NE - Omaha Double Murder #3 - *Arrest Made*

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Very interesting Snick, thanks.

Snick1946 said:
I have not been pursuing things on this case as in the past but this evening noted that someone left an interesting comment on the WOWT TV news website, this was posted a couple months ago and I found this viewer's comments interesting:

"I've read a lot on this story. Everything I have read on this case, unfortunately, leads me to believe that this was probably a prof. hit, to intimidate the parents; the murders brutal fashion. (The perpetrator went in wearing a black coat, black does not show blood; therefore, he probably knew he would kill them, before he went in) His coat was probably, a rain coat/absorbant. He did not immediately know which house he was looking for, but prob. had the address, and details, from someone else. (Probably also had a change of clothes that closely resembled what he was wearing, going in., in his briefcase; he was very prepared) The perpetrator probably had stolen license plates, and had the address. He probably knew the housekeeper, and the boy, would be there. He probably even knew both of their names. He used a knife, because it was quiet, and this was during the day. The fact that both were stabbed in the throat, seems very significant; he did not want them to scream. Gun shots would have brought attention. If you do any reading on some older hit men, that were involved with many murders, in NY, this was their MO, especially in the beginning of their careers. The perpetrator was not scared, or ruffled, because there were probably no ties to him, and this child/the housekeeper, and obviously this person has done this so many times before, he was unaffected, and probably felt somehow justified. He may have even been so bold, as to have taken a shower in the house, to rinse off blood droplets. Only a professional would be able to have done this to a child, and a woman, and not be affected. I would be looking at whom the parents had worked with, in a residency program, that was probably rejected, after years of studying/preparation, to be a doctor; and someone whom could afford a hit like this."

I have never been able to comprehend why someone would cold bloodily kill like this if there was no personal connection, but anything's possible. One point of interest- IMO if this was a professional it was not a seasoned professional. By that I mean it was not the kind of hired help that does this sort of thing for a living. Very many professional hit men will NOT kill a child. I can easily envision this being some former special forces dude who killed as part of his commando duties. It was something he was paid to do perhaps by someone he knew, or by someone who contacted him anonymously through an ad or online and that someone had a terrific grudge against the Hunters. Look in some of the macho men's magazines or even in some supermarket tabloids and you can find ads from 'soldiers of fortune', at least last time I looked I did.

Also consider the timing, whomever did this either knew the schedule for the household or was briefed by someone who did. He struck at a time when the victims were alone and vulnerable. It was timed so that Dr. Hunter would find the bodies when he arrived home.

I realize this goes against the line that AMW took in their show but I cannot help wondering if Tom's online activities, while interesting, had nothing to do with the killings. This case may never be solved but no one involved should quit trying.
Click to expand...
 
waltzingmatilda said:
Reading about this case gives me chills as it has some parrallels to the Hunter/Sherman case (other than the young boy in the article being raped). Probably no relation but I wanted to bump up the thread anyway and thought it may give us some new ideas.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-fathers-throat-11-TIMES-raped-son-twice.html

wm
Click to expand...

The Daily mail seems to have better coverage of US crimes than most US news outlets.

The accused perp in this case appears to be a dead ringer for the composite drawing in the Dundee murders. There are some problems, he sounds to have
been mostly into robbery and then there is the sexual assault. I have wondered lately if there may not have been something like that in the Dundee murder that LE has chosen not to reveal. That would especially figure if the perp was angry that he'd been sexually played by some kid. I wonder if anyone has ever looked into any connection, he'd be the right age etc for our guy. These attacks took place in 2010, two years later than our case. You have to wonder how this guy managed to talk his way into the house.

He did leave his victims alive- although he may not have thought so. Probably not our guy but it still gives you a little pause..
 
Snick1946 said:
The Daily mail seems to have better coverage of US crimes than most US news outlets.

The accused perp in this case appears to be a dead ringer for the composite drawing in the Dundee murders. There are some problems, he sounds to have
been mostly into robbery and then there is the sexual assault. I have wondered lately if there may not have been something like that in the Dundee murder that LE has chosen not to reveal. That would especially figure if the perp was angry that he'd been sexually played by some kid. I wonder if anyone has ever looked into any connection, he'd be the right age etc for our guy. These attacks took place in 2010, two years later than our case. You have to wonder how this guy managed to talk his way into the house.

He did leave his victims alive- although he may not have thought so. Probably not our guy but it still gives you a little pause..
Click to expand...

above BBM....I thought the same thing.

