FL FL - Kingfish Boat Ramp Murders, Holmes Beach, 1 Aug 1980

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It appears that he was indicted in MA... I can't find any other mention of the guy the dirty cop in Miami pointed the finger at (Luis Villageliu).
 
liz b. said:
Hi Crimesolver,
Yes, it does seem ridiculous to send a hitman on a bike.But,consider this : he got away with it ! The bike would have enabled him to be more nimble than a vehicle, and would have put some distance between the crime scene and his car plates ?

If this had to do with drugs it could have been that Barrows was the intended target. He was shot first ; could mean something if he shooter had a priority level ? Raymond Barrows was a bellhop in a large hotel in Miami. He could have seen an opening and started supplying guests. Maybe made a mistake about paying the guy above him on the foodchain. Just speculating.
I don't think Columbians always used professional killers. But,they were known to use Columbian nationals, because their prints never matched anything on file here. Any heat came up about a killing,and they just flew back to Columbia.
Crimesolver, I would like to ask a question : I see that you started this thread. So, I would love to know who you think did this ..... Excuse me if you have already given an opinion ; I coulld not find it.
Click to expand...
Hi, liz b. I find the circumstances so perplexing that I have a hard time imagining a motive or killer. If I recall correctly, Barrows said the man started shooting almost immediately after he got into the car, so that would rule out some sort of petty argument having caused it (e.g. "Dad, this guy stinks!" "I'm sorry sir, but you'll have to get out of the car." "I don't stink, you assholes!" (bang, bang, bang, bang, bang)).
It does not smack of a professional hit to me at all, but if it was a hit, maybe the person with the grudge just hired some Joe Schmoe killer in a bar for $1000. A professional would have found a much more propitious time and place to effect the assassination (at night, in the victim's driveway, for example).
 
That is a possibility also. that someone hired someone else to do this, a local. The wheeler story caught my attention on this, the perp tryed to hire someone else to kill one of the victims. Someone in MA, according to the story. Maybe that's how hits happen. Remember the Sheila Bellush murder. the jose guy was hired by his cousin who was paid by Sheila's ex to hire someone.

Maybe even Burnside.
 
The missing part to the puzzle remains motive. If Barrows were the target, the killer made a wiser decision than we may be giving him credit for...By killing Dumois and his children, the focus of the investigation leaned toward him and not Barrows. There are extensive articles on Dumois which include interviews with friends and co-workers but nearly nothing on Barrows and his history.
 
I stumbled on this forum recently and have been reviewing the threads. I am very familiar with the investigation and I still hope the one witness comes forward or the perpetrator finally wants to make amends for taking the lives of those children and their dad.

On August 1, 2010 it will be 30 years since the unexplained crime was carefully executed. I recently became aware that one of the Tampa Bay TV stations, WFTS TV 28's Doug Iten, will be doing a special report. He has been trying to assemble prior investigators so that he can present an accurate picture of the investigation. I know for a fact that the investigators who worked on this case were some of the finest cops around. I also know that a day doesn't go by each and every one of them still hope this case can be solved. Hopefully if any of them read this site they will contact Doug. I also hope that the involved Law Enforcement Agencies, Holmes Beach PD, Manatee County Sheriff's Office, Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), and the FBI will release their reports for review. I know that some of your questions will be answered by this anniversary report.

In reading your comments I see that you have mentioned names of prior possible suspects and the mob. It is very common for investigators to focus in on someone because they know in their gut this person is capable of doing the crime. Why do you think the MOB is the only group who commits contract killings? Why do you think enraged husbands would plan and execute multiple murders? Why do you think people who have committed other shootings without a plan would carry out one with a plan? Time and time again I see this proved wrong and that it prevents other investigators from looking at all other possibilities. Only the evidence can prove a case so keep that in mind when running the scenarios. The best evidence in this case is the method of operation. The perpetrator planned his crime to conceal his escape. What did that tell us? He most likely killed previously, he is intelligent, he did not want to be caught or for others to know he committed the crime, and he wanted no witnesses.

I would like to challenge each of you to assist in solving this crime. Some of you question why there was little information. Well maybe more information exists in other crimes the suspect has committed. Due to the advent of the WWW, I would look at the method of operation. What factual evidence do we have? The suspect used a .22 cal gun (small projectile easily breaks apart and easy to conceal), he escaped on a bicycle to a waiting parked car located in a public lot, he acted alone (no one else was in the car). If this worked once it may have worked previously or after. There maybe other cases out there plus or minus 20 years using this same MO. We now have a means of finding those cases as our data mining resources were zero in 1980.

I commend all of you for keeping this case in your minds and pray that we find it's solution.

