ND ND - Thomas 'Tom' Bearson, 19, Fargo, 20 Sep 2014 #2

[Boowhoz]

Why they chose the RV place has always been one of my biggest questions.

I don't even know if you can see the RV place while driving on I94 at interstate speed, especially since there's a Sams club between it and i94 now.

It seems more likely to me that they would have noticed it while going down Main Ave in Moorhead to get onto I94, either on that night or a lot of previous trips.

They would be going slower, there are signs that say industrial Park entrance etc. But, I don't know how many people use that route as their preferred way to get on I94. It would depend a lot on where they're coming from and where they're going.

The RV sight would be a perfect place to go if you needed a place to meet people on a neutral ground if you were going to perhaps exchange something illegal. Off the beaten path, some lighting, easy in and out access, obstructed view due to the RV's, chances of getting interrupted are slim. Big problem is, it would be a great place for an ambush. Maybe it seemed like a great place to leave someone because you could offload quick without having to drag down to a river, or throw over a railing because you didn't have time to drive all the way out to the woods, or to the middle of a field, especially if you are not familiar with the outskirts of town.

 

[ATasteOfHoney]

Why they chose the RV place has always been one of my biggest questions.

I don't even know if you can see the RV place while driving on I94 at interstate speed, especially since there's a Sams club between it and i94 now.

It seems more likely to me that they would have noticed it while going down Main Ave in Moorhead to get onto I94, either on that night or a lot of previous trips.

They would be going slower, there are signs that say industrial Park entrance etc. But, I don't know how many people use that route as their preferred way to get on I94. It would depend a lot on where they're coming from and where they're going.

What I'm wondering now is, how popular is the Main Ave route to get to the interstate from certain locations, mainly NDSU. It might almost make sense for kids from Minnesota towns on I94 to come and go that way. But, I always assumed most people go south down University, and I'm sure that's the way most GPS will tell you to go.

Lots of questions about that RV site---do we even know if it was possible that TB lied there for the whole weekend or was he moved there a few days later? Was he found tucked under one of the more remote RV models for sale? I'm surprised the RV site doesn't have cameras or a watch dog or two, no?

Another thing, TB probably wasn't that familiar with Moorh*ad, right? I mean he may have started to become familiar w/Fargo but this town? No insult but it seemed to me on my google maps "stroll" up & down Main Ave that it's a middle class quasi industrial town but I could be wrong...no offense & please correct me if I'm wrong. This looks like an area of convenience to dispose of a body, sad to say. Maybe someone TB knows has a family member who bought an RV there or worked there?

But of course, crickets from LE & all that...... Ugh!

 

[dennygreen]

Yeah, it seems like a good place for illegal activity, but it seems like I would assume there would be cameras somewhere. I guess I dunno what their state of mind was, maybe they wouldn't even think of that.

You're right, if I had to guess, I would bet that he wasn't familiar with Moorhead. Even if he was there for more than a month, there's really no reason to go to Moorhead these days.

Yeah, they still haven't said how long he was there. But, it wouldn't surprise me if he was there the whole 4 days or whatever. It took them 20 minutes to find him, so I'd bet he was indeed pretty far from the employees/building.

actually, noticed a long time ago that on Google Street view the red signs say there's a dog on duty there. I wonder if the signs are still there, if there was actually a dog there, and how a dog would have affected anything that went on there with this case.

 

[ATasteOfHoney]

I believe he was to ride home with another student with the initials M.T.

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Yeah......& who is displaying remorse? Like, talking about mistakes & if they could do it all over again they'd change everything. Anyone stating anything like that? IYKWIM??!!!

 

[ATasteOfHoney]

Personally & after much review....I think this was a horrific act that his newer college friends know about (plus maybe one that was a connection to his hometown). His hometown buds really are taking this hard & have expressed their sadness. TB was very well liked by his hometown friends & I think they would've watched over him no matter what.
The newer friends, not so much & I don't think there's a lot the hometown friends can do to get answers as they were mostly out of the loop in the newer life that TB just started.
I hope that if it was some sort of experimenting that went wrong that the truth comes out so that others may know the risks/dangers.

No reward money for info being offered, right? No autopsy/toxicology results in yet, right?
No warnings by the Universities to the students (except in the vaguest sense), right?

