MH: More on Arthur Bomar
Halle 8
Martha wrote:
Here is some more information about Arthur Bomar, the man I believe may
turn out to be a serial killer. I posted a lengthy description of his
activities last week--he is charged with the murders of Aimee Willard
and Marian Cabuenos and may be a suspect in the murder of Julie
Barnyock, all of the Philadelphia area.
This is the guy who was identified through license plates as having
tried to get at least two other young women to pull over. He bumped
them with his car from the rear and tried to get them to pull over. The
two who reported him did not pull over; it is believed that this is the
technique he used to get Willard and Cabuenos in his control.
At the preliminary hearing last week, a girlfriend/fiancée of Bomar's, a
woman named Mary Rumer, testified that he told her about the Willard
murder shortly after it occurred in the summer of 1996. Willard's car
had been found abandoned on an off-ramp and her body, raped and beaten,
found later in a vacant lot in North Philadelphia.
Rumer said that Bomar had told her he was going to Smokey Joe's, the bar
where Willard was last seen alive, the night of the murder. When Rumer
saw Bomar again a few days later, his hand was injured, and he told her
he'd been in a fight at the bar that night.
They went out to dinner (at Bennigan's) and during the meal Rumer asked
him if he'd seen Willard at Smokey Joe's, and he said he had, and in
fact he had followed her to the parking lot to make sure she got in her
car safely. Then Rumer says she said, being smart-alecky, "You didn't
kill her, did you?" and he said that he had. She did not believe him,
thought he was joking, but then, after dinner, he drove her first to the
off-ramp where the car had been found and then to the lot where he told
her he had dumped the body.
She says he told her he followed Willard's car and forced her to pull
over (by bumping?). He flashed a badge he sometimes carried and told
her she had been swerving. She got out of her car and began to argue
with him. He punched her and put her, dazed, into his car. At some
point--Rumer was unclear about the sequence of events--he took her
clothes off and "had sex"--again, she did not know how or where. He hit
her over the head with a "heavy object," which apparently killed her.
He said he put her clothes in a trashbag and threw them away, then
dumped her body on the lot.
Some weeks after this, even though Rumer says she was terrified of
Bomar, she became engaged to him. She says she did not know that he was
already married.
While they were engaged, Bomar had several fairly minor run-ins with the
law, mostly traffic violations (including the two "bumps" we know
about), and in 1997 Maria Cabuenos and her car disappeared after she
left home to go to work. In late '97 Bomar was arrested during a
break-and-enter and had Cabuenos' car, which had dried blood later
determined to be Cabuenos' in the trunk.
A grand jury was called, and Rumer testified to the story from
Bennigan's, but then she almost immediately recanted it. Before the day
was over, she reappeared and told the jury it was true. Then she went
home and wrote letters to President Clinton, Gov. Ridge, Mayor Rendell,
and other officials saying she'd been pressured to say those things, and
that they were not true.
Then Bomar's mother and sister took Rumer (she went willingly, she says,
although she also says she was afraid of them, too) on a months-long
tour of California, Nevada (where Bomar had been in jail for killing a
man over a parking space), and Florida, expressly to keep her away from
law enforcement officials.
Then, with Bomar arrested in the Cabuenos case, his DNA was compared to
that from semen found in Willard's body, and it matched. Rumer, back in
the Philadelphia area, was found and subpoenaed, and retold (again) her
story of their dinner at Bennigan's.
Martha Sprowles
* * * * * * * * * * *
Martha, thanks for the great summary of this case! Here is a news article I
found on Bomar's "Nevada Years" I thought you might find interesting:
Jan. 12, 1998
Daily Times Staff Writer Leroy Williams Jr. recently spent a week in Nevada
researching the criminal past of accused Aimee Willard killer Arthur Bomar.
This is the first in a two-day series.
By LEROY WILLIAMS JR.
Of the Times Staff
LAS VEGAS, Nev.
Arthur Jerome Bomar was only 19 back in the summer of 1978, but possessed some
of the trappings of full adulthood.
He had a job as a hospital orderly. He had a wife. He drove a green 1973
Cadillac outfitted with a TV antenna.
It also was at age 19 that Bomar committed his first major crime, firing three
shots from a rifle at a 27-year-old neighbor outside their apartment complex
less than a half-mile south of downtown Las Vegas. One of those rounds hit
Larry Carrier in the chest, tearing through both lungs and his heart and
killing him instantly.
So began a 19-year saga of crime, prisons, parole boards and death - a trail
that ultimately would lead to Pennsylvania, Bomar's home state, where he is
back behind bars on charges of murdering 22-year-old Brookhaven resident Aimee
Willard.
Bomar, now 38, is also suspected of killing Maria Cabuenos, 25, of
Philadelphia, missing since March and whose skeletal remains were discovered
New Year's Day in Bucks County.
His arrest last month in the June 20, 1996, rape and murder of Willard, an
all-American athlete, capped an 18-month investigation into the county's most
publicized murder mystery ever and instantly ranked Bomar among the most
notorious figures in local history.