I did some diggin on this guy. His brother, Michael, was killed in a street fight by a harvard graduate student with a knife in 2003. It sounds like colono had issues with privileged vs working class (to me) and although the killer was convicted of manslaughter, colono's brother was found equally culpable (or something like that) and he didn't feel justice was served. The graduate student's parents are prominate attys in CO. Colono raped the two females at nearby Brighton in Sept. 2008, then attacked the harvard professor and son in Aug.2010. I just wonder if his rage was not personal towards his victims but instead what the victims represented. Which leads me to wonder if the killer of Tom and Shirlee may have a few degrees of separation. May not have known them personally but hated what they represented for some reason. (and let's not forget that Ms. Sherman and Mrs. Hunter bear a resemblence) Kinda like Dormer killed the daughter and her fiance of the LEO who represented him in his review after his allegations that the female officer kicked the mentally ill guy.

google the names in the link to read more. It's an interesting case. I posted several links yesterday but somehow lost the post and didn't have the time to go back and find everything.

I think the more we research on knife killers, the more we will understand what makes them tick which could help us in amatuer profiling. If there is such a thing as understanding what makes a mad man tick.....

Just throwing out some ideas and hoping to generate interest, ideas, theories in this case. I can't believe it's approaching the 5 year anniversary.:(

wm
 
Tomorrow will be the fifth anniversary of these murders. I did not want to let this anniversary pass unmentioned; it sometimes seems so futile to spend time and energy on this. Anyway, I want to thank off of you who follow this case and this thread. It helps keep hope alive.
 
Something has been bothering me the past few months. I understand that when a case grows cold such as this, interest lags. Comments taper off because most everything there is to be said has been said. What I am about to say does not in any way apply to the wonderful folks on this thread. It applies to what I sense has happened in the community at large here in Omaha and to local media.

I will just say it- the facts brought out in the AMW segment have caused a lot of people who previously were interested to lose some of that interest. The murders are now viewed as some 'gay thing' . Worse, there has been a feeling that while Tom was certainly a victim, he somehow contributed to his death with reckless internet behavior. ( I have had a couple people tell me this). Omaha is not exactly a progressive place; I regularly view local news chat boards; mention anything 'gay' on there and you get a lot of people spewing Bible verses at you.

This may be unfair speculation but I don't know how else to explain that once the segment aired, the air just went out of the room, totally. Local media has not mentioned the case for months, nothing at all for the anniversary. The sad part of this is, I tend to doubt that Tom's activities on line may have been directly related to what happened. Also there was another victim.

Again this is not meant as a commentary on anyone on this thread. It's a commentary on how fickle the public can be- but I already knew that..
 
I missed the AMW broadcast & cannot find it online now. I would appreciate a synopsis of the show & explanation of the "gay thing". So, the current theory of investigators is the murders were related to internet connections?

Appreciation to those who have thanked comments in this thread.... seems a core group of readers are following this case & hoping the killler of these 2 people is brought to justice. 5 years & the perp remains loose.
 
noZme said:
I missed the AMW broadcast & cannot find it online now. I would appreciate a synopsis of the show & explanation of the "gay thing". So, the current theory of investigators is the murders were related to internet connections?

Appreciation to those who have thanked comments in this thread.... seems a core group of readers are following this case & hoping the killler of these 2 people is brought to justice. 5 years & the perp remains loose.
Click to expand...

I will try to put a link to a story that ran on local news media that summarizes this better than I can. Briefly however, the current theory is that Tom was on line talking about cross dressing/transgender issues. He was frequently posting on boards where transgender folks hang out. LE is apparently working the angle that the killer was someone he angered online, either by refusing direct contact or by pretending to be older than he was. I will try to get a link posted tomorrow, thanks for your continued interest!
 
This is not exactly a link to the story I wanted but I am posting it because it does discuss Tom's internet activities and has a video, I think this has been posted earlier but just in case, it's a good update:

http://www.ketv.com/news/local-news...ery/-/9674510/15771452/-/cuxh98z/-/index.html

I am also posting because it has the bus video of Tom. Also we mention this earlier but it hit me again when looking at it. He seems to cover his face as he exists the bus. It was not a cold day, far from it. Was he afraid of someone? It just jumps out to me as odd every time I see it..
 