Regards
 
What a grim anniversary.... You seem very sure that this person has done this before/or since. I always thought there was a very important piece of information missing , information probably connected to motive. This is a mystery that has gotten my attention (again).... I'm going to do some digging,will post if/when I get something. FWIW, I never thought the "MOB " had anything to do with this.

All JMO
 
Capstone, thank you for your post and welcome to websleuths.

What would the motive be in your opinion? I am curious.

You are right that the mafia is not the only motive of contract killings, there have been many cases over the years of spouses, business partners, even neighbors who have contracted someone to kill another.

LE does seem to believe that this is a contract killing according to the retired FDLE man I had received an email from and he did say not necessarilly mob related. He said that LE had looked at a link to the dog track and gambling from what I remember.

I definately do not believe this was random, like I said before people do not park their cars and then get out and ride their bike to commit a homocide and then ride their bike back to their car (unless they worked at the store and there was an argument at the store prior but I doubt this scenario) This was planned. But why? Who knew that the family was going to Holmes Beach that day?

I'm glad channel 28 news is doing a special report, maybe it will bring attention to this story and someone may come forward that knows something.

ps-Burnside IMO was a sociopath. He was the man in his opinion and how dare his wife leave him. How many other people "wronged" him over time? IMO he diffinately could have killed before he murdered his wife. It's hard to explain but I know someone just like him and they claim to have killed multiple people over the years because they 'wronged him" in one way or another, well in his mind anyways.To be honest, he was the original reason why I started looking at this case, he grew up in Bradenton and told me one time that he had drivin by the Holmes Beach crime scene and saw all the police there. It was a strange comment from this person.

I would love to know more and I agree with you that it would be helpful if LE released their reports.
 
capstone1 said:
I stumbled on this forum recently and have been reviewing the threads. I am very familiar with the investigation and I still hope the one witness comes forward or the perpetrator finally wants to make amends for taking the lives of those children and their dad.

On August 1, 2010 it will be 30 years since the unexplained crime was carefully executed. I recently became aware that one of the Tampa Bay TV stations, WFTS TV 28's Doug Iten, will be doing a special report. He has been trying to assemble prior investigators so that he can present an accurate picture of the investigation. I know for a fact that the investigators who worked on this case were some of the finest cops around. I also know that a day doesn't go by each and every one of them still hope this case can be solved. Hopefully if any of them read this site they will contact Doug. I also hope that the involved Law Enforcement Agencies, Holmes Beach PD, Manatee County Sheriff's Office, Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), and the FBI will release their reports for review. I know that some of your questions will be answered by this anniversary report.

In reading your comments I see that you have mentioned names of prior possible suspects and the mob. It is very common for investigators to focus in on someone because they know in their gut this person is capable of doing the crime. Why do you think the MOB is the only group who commits contract killings? Why do you think enraged husbands would plan and execute multiple murders? Why do you think people who have committed other shootings without a plan would carry out one with a plan? Time and time again I see this proved wrong and that it prevents other investigators from looking at all other possibilities. Only the evidence can prove a case so keep that in mind when running the scenarios. The best evidence in this case is the method of operation. The perpetrator planned his crime to conceal his escape. What did that tell us? He most likely killed previously, he is intelligent, he did not want to be caught or for others to know he committed the crime, and he wanted no witnesses.

I would like to challenge each of you to assist in solving this crime. Some of you question why there was little information. Well maybe more information exists in other crimes the suspect has committed. Due to the advent of the WWW, I would look at the method of operation. What factual evidence do we have? The suspect used a .22 cal gun (small projectile easily breaks apart and easy to conceal), he escaped on a bicycle to a waiting parked car located in a public lot, he acted alone (no one else was in the car). If this worked once it may have worked previously or after. There maybe other cases out there plus or minus 20 years using this same MO. We now have a means of finding those cases as our data mining resources were zero in 1980.





I commend all of you for keeping this case in your minds and pray that we find it's solution.

Regards
Click to expand...


Capstone,

A couple of questions I wondered about : was Barrows, the brother in law of the Doctor, of Cuban descent. And,when he spoke to the Doctor before getting into the vehicle,did the shooter speak to him in English,or in Spanish ? Thanks in advance,if you know or ever heard anything on those lines.