It also suddenly rekindled interest in the 1978 death of Larry Carrier - a case
that garnered scant attention when it happened but which now raises a number of
serious questions:
Did Bomar become an even more ruthless killer behind bars?
Did Nevada's prison system wash its hands of him once he served his time and
left the state?
Did Pennsylvania do enough to prevent the subsequent reign of terror Bomar is
now accused of?
Did the system fail, and would Willard and Cabuenos be alive today if it
hadn't?
A case study
Arthur Bomar never went to trial for the July 25, 1978, fatal shooting of
Carrier. The next year, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, which earned
him a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole after five
years.
He served his term more than 400 miles north in Carson City, Nevada's state
capital. For the fatal shooting and two other unrelated convictions, he ended
up spending the next 11 years behind bars.
Carrier's murder, which took place shortly before 5 a.m. that July morning, is
likely to have had its roots in an encounter that took place the previous day
at Bomar's apartment at East Hoover Avenue and Casino Center Boulevard.
In a statement to police, witness Patricia Chapman said that Carrier and an
unidentifed "partner" had been talking to her and Bomar's then wife, Lenise,
also known as Tammy.
When Arthur Bomar came home later, Tammy told him that Carrier had made
overtures to her. Bomar then went to Carrier's apartment, but he wasn't home.
The confrontation didn't come until several hours later, when the Bomars,
Chapman and another man, Robert Sheldon Lee, piled into Bomar's car to take Lee
back to the service station where he worked.
As they were about to ride off, up drove Carrier in his Dodge Charger. At that
point, Bomar double-parked on the street next to Carrier's car, got out and had
words with Carrier, who also had gotten out of his car.
Lee, who said he had known Bomar for only a week, provided most of the
eyewitness testimony during an Aug. 14, 1978, preliminary hearing.
He said Bomar and Carrier, whom he didn't know, argued for two to three
minutes. As Bomar appeared to be returning to his car, Carrier went to his
trunk and opened it "for some reason I didn't know."
Bomar then climbed back out of his car and went into his apartment. About 15
seconds later, Lee testified, Bomar emerged from the apartment with a rifle and
yelling.
"I believe he was saying, 'Go ahead and open your trunk and pull your piece
out,' or something. The next thing I knew, he fired two shots."
"Who fired two shots?" asked prosecutor John Squires.
Replied Lee: "Art did, from the rifle. Larry ran down the street and fell face
down."
Lee said Bomar returned to his car, climbed into the driver's seat and, with
his passengers in tow, drove off. He got rid of the weapon in a nearby alley
and came back to the scene, where they saw Carrier still lying in the street.
"We went around a couple of corners," Lee testified. "Art dropped me off, he
said there was no reason I should be involved because I didn't know him
hardly."
A shallow defense
Though not much has been documented about Bomar's life before the shooting,
court records show that he had lived in Nevada about 10 years at the time and
was working as an orderly in a hospital. Before then, he worked at a U-Haul
rental center. Nothing to suggest a brutal killer in the making.
In fact, during the preliminary hearing, public defender Marcus Cooper tried to
show that Bomar may have been acting in self-defense. He based his theory on
the initial statement Lee made to police several hours after the shooting.
"It may have been an attempt to shoot at Art," Lee said at the time. "It's
possible he could have mistaken him for going for his gun because I remember
seeing Larry lean forward like he was reaching for a gun or something."
But during later testimony, Lee said he never saw Carrier holding a gun or
rifle.
Justice of the Peace Miriam Shearing, who presided over the hearing, ordered
Bomar bound over for trial, and bail was set at $20,000. Bomar eventually
posted bail on Nov. 29, 1978, and moved to Reno to live with his mother.
He then was ordered by the court to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, and on
Dec. 1, 1978, was declared legally sane and competent to stand trial.
Then trouble struck again.
While Bomar was free on bail in the Reno area, he was arrested in Washoe
County, Nev., for the January 1979 shooting of a female friend in the knee.
Bomar told authorities he was trying to break up an argument between the woman
and her mother. He claimed the shooting was an accident, said Reynolds Johnson
of Nevada's Division of Probation and Parole.
Exactly what the relationship was between Bomar and the woman was unclear. He
was charged with two counts each of attempted murder, battery with a deadly
weapon and assault with a deadly weapon.
Those weren't his only troubles as his trial date in the Carrier killing
approached. Prosecutors planned to rely heavily on the testimony of witness
Patricia Chapman, who had been in his car at the time of the shooting.
According to Chapman's statement to police, Bomar used an obscenity-laced
tirade apparently to justify what he did as they drove away from the Las Vegas
crime scene.
"I don't like f--ing around. I'm going to shoot a n---, I'm going to shoot a
n---," Chapman quoted Bomar as saying. Bomar's use of the "N"-word presumes
that his victim was also an African-American male. Otherwise, little could be
gleaned from the court record about who Carrier was.
In the end, her testimony wasn't needed. On April 27, 1979, Bomar pleaded
guilty to second-degree murder. As part of a plea-bargain, all charges in
Washoe County would be dropped except for the one count of battery with a
deadly weapon.
At his June 18, 1979, sentencing, Bomar was contrite.
