Woman remembered as hard worker

Today is going to be a "horrid” day in San Antonio for the family of Denise Stice, a Tinker Air Force Base civilian leader found slain at an Oklahoma City lake, Stice's sister Pat Tracy said Monday in a telephone interview.

"We're devastated. We lost our Denise,” Tracy said. "She was the youngest of five siblings. Everyone loved Denise.”

Today marks the first of four memorials honoring Stice, two in San Antonio and two in Oklahoma City. She will be buried Wednesday in San Antonio.

Her body was found Nov. 27 by a church group along the south shore of Lake Overholser. She had been shot in the head. Police have no suspects, Capt. Steve McCool said Monday morning.

Tracy said she knew of no enemies her younger sister may have had. Stice was a very spiritual woman and a hard worker, Tracy said.

Colleagues at Tinker called her "the face of small business” at the base. At the time of her death, she was director of the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization at the Air Logistics Center on the base.

But more than a professional, Stice was "the perfect stepmother,” her sister said. She was married to Don Stice, who had two children, Gary and Alex.

Don Stice was too broken Monday to speak of his loss. Denise Stice's sister said the family goes into today's memorial service still wondering who could have done this to Denise Stice.

"We know nothing,” Tracy said.