All JMO
 
Here is an article I found tonight. I have not seen this before. It answers some questions. Apparently, they where on vacation at Holmes Beach. It was not a day trip. The day it happened was their last day of vacation.
http://www.islander.org/7-29-09/kingfish.php

Twenty-nine years ago, the Kingfish Boat Ramp, popular with boaters breaking away for a day and herons seeking an easy lunch, was the site of a triple slaying.
Nearby that Aug. 1, a fourth killing took place.
On Aug. 1, 1980, pediatrician Juan Dumois, 47, his sons Eric, 13 and Mark, 9, and local resident Robert Matzke, 60, were fatally shot by an unknown assailant. Dumois’ brother-in-law, Raymond Barrows, 54, also was shot, but survived.
Headlines referred to the killer as a hitchhiker. The surviving witness called the killer an assassin. A number of people, from columnists to detectives to Matzke’s widow, speculated that the killer was a professional hitman.
The shootings took place at about 5 p.m., after Dumois, his sons and Barrows returned from a fishing trip and loaded their boat at the Kingfish Boat Ramp. They were enjoying the end of their last day of vacation in Holmes Beach.
Pulling away from the ramp, they were approached by a man on a bicycle who asked for a ride because he had injured his ankle.
The stranger loaded his bike into the boat, got in the back seat of Dumois’ station wagon with the children, and then Dumois pulled out, proceeding west on Manatee Avenue from the ramp.
Almost immediately the man opened fire, striking all of the victims in the back of the head with a .22-caliber handgun.
To passersby, the wagon appeared to have jackknifed on the north shoulder of Manatee Avenue just west of the boat ramp at the entrance to Westbay Cove North. But according to official reports, the shooter steered the car to the side of the road.
The gunman then lifted his bike from the boat and went westbound on Manatee Avenue.
Matzke was working outside at nearby Westbay Cove and, suspicious about the man leaving what appeared to be an accident, pursued the bicyclist to the parking lot of the Foodway grocery store. The two men exchanged words before the gunman shot Matzke in the head, loaded his bike into a tan-colored vehicle in the parking lot and fled, traveling east on Manatee Avenue, heading off the Island.
The ensuing investigation, led by the Holmes Beach Police Department, involved the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office and federal agents.
Barrows survived to provide law enforcement with the details of what happened and a description of the gunman. Matzke died at the scene. The boys and Dumois died at a hospital.
June Alder was a reporter with The Islander at the time of the slayings and, in a column for the newspaper in 1999, remembered: “The headlines in the newspapers the next day shocked Islanders out of their midsummer lethargy. It seemed impossible, but on our peaceful Island there had occurred a massacre one could only imagine happening in Chicago or New York City.”
More than 100 suspects were interviewed in the investigation.
Federal authorities focused on Chicago native Richard Lee Whitley, who had been arrested in Tampa shortly after the killings and was wanted by the FBI in connection with a homicide in Falls Church, Va. Whitley, however, provided a confirmed alibi for Aug. 1.
Local authorities focused on William Peter Kuhlman, who had been charged and acquitted in the slaying of a Bradenton Beach woman shot twice with a .22-caliber pistol, according to newspaper archives.
Barrows, the surviving victim, died of natural causes in 1982.
Investigating law enforcement agencies have undergone changes in command, as well as personnel.
But the case remains open, with the Gold Star Club of Manatee County Inc. still offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
Longtime Islanders remember the Kingfish Boat Ramp killings, if not the details of the crime.
And those who knew the victims still think of the crime.
“It hurts when I think of the potential the boys had,” said Michael Lopez of Tampa, who played soccer with Eric Dumois and recently began to research the case after coming across some old papers. “After all these years, I can still remember Eric’s little brother tagging along with him after school.”
 
Sleuthster said:
Here is an article I found tonight. I have not seen this before. It answers some questions. Apparently, they where on vacation at Holmes Beach. It was not a day trip. The day it happened was their last day of vacation.
http://www.islander.org/7-29-09/kingfish.php