"I know the crime is very serious, what I have been charged with, your honor,"
Bomar told the court. "All I can say is that I am deeply sorry that had to
happen in Las Vegas but I really didn't want this to happen, you know, and a
carry my grief with the family, they losing a child like that, but I'm sorry.
"I know sorry don't help to bring back Larry. I am just sorry. I'm just saying
what I think."
Unanswered questions
The murder of Larry Carrier was one of 54 slayings reported in 1978 in Las
Vegas and unincorporated Clark County, Nev. Not a word of it appeared in local
newspapers that week. But in the wake of the Willard and Cabuenos cases, it has
attracted renewed interest, from the Vegas media and state law enforcement
authorities. A letter dated Dec. 12, 1997, from the office of Nevada Attorney
General Frankie Sue Del Papa sought copies of the Carrier case file.
At issue: Did Nevada drop the ball once Bomar was freed?
That question, and concerns about Pennsylvania's role in the Bomar case, were
at the heart of a state Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Dec. 19 in
Norristown.
Officials said Bomar was allowed to move to Pennsylvania after his release in
1990 because he had a stable home to come to - his mother lived in Bucks County
- and because he had a job lined up.
But he was set to be transferred back to Nevada and possibly returned to prison
in 1991, following an arrest in Montgomery County on assault and harassment
charges. Those plans went awry when the victim died of unrelated causes.
Bomar was almost returned to Nevada a second time in 1994, following an arrest
after a bar fight in Horsham. But this time - afterBomar pleaded guilty to a
misdemeanor count of simple assault - it was Pennsylvania officials who
recommended that he remain here.
Back in Nevada, Chief Deputy Attorney General David F. Sarnowski, who requested
the Carrier case file, would not give specific reasons why he ordered the
records. But he indicated it was related to the possibility that Bomar could be
extradited to Nevada to face charges that he violated his parole as a result of
the Willard case.
"Mr. Bomar technically is a fugitive," Sarnowski said. "Nevada still has an
entitlement to have him returned so that the parole violation can be
adjudicated."
Rosecyrus
In article <19980129005...@ladder02.news.aol.com>, hal...@aol.com
(Halle 8) writes:
<snip>
>A grand jury was called, and Rumer testified to the story from
Bennigan's,
>but then she almost immediately recanted it. Before the day
was over, she
>reappeared and told the jury it was true. Then she went
home and wrote
>letters to President Clinton, Gov. Ridge, Mayor Rendell,
and other officials
>saying she'd been pressured to say those things, and
that they were not
>true.
Then Bomar's mother and sister took Rumer (she went willingly, she
>says,
although she also says she was afraid of them, too) on a
>months-long
tour of California, Nevada (where Bomar had been in jail for
>killing a
man over a parking space), and Florida, expressly to keep her away
>from
law enforcement officials.
<snip>
This woman has some serious problems other than her relationship
with Bomar. It's a good thing they had the seman evidence or it
probably would never have been solved. Any idea why anyone would
do this? It doesn't seem even fear could justify this much waffling.
Rose
Rosecyrus
In article <34CFD9...@erols.com>, Martha Sprowles <spro...@erols.com>
writes:
>Wow, Halle. Thanks. I've been hoping that someone from Out West would
have
>information on what happened in Nevada. The Philadelphia-area
papers have
>continued to say that the Carrier shooting was "over a
parking space." Maybe
>they meant that literally <g>.
I'd love to know about this guy's childhood.
>It seems he was in Nevada
from age ten? Was he in PA before that? Did his
>parents live in PA or
Nevada? You'll recall that Nevada was one of the
>states Bomar's mother
and sister took his fiancée when they were keeping her
>away from cops.
I wonder if he has family still there?
Martha
This needs to be a book. Martha, didn't you say that
he was very ingratiating? Sounds like a sociopath/
psychopath, not a "product of the prison system" to
me. I wonder if they will discover other victims.
Rose
Rosecyrus
In article <34D09B...@erols.com>, Martha Sprowles <spro...@erols.com>
writes:
>Dear Rose,
I agree about the book. Yes, he is someone who is very charming
>and
engaging, according to the folks at his church. I do believe he's
>going
to turn out to be a serial killer--well, he has two "probables"
>already,
Willard and Cabuenos, and I am sure myself that he also killed
>Julie
Barnyock, who disappeared from the Lansdale train station when
>Bomar
lived in Lansdale. Her decomposed body was found long after the
>crime
in a weed-choked part of the railroad yard, cause of death,
>beating.
Martha
I've been reading WHOEVER FIGHTS MONSTERS, and
I was rather fascinated by Ressler's statements that
someone in the FBI fell under Bundy's spell and even
wanted to give him the results of the research they
were doing. Then after watching the interview with
Michael Swango (remember, the poisoning doctor)
I can see how people could persuade themselves that
it was not possible THIS person could be the murderer.
But to have him actually confess to you and still try to
help him evade justice as Bomar's girl friend does is
hard for me to accept. What did she possibly tell
herself? "Well, he didn't murder me, so he can't be
all bad?"
Rose