Neighbors react to Vine Street murder arrest

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Posted: Fri 9:16 PM, Jun 22, 2012

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Reporter: Courtney Everett Email

Updated: Fri 10:50 PM, Jun 22, 2012

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Neighbors react to Vine Street murder arrest

(WEAU) - "It’s kind of wakeup, like oh my gosh this happened here," said Joe Badour, neighbor.

A murder isn't something that happens very often in Eau Claire. After talking with neighbors, they were suprised police arrested Paul Oberle's next door neighbor.

"It’s always been a really great neighborhood, and my grandpa lives a couple blocks away , you just don't hear of stuff like that happening around here," said neighbor.

One man even says he used to deliver the paper to James Olson.

"I recognized the name when I heard him in the headlines so it’s always kind of strange, when you actually know the person," said Joe Luginbill, neighbor.

At the same time, another neighbor believes Olson went to his high school and he was surprised to hear the news. But he's happy it’s over.

"I had faith in our police department, I knew they were going to do their job, they had to cross their t's and dot the i's, had all their facts straight,” said Dave Ming, neighbor.

Neighbors we talked to early on say Oberle was a kind person and they couldn't imagine anyone hurting him.

We talked to Paul Oberle's family, but they didn't want to comment on the arrest.

"I'm sure they're devastated and will be for quite some time," said Ming.

"We have great law enforcement. We actually have quite a few police officers that live really close by, and all of us we really take care of each other. We're really a community in this neighborhood," said Luginbill.

While neighbors shared a variety of feelings for the investigation being over, one feeling they did agree upon is they do in fact feel safer in their homes.

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