Twenty-nine years ago, the Kingfish Boat Ramp, popular with boaters breaking away for a day and herons seeking an easy lunch, was the site of a triple slaying.
Nearby that Aug. 1, a fourth killing took place.
On Aug. 1, 1980, pediatrician Juan Dumois, 47, his sons Eric, 13 and Mark, 9, and local resident Robert Matzke, 60, were fatally shot by an unknown assailant. Dumois’ brother-in-law, Raymond Barrows, 54, also was shot, but survived.
Headlines referred to the killer as a hitchhiker. The surviving witness called the killer an assassin. A number of people, from columnists to detectives to Matzke’s widow, speculated that the killer was a professional hitman.
The shootings took place at about 5 p.m., after Dumois, his sons and Barrows returned from a fishing trip and loaded their boat at the Kingfish Boat Ramp. They were enjoying the end of their last day of vacation in Holmes Beach.
Pulling away from the ramp, they were approached by a man on a bicycle who asked for a ride because he had injured his ankle.
The stranger loaded his bike into the boat, got in the back seat of Dumois’ station wagon with the children, and then Dumois pulled out, proceeding west on Manatee Avenue from the ramp.
Almost immediately the man opened fire, striking all of the victims in the back of the head with a .22-caliber handgun.
To passersby, the wagon appeared to have jackknifed on the north shoulder of Manatee Avenue just west of the boat ramp at the entrance to Westbay Cove North. But according to official reports, the shooter steered the car to the side of the road.
The gunman then lifted his bike from the boat and went westbound on Manatee Avenue.
Matzke was working outside at nearby Westbay Cove and, suspicious about the man leaving what appeared to be an accident, pursued the bicyclist to the parking lot of the Foodway grocery store. The two men exchanged words before the gunman shot Matzke in the head, loaded his bike into a tan-colored vehicle in the parking lot and fled, traveling east on Manatee Avenue, heading off the Island.
The ensuing investigation, led by the Holmes Beach Police Department, involved the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office and federal agents.
Barrows survived to provide law enforcement with the details of what happened and a description of the gunman. Matzke died at the scene. The boys and Dumois died at a hospital.
June Alder was a reporter with The Islander at the time of the slayings and, in a column for the newspaper in 1999, remembered: “The headlines in the newspapers the next day shocked Islanders out of their midsummer lethargy. It seemed impossible, but on our peaceful Island there had occurred a massacre one could only imagine happening in Chicago or New York City.”
More than 100 suspects were interviewed in the investigation.
Federal authorities focused on Chicago native Richard Lee Whitley, who had been arrested in Tampa shortly after the killings and was wanted by the FBI in connection with a homicide in Falls Church, Va. Whitley, however, provided a confirmed alibi for Aug. 1.
Local authorities focused on William Peter Kuhlman, who had been charged and acquitted in the slaying of a Bradenton Beach woman shot twice with a .22-caliber pistol, according to newspaper archives.
Barrows, the surviving victim, died of natural causes in 1982.
Investigating law enforcement agencies have undergone changes in command, as well as personnel.
But the case remains open, with the Gold Star Club of Manatee County Inc. still offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
Longtime Islanders remember the Kingfish Boat Ramp killings, if not the details of the crime.
And those who knew the victims still think of the crime.
“It hurts when I think of the potential the boys had,” said Michael Lopez of Tampa, who played soccer with Eric Dumois and recently began to research the case after coming across some old papers. “After all these years, I can still remember Eric’s little brother tagging along with him after school.”
Click to expand...

Hi Sleuthster,
And thanks for that piece.Couple of interesting things : I've read elsewhere that Barrows died of a heart attack a couple of years after the doctor was killed ; this article says natural causes. The other thing is that IIRC, Doctor Dumois' wife, her daughter,and her sister,were all on the beach when the murders took place ; I always thought it was a bit odd that the whole group didn't leave the beach area together...

All JMO
 
has anyone considered the possibility these killings are related to some type of government work
 
Yes, that is a possiblity also. Afterall, Macdill AFB and Central Command are in Tampa. The only problem I have with that MO is the kids. I wouldnt think that a CIA or anyother government org would take out children. That IMO is mafia related. They take out anyone that's in the way (witnesses etc). Also, the guy that came up to him in the parking lot, another innocent bystander. Government hitman I would think woud not give a darn because those guys are basically invisable to begin with.

Also, Dumois was a pediatrician. What could he possibly know about the government? Then again I have known 2 people in my life that where part of Air America, one was killed in Laos, and the other became a commercial pilot/avid fisherman. Both where involved with cia stuff. So I guess you never know if someone was working on the side doing government work.

I also wonder about Dr. Dumois professional life. It's also a possiblity that it could be related to one of his patients. I wonder if there where any malpractice suits he was party to at the time.
 
that's a good possibility but i would think hat anyone with a malpractice suit againist him at the time would have been looked at as a strong suspec

maybe he was having an affair and he wa silenced
 
mindhunter42 said:
that's a good possibility but i would think hat anyone with a malpractice suit againist him at the time would have been looked at as a strong suspec

maybe he was having an affair and he wa silenced
Click to expand...

A problem with the case is that only Barrows survived to tell what happened in the car,what was said before the gunman started shooting. Another issue is :where were the Dr., Barrows and his sons actually going ? Because the Doctor's wife and daughter were left behind on the beach.

Interesting that the wife of the witness who confronted the gunman refered to his subsequent murder
as an "assassination ".

It seems a bit extreme for it to be because the doc was having an affair ?? I mean, a quadruple homicide ? His widow still lives in the area, and I believe she never remarried....
 
Thanks Capstone. Did they just put this up today?? The reason I ask is that I was googling the Holmes Beach Murders and found bits and pieces of the abcactionnews story but not the whole thing. Thanks again for posting it.

2curious, thanks for posting the 30th anniversary link, it answers alot of questions I had. It was very detailed and I had to stop partway through to pause because it was causing me to choke up with emotion. What a horrible horrible senseless crime.
 
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