Do the University students travel to Moorhead cause it's known as a place to party or buy drugs? Just wondering.........????

 

[dennygreen]

I'm not sure, but I think Fargo and Moorhead are pretty equal in the drugs department these days. And there's way too much partying in Fargo to have to travel to Moorhead for any of that.

Hopefully the cops do know what happened, like everyone says. But, I'm not so sure. It sucks that the Moorhead Police wouldn't even agree with the Fargo cops when they said the public isn't in danger.

 

[Boowhoz]

My experience from when I visited friends who attended schools in the area has lead me to believe if you are from out of town, like most of the students are - being in that area is like visiting Kansas City. You sometimes don't know if you are in KC, MO, or KC, KS. It all blends and overlaps in a sense. I know People who live in ND for the tax benefits and work in Moorhead. Point being, they move freely back and forth across the boarder several times a day.

 

[jggordo]

My experience from when I visited friends who attended schools in the area has lead me to believe if you are from out of town, like most of the students are - being in that area is like visiting Kansas City. You sometimes don't know if you are in KC, MO, or KC, KS. It all blends and overlaps in a sense. I know People who live in ND for the tax benefits and work in Moorhead. Point being, they move freely back and forth across the boarder several times a day.

I lived in KC for 13 years. You are very right. Especially locals know if they do the crime on one side and go to the other side, it takes the various agencies 1-2 days to get on the same page which buys decomp time. Even with a "lead" investigative agency the communications gets sloppy. It's like playing football on two separate fields and three quarterbacks. As much as agencies claim they can play well together does not always make it true.

JMO's

 

[ATasteOfHoney]

I lived in KC for 13 years. You are very right. Especially locals know if they do the crime on one side and go to the other side, it takes the various agencies 1-2 days to get on the same page which buys decomp time. Even with a "lead" investigative agency the communications gets sloppy. It's like playing football on two separate fields and three quarterbacks. As much as agencies claim they can play well together does not always make it true.

JMO's

True...& yet that sort of thing gets the FBI involved & they have access to databases that local LE doesn't have

 

[BankingOnIt]

Why they chose the RV place has always been one of my biggest questions.

I don't even know if you can see the RV place while driving on I94 at interstate speed, especially since there's a Sams club between it and i94 now.

It seems more likely to me that they would have noticed it while going down Main Ave in Moorhead to get onto I94, either on that night or a lot of previous trips.

They would be going slower, there are signs that say industrial Park entrance etc. But, I don't know how many people use that route as their preferred way to get on I94. It would depend a lot on where they're coming from and where they're going.

What I'm wondering now is, how popular is the Main Ave route to get to the interstate from certain locations, mainly NDSU. It might almost make sense for kids from Minnesota towns on I94 to come and go that way. But, I always assumed most people go south down University, and I'm sure that's the way most GPS will tell you to go.

I take 8th avenue from North Fargo to interstate but I could understand taking the way past Larry's RV.
I think I agree with other people who have stated they were going to hide the body in an RV like Kevin Chatterly in Anoka, MN, but got interrupted & had to leave before finishing their task.

I, too, do not buy the infamous tweet being attributable to video games.

 

[BankingOnIt]

True...& yet that sort of thing gets the FBI involved & they have access to databases that local LE doesn't have

Andrew Sadek also "disappeared" in Wahpeton, ND but was found in the Red River in Breckenridge, MN.

 

[2Hope4]

I was thinking of Tom and his family earlier today. Such heartache for them all. There was a case I want to say it was in VA only because I remember it being on the news. But there was a fight amongst a bunch a teenagers. A girl actually delivered one of the last kicks that was the fatal blow, though the boy would have probably died later from his injuries, she was tried and given the harshest penalty. Anyway, I'm still wondering if something like that didn't happen here.

Bunch of teenage boys drinking, one can't handle his alcohol and gets 'mean' when drinking. Tom may or not have been drinking, may have only sipped on a beer while playing the video game. But perhaps one of the party goers was being obnoxious, and Tom said something. You know how guys are! Perhaps a pun towards the drunk, or "sit your drunk *advertiser censored* down! Nobody wants to deal with that!", something minor that set this other person off. Then the fight breaks out. Tom is hit in the face as a "shut up!" from the one drinking....and then...they realized it had gone much too far, and Tom was fatally injured. I don't know that the gang would have called the police because of them drinking and underage, and maybe even some MJ thrown in.

