Ex-husband arrested for 2003 murder
Anne Warfield
Ex-husband arrested for 2003 murder of Springfield native
By JASON PISCIA
STAFF WRITER
The ex-husband of a former Springfield woman is in a Michigan jail
awaiting a court hearing on charges he stabbed her to death a year
ago.
After nearly a year of investigation, sheriff's detectives from Grand
Rapids, Mich., last month arrested Paul Bernard, 51, for the April 3,
2003, murder of Mimi Bernard, 48.
Mimi Bernard was born and raised in Springfield. She is a graduate of
Glenwood High School in Chatham. She is the daughter of the late
Leslie Nimmo, who in 1945 co-founded the insurance company that later
became Horace Mann.
Paul Bernard is being held without bond in the Kent County Jail in
Grand Rapids. He is scheduled to appear in court May 4 for a
preliminary examination hearing, where a judge will determine if there
is enough probable cause to move the case to trial, said Ron Gates, a
Kane County Sheriff's Department detective who was involved in the
investigation.
Mimi Bernard was found dead in her home near Grand Rapids the morning
of April 3, 2003, by her then-14-year-old son, one of four children
she and Paul had together before they divorced in 2000 after more than
two decades of marriage.
From the start, Paul Bernard was considered a prime suspect by police
and some family members. But it wasn't until last month when
authorities obtained an arrest warrant, allowing them to go to
Alexandria, Va., where Paul moved a few months ago, to make the
arrest.
"As far as we were concerned he was the only suspect," said Josephine
Nimmo, Mimi Bernard's stepmother, who lives in Springfield.
According to stories in the local newspaper, The Grand Rapids Press,
authorities have built a case against Paul Bernard that largely
consists of circumstantial evidence, in that there is no evidence to
undoubtedly tie him to the murder, such as a direct witness or DNA
samples.
During the year between the killing and his arrest, Bernard publicly
criticized police for not having enough evidence to implicate him.
"They're not going to put an end to it," he told the Grand Rapids
newspaper last fall. "They jumped too fast, too hard the first day
with no evidence at all, and now they're stuck."
But Gates said he is confident the evidence that has been collected
will be enough to prove the ex-husband did it.
"We wouldn't be able to get an arrest warrant unless we had a strong
enough case," Gates said.
The Grand Rapids newspaper reported a dispute over child-support money
is one clue authorities used to secure an arrest warrant.
The day after Mimi Bernard died, Paul Bernard was to appear in court,
where it was to be decided whether more than $27,000 should be taken
from his 401(k) to repay back child support and set in reserve for
future payments.
The paper also cites other pieces of evidence, including that he
apparently told his relatives he wanted to kill Mimi, he had cuts on
his hands and leg when police first interviewed him and a neighbor who
said she heard unusual noises in his apartment the night before Mimi
was found dead.
Nimmo said family members were relieved to hear of his arrest.
"We were hoping for a long time because as long as he was out some of
the other family members - although not me particularly - didn't feel
safe," she said. "We were kind of relieved that he's finally in jail.
We were hoping he wouldn't get by with this."
Mimi Bernard was a senior buyer for a Grand Rapids company that
negotiated purchases of airline parts. She also was the regional
director and coordinator of an international educational program
called Odyssey of the Mind.
Odyssey is a competition where students from kindergarten through
college solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to
presenting interpretations of literary classics, according to the
program's Web site.
Jason Piscia can be reached at 788-1525 or jason....@sj-r.com.
http://www.sj-r.com/sections/news/stories/22352.asp
--
Anne Warfield
indigoace at goodsol period com
http://www.goodsol.com/cats/