going to miss her so much. She was an inspiration for me,” Linzy said. “Every time I step on the tennis court now I’m going to be thinking of Darlene. I just cannot believe it.”

Follow Karl Etters on Twitter: @KarlEtters