Thanks for the link, Snick. It's good to watch this again. Tom does appear to be covering his face or maybe rubbing his nose with the sweater. It seems odd that there was no update on the 5 year anniversary of the murders from any news media in Omaha. I was disappointed at lack of any new info but perhaps that is a good thing, OPD could be keeping things close to the vest. Look how long it took to conduct tech forensics on Tom's game console and his computer activities.

One thing I noticed that Lt. Kangar said that I hadn't noticed before is that the dark skinned man wore and 'ill fitting' black suit. I wonder if it was too big or too small. Either way, it indicates that the guy didn't wear suits in his everyday life and a witness noticed it was ill fitting. He was a poser, trying to not draw attention in a nice, upscale neighborhood but his disguise didn't work apparently. JMO.

I wonder how many other boys this predator has preyed on, if any, or if he targeted Tom specifically for some reason. This case aughta be used to teach internet safety for both parents and children in middle and high school. It's a scary world online.

Keeping hope and faith that this murderer will be caught and brought to justice.

wm
 
I was going back over earlier threads today and remembered a post I made two years ago that may bear repeating, not because I think I have wonderful insight but because it sums up my thinking on the problem with why the killer exhibited such rage:

'FBI profilers told OPD they felt the perp was in all probability a transient serial killer. By that I assume they meant an individual who travels widely and who could live many miles away and of whom friends, neighbors and even family have no knowledge of this. He could have a family whom he told he was going on a business trip, or he may even have been on such a trip. It occurs to me that we have assumed all along a personal motive based on the violence of the crime.
Put yourself for a moment if possible in the mind of such a person. You see an 11 year old boy you don't know; what would make you that angry? Couldn't the thought of something terrible that happened to YOU at that age and the desire to eradicate it by killing that image of yourself? Killing Shirlee could have been part of the delusion, killing a mother image.
This guy could have come into Omaha earlier in the week and driven around looking for victims that fit his need. He sees Tom get off the bus one afternoon and makes a note of the time, maybe he sees him enter the house alone so knows he's a latchkey kid. Probably he didn't know he'd run into another person but that worked out. He's killed before; he knows how to entice his way into a house.
I have often tried to look for cases with a similar MO, my research skills may not be the best. Anyway it's all worth some thought..'
 
Catch Me If You Can conman issues stark warning on the dangers of revealing personal information on Facebook

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...k-warning-dangers-Facebook.html#ixzz2OCvezSUz
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

This article is about Facebook but I think it applies to all online activity. We as a society need to educate ourselves and our loved ones to online dangers of revealing TMI online.

Something else has been nagging at me. I am curious about the gaming stats on the game system between Tom and the person he had inappropriate conversations with. Was Tom & his team whipping the Olive skinned man's butt in whatever game they were playing or were they on the same 'team'? I guess I am trying to reconcile why someone would want to stab Tom and Shirlee to death in such a violent way. But it does sound to me as tho the perp was baiting/grooming Tom online by switching over from the game system to a chat site to gain information. But that is just my opinion.

Great seeing so many are still hanging in and keeping up with the case!

wm

So many questions...
 
Snick1946 said:
This is not exactly a link to the story I wanted but I am posting it because it does discuss Tom's internet activities and has a video, I think this has been posted earlier but just in case, it's a good update:

http://www.ketv.com/news/local-news...ery/-/9674510/15771452/-/cuxh98z/-/index.html

I am also posting because it has the bus video of Tom. Also we mention this earlier but it hit me again when looking at it. He seems to cover his face as he exists the bus. It was not a cold day, far from it. Was he afraid of someone? It just jumps out to me as odd every time I see it..
Click to expand...

Was that a FL plate they showed? Thanks for posting this, I thought this was solved or they caught the guy. I didn't know it was still on going.
 
Snick1946 said:
Something has been bothering me the past few months. I understand that when a case grows cold such as this, interest lags. Comments taper off because most everything there is to be said has been said. What I am about to say does not in any way apply to the wonderful folks on this thread. It applies to what I sense has happened in the community at large here in Omaha and to local media.

I will just say it- the facts brought out in the AMW segment have caused a lot of people who previously were interested to lose some of that interest. The murders are now viewed as some 'gay thing' . Worse, there has been a feeling that while Tom was certainly a victim, he somehow contributed to his death with reckless internet behavior. ( I have had a couple people tell me this). Omaha is not exactly a progressive place; I regularly view local news chat boards; mention anything 'gay' on there and you get a lot of people spewing Bible verses at you.

This may be unfair speculation but I don't know how else to explain that once the segment aired, the air just went out of the room, totally. Local media has not mentioned the case for months, nothing at all for the anniversary. The sad part of this is, I tend to doubt that Tom's activities on line may have been directly related to what happened. Also there was another victim.

Again this is not meant as a commentary on anyone on this thread. It's a commentary on how fickle the public can be- but I already knew that..
Click to expand...

I didn't see the segment, but who is to say it was a "gay thing". Maybe the guy was baiting Tom and he said something to make him mad, maybe a comment about him not being gay. Or called him a name that pizzed him off. I know people get something in their heads and blame the victim, he was a child and you are right, there were 2 victims here. Hope they find this guy, because he will continue and there will be more victims.
 
I have seen links where Tom is believed to have entered "unrestricted" chat rooms and engaged in "inappropriate" conversations. I have been unable to verify the nature of this conversation. Is there any documentation that these conversations involved "transgender issues" or is this just a rumor?

According to a recent article in "The New Yorker", children younger than 11 do often have "gender identity" issues and I can see a young child going to a such a chat room. The article suggested that "sexual identity" normally only comes into play after puberty. A prepubescent, like Thomas, might "feel like" a girl, but would not think about who he might want to have sex with. Is it possible that Thomas and the Perp had some kind of "face to face" link-up prior to the murder? The Perp did not know what house Thomas lived in although he knew the address. Could they have actually met up somewhere else? This is a young looking 11 year old boy.

It is entirely possible that a mentally ill person could develop so much animosity towards someone he had only met "on-line" that it could lead to murder. Since there would be no "rational" motive, the case would be very hard to solve. I suppose it is possible that some sort of on-line exchange so infuriated someone that they managed to trick Thomas into disclosing his address and then sought him out. This would be a very bizarre situation but one-in-a-million events do occur. Would someone really recall an on-line conversation on one of these sites that got a bit testy after 5 years.

If someone were so angry at Thomas that he would travel a great distance to kill him, you would expect different knife wounds than someone who was just there, wrong place, wrong time. My understanding is that the knife wounds on both Thomas and Shirley were both sufficient to assure death but neither displayed the overkill you often see in anger drive killings. A cool, calculated double murder sounds a lot more like a "hit" than a mentally deranged person avenging an imagined on line insult. (by "hit" I mean either a professional job or a "do-it-yourself" job that involves eliminating someone for some sort of personal gain). I keep coming back to the possibility that this was just a mistake. The Perp got the wrong people; the wrong address.

There is a lot of mystery surrounding "on-line" detective work. Sites I have used, such as Websleuths, have threads going back for years. Some may take measures to conceal resent activity. Thomas' CPU Hard drive would have a record of all of his recent exchanges. It might just have his side of a conversation but it would tell if he had disclosed personal information such as a home address. Tracking down on-line traffic to the originating CPU is something that Law Enforcement is able to do but I don't believe anyone with only "normal" access could do that.
 
kemo said:
I have seen links where Tom is believed to have entered "unrestricted" chat rooms and engaged in "inappropriate" conversations. I have been unable to verify the nature of this conversation. Is there any documentation that these conversations involved "transgender issues" or is this just a rumor?

According to a recent article in "The New Yorker", children younger than 11 do often have "gender identity" issues and I can see a young child going to a such a chat room. The article suggested that "sexual identity" normally only comes into play after puberty. A prepubescent, like Thomas, might "feel like" a girl, but would not think about who he might want to have sex with. Is it possible that Thomas and the Perp had some kind of "face to face" link-up prior to the murder? The Perp did not know what house Thomas lived in although he knew the address. Could they have actually met up somewhere else? This is a young looking 11 year old boy.

It is entirely possible that a mentally ill person could develop so much animosity towards someone he had only met "on-line" that it could lead to murder. Since there would be no "rational" motive, the case would be very hard to solve. I suppose it is possible that some sort of on-line exchange so infuriated someone that they managed to trick Thomas into disclosing his address and then sought him out. This would be a very bizarre situation but one-in-a-million events do occur. Would someone really recall an on-line conversation on one of these sites that got a bit testy after 5 years.

If someone were so angry at Thomas that he would travel a great distance to kill him, you would expect different knife wounds than someone who was just there, wrong place, wrong time. My understanding is that the knife wounds on both Thomas and Shirley were both sufficient to assure death but neither displayed the overkill you often see in anger drive killings. