3 Bodies Found In Omaha Neighborhood
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3 Bodies Found In Omaha Neighborhood
November 30, 1999
ABC
(OMAHA) -- Omaha Police say they're investigating the deaths of three
people
whose bodies were found in Omaha's Prospect Hills neighborhood. The
bodies of
Victoria Huffman and her two sons, eight-year old Josh and five-year-old
Matthew, were found murdered in a home yesterday. Neighbors say there
had been
a history of violence at the house and that police had been called there
several times to break up fights. Court records show Huffman filed a
protection
order against her live-in boyfriend on September 23rd. He's been
questioned by
police, but was released last night. Authorities are now waiting for
autopsy
results to reveal how Huffman and her sons died.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 12/1/99 online edition of The
Omaha
World-Herald newspaper:
Published Wednesday
December 01, 1999
Victim Sought to Patch Up Life
BY JOHN W. ALLMAN
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Victoria Lynn Huffman was seeking balance.
Freed from a 10-year marriage to a wandering soul, she and her two sons
were
trying to carve out a life in Omaha.
Her two boys, Joshua, 8, and Matthew, 5, were popular students at
Franklin
Elementary School.
Huffman, who had spent more than a year working at the McDonald's
restaurant at
114th Street and West Dodge Road, was trying to provide them with a
stable
life.
The boys wanted a father figure, family members said Tuesday, and
Huffman had
been dating a 37-year-old man for about a year.
The relationship, like much of her life to that point, had its share of
problems, but things were slowly taking shape.
Then came November.
Weeks passed, and her family did not hear from Huffman. Her two boys no
longer
reported to school. Her brother, Dan Loeffelholz, and her mother assumed
that
Huffman had sought help from a women's shelter for domestic-abuse
victims.
Monday, they found out they had been wrong.
Huffman, 33, and her two sons were found dead inside their rental house
at 1609
N. 33rd St. Loeffelholz said he thinks they may have been dead inside
the house
for as long as 10 days.
School officials at Franklin Elementary on Tuesday provided counseling
for
students. Joshua was a third-grader at the school; Matthew was in
kindergarten.
A letter also was sent home Tuesday night notifying parents of the
situation.
Police investigators have refused to disclose details of the case. While
preliminary autopsy results came back Tuesday, police officials said
they would
not reveal how the three died.
"It's going to be one of those cases we have to keep to ourselves the
cause of
death to keep anyone else from falsely saying they did it or someone
else did
it," said Sgt. Dan Cisar, a police spokesman.
No arrests have been made, and investigators have not named any suspects
in the
slayings.
"There's too many questions out there," Loeffelholz said Tuesday. "A lot
of
things have evidently been going on in the last three weeks."
One of those things involved Huffman's 1988 silver Pontiac Grand Am.
The car, which was gone when Loeffelholz went by his sister's house Nov.
15,
was discovered five days later in Benson. It had been torched.
Investigators
have the car impounded and are processing it for evidence.
Loeffelholz found out about the car this week. Now he believes it was
purposely
destroyed.
"Nobody would have gotten the keys from my sister to drive that car. She
wouldn't even let me drive the car, let alone anybody else, even though
I
helped her keep the thing running," he said. "I believe somebody took it
and
tried to get rid of evidence by pouring gasoline and starting a fire."
The missing car caused many people, including Huffman's family, to
believe that
she might have moved. Her neighbors this week recalled not seeing the
car and
assuming that Huffman had left.
Such a scenario made sense. Huffman and her boyfriend had been having
problems.
Neighbors reported seeing the two arguing in front of the rental house.
In
September, Huffman obtained a court protection order against the
boyfriend, and
he moved to a house next door.
Huffman had told her family about possibly moving to a shelter for
domestic-abuse victims. She told them that some shelters had provisions
about
privacy and that she might not be able to call them.
Loeffelholz thought his sister might have moved to Oklahoma, where she
had
lived in 1994 and 1996.
But as time passed, worry set in.
"The whole family was wondering what was going on," he said. "It wasn't
like
her not to call Mom on a regular basis."
At Franklin Elementary, students were asking questions, too.
LuAnn Nelson, a spokeswoman for the Omaha School District, said police
have
asked the school district not to comment on the district's efforts to
locate
the two boys during the time they were missing.
The boys were missed, however, Nelson said.
"Some students had expressed concern, particularly to where Joshua was,"
she
said. "Third-graders are more aware of their environment and other
students.
"Working with very small children concerning death is difficult. Very
young
children generally don't see death as permanent. That's one of the
issues our
staff has been working on with them."
Both boys were well-liked and considered good students, she said. Joshua
had
been recommended by his teacher to be a student conflict manager. Those
students work with others to resolve arguments and rumors peacefully.
"He was a leader in his grade," Nelson said of Joshua. "The children and
staff
here at Franklin loved these two little boys."
By all accounts, the two boys were handling their situation well.
They were energetic and curious, Loeffelholz said. They liked toys that
dealt
with construction and farm equipment. Outside, near the porch of
Huffman's
house, were three bicycles, a red wagon and what appeared to be a yellow
toy
construction vehicle.
Huffman was trying her best to manage them without help, her brother
said.
"When you're trying to find a father figure and then you have to support
them
and do whatever to keep them in clothes and food and a house,"
Loeffelholz
said, "she basically was getting along without any kind of assistance.
She was
stubborn like her father."
Born in Iowa in 1966, Huffman was the youngest of four children. There
was her
brother, Dan, who is now 47, and two older sisters, Patricia and Sharon.
The family grew up in Council Bluffs, and her siblings still live
nearby. Their
father died five years ago, Loeffelholz said.
"We all keep in touch," he said. "Vicki, she kept in touch more with her
mom,
more than the rest of us."
In 1988, Victoria Loeffelholz married Fred M. Huffman III in Miami,
Okla. Fred
Huffman liked the rodeo, Dan Loeffelholz said, and the family moved to
follow
the rodeo circuit. He was a rodeo clown who performed in events from
Nebraska
to Arizona while also working in construction and as a truck driver.
From 1993 to 1997, the family moved 10 times, with stops in Arkansas,
Alabama,
Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico and Nebraska.
In 1997, after moving to Omaha with her sons, Victoria Huffman relocated
near
Elkhorn. In May 1999, she filed for an annulment, stating in court
records that
she recently had learned that her husband had another wife.
Omaha police have yet to locate Fred Huffman, Cisar said. He is believed
to be
living in Texas.
A woman who claims to still be married to Fred Huffman said she doesn't
think
he has been in Texas since late 1996 or early 1997.
However, Sarpy County court records indicate that Fred Huffman was
employed in
October 1999 by a Naples, Texas, company. Those records show he last
worked in
Omaha in October 1998.
The woman, Diana Huffman of Omaha, said that she married Fred Huffman in
1983
and that the couple has never divorced. They have a 15-year-old daughter
together.
Diana Huffman said she met Fred Huffman while his family was living in
Elkhorn.
After their marriage, they moved to Arizona, where he worked the rodeo
circuit.
She said her last contact with him was in 1997 while he was being held
at the
Sarpy County Jail.
Jail records confirm that Fred Huffman has been jailed in Nebraska on
numerous
occasions for offenses ranging from revocation of probation to
nonpayment of
child support. He was last in jail from Dec. 18, 1997, to April 16,
1998, after
being arrested on a fugitive-from-justice warrant in Oklahoma and
extradited to
Sarpy County.
For Loeffelholz, his mind returns to Nov. 15, the day he went to the
house on
North 33rd Street, only to find his sister's car gone and the house dark
and
seemingly vacant.
"I don't know what else I could have done besides asking the police to
go
inside the house at that point," he said. "The last time we heard, we
thought
she was headed to one of the shelters. We kind of left it at that."
---------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 11/30/99 online edition of The
Omaha
World-Herald newspaper:
Published Tuesday
November 30, 1999
Woman, 2 Boys Slain; No Suspect Named
BY JOHN W. ALLMAN WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Omaha police were investigating the slayings of a 33-year-old woman and
her two
young sons, whose bodies were discovered Monday.
Victoria Huffman and the boys were found inside a rental house at 1609
N. 33rd
St.
The bodies were discovered about 8:15 a.m. by a maintenance man for the
rental
property. The deaths are being investigated as homicides, but police
have
declined to disclose the cause of the deaths.
Investigators also have yet to say how long the bodies might have been
inside
the house. Autopsies on the three bodies were expected to be conducted
today.
Police refused to speculate on a motive for the killings.
The boys were identified by police as Huffman's sons, Joshua, 8, and
Matthew,
5.
Police questioned a 37-year-old man about the slayings, but the man was
not
arrested and he was not identified as a suspect in the killings.
Michael Blair, who was Huffman's boyfriend, left Central Police
Headquarters
about 6 p.m. Monday after being questioned by investigators for about
six
hours, said Sgt. Dan Cisar, a police spokesman.
Blair had voluntarily agreed to be interviewed. Cisar said police will
probably
continue to speak to Blair and others about the deaths, but authorities
were
"not ready to name" a suspect.
Blair first spoke to investigators on the telephone at midmorning, then
went to
the home on North 33rd Street and spoke with police. Investigators said
he then
agreed to be questioned.
Huffman spent the last five months asking for help. She made nearly 10
calls to
Douglas County 911 emergency dispatchers between July and October.
In September, she obtained a court protection order against Blair. In
early
October, she called police again when Blair was seen at her rental
house.
Neighbors said that Blair had been living in a house next door to
Huffman's and
that the two had been trying to work through their problems.
According to court records, Huffman moved to Omaha in July 1997 with her
two
sons. Before coming to Omaha, Huffman had moved 10 times since 1993 with
her
husband, Fred, including stops in Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and
Kansas.
Court records did not indicate whether Fred Huffman moved to Omaha with
his
family.
In May 1999, Victoria Huffman filed for an annulment, stating in court
records
that she had recently learned that her husband had another wife.
In July, she and Blair were living together in the neighborhood between
Seward
and Franklin Streets. They were quoted in a World-Herald story about
lead
levels in soil, expressing concern about the safety of Huffman's sons
playing
in the dirt at a nearby day-care center.
Mark Conrey, head of Douglas County's 911 emergency-dispatch service,
said
several of Huffman's calls to 911 involved domestic-violence issues.
Huffman wrote in the request for a protection order that she couldn't
force
Blair to leave the house on North 33rd Street because his name was on
the
lease, even though she paid the bills.
In October, according to court records, Huffman saw Blair at her house,
which
would be a violation of the protection order. Police issued an arrest
warrant
for Blair.
On Nov. 1, he appeared in Douglas County Court, pleaded guilty to
violating the
protection order and was released without having to post bail. The next
day,
Blair returned to court for sentencing by Judge Stephen Swartz and at
that time
changed his plea to not guilty.
Blair is scheduled to appear Dec. 28 for trial.
Pamela West, a neighbor of Huffman, said it had been about two weeks
since she
last saw her or the boys.
West said she had not seen Huff-man's car since early November, which is
why
she assumed the woman might have moved.
"With no car, I didn't think they were here," she said. "It's just sad,
it
really is, to wake up to something like this."
World-Herald staff writer Susan Szalewski contributed to this report.