I know some states have laws now that if help is called for such an incident, the others won't be in trouble for their illegal activity. BUT, would that age even know about that, or if that state even has such a law?

From what little I've read from those that knew Tom, it just doesn't seem that he had enemies. I'm not talking rivals during a game, but truly someone that had it out for him. That's what leads me to wonder if my above could be a possibility.

I hate that this case hasn't been solved! I'm thankful his parents at least have his body for burial. So many cases that the families don't even have that.

 

[ATasteOfHoney]

I take 8th avenue from North Fargo to interstate but I could understand taking the way past Larry's RV.
I think I agree with other people who have stated they were going to hide the body in an RV like Kevin Chatterly in Anoka, MN, but got interrupted & had to leave before finishing their task.

I, too, do not buy the infamous tweet being attributable to video games.

Bank----you have a link for the Kevin C case.....only because I'm curious about the similarities. Please.

 

[mama sleuth]

tonight at 10:00 - I will be interested to see if they address the TB case...
Moorhead, M.N. (WDAY-TV) - A series of unusual outcomes from cases at Clay County Court have some raising questions about the legal work going on behind the scenes and on the bench.
http://www.wday.com/content/tonight-10-16

** no mention of the TB case but interesting - two cities (Fargo & Moorhead) within 5 miles of each other experiencing big police/legal/court issues. Makes me really wonder if they are able to do their job!

 

[ATasteOfHoney]

I'm wondering if there isn't some element of shame or secrecy that is cloaking the truth from coming out???

 

[Mattz]

I think its most likely he was in the RV lot place all 4 days and not left there at a later time. On the Larrys Rv sales website their hours are: Monday through Friday 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. So no one would have seen him Saturday and Sunday, and its likely they dont do a full walkthrough every day of their property, so they didn't notice anything on Monday. But a big open lot which is closed on the weekends seems like a place where mischief can happen. What are the chances that they don't lock some of the RVs and college kids go there as a hangout spot to drink.. etc on the weekends

 

[CantNotCare]

Dorm room-mate WS said TB left at 10:00 pm (time was stated pretty emphatically in article), and M.T tweeted that he was with TB about 10-10:30 pm and then he "randomly left", and he hadn't "heard/seen" him since. I wonder why TB would have left his dorm and stopped that briefly to see MT only to "randomly" leave? Does anyone know if MT lives in the same dorm house (but not room)?

 

[CantNotCare]

I still wonder if TB was under the impression that he was getting an early ride back to Sartell that evening (thus the backpack), and a stop occurred at the RV lot...

 

[Fargo7]

Pure speculation but I think something less sinister is going on.

My first theory when I heard of this case was TB jumped a train to try to go back to his hometown; the train tracks go right by the trap where he was last seen. On the train tracks going out of Fargo a train can go east towards Sartell or turn south to South Dakota.

My thought he jumped the train but unfortunately it turned south instead of keeping east. Once he realized he jumped out, got injured and stumbled to the RV lot, and died. If he was drunk/on drugs they may have ruled it a "homicide" so they could persecute anyone that supplied the alcohol or drugs. There has been other cases in the area they ruled a homicide where a person OD on drugs or got drunk/drove home and crashed so they could go after the person/s that served them.

I am coming around to thinking that something like this may be the case. Yes it was probable wrong for who ever supplied TB the drugs/alcohol but no one directly murdered him.

 

[BankingOnIt]

I think its most likely he was in the RV lot place all 4 days and not left there at a later time. On the Larrys Rv sales website their hours are: Monday through Friday 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. So no one would have seen him Saturday and Sunday, and its likely they dont do a full walkthrough every day of their property, so they didn't notice anything on Monday. But a big open lot which is closed on the weekends seems like a place where mischief can happen. What are the chances that they don't lock some of the RVs and college kids go there as a hangout spot to drink.. etc on the weekends

At the time of the murder, the RV place was open on Saturdays. It's a VERY busy time in the RV Business & there should have been a fair amount of activity thereESPECIALLY since the weather wSas dso good.. But., in my mind, he was there all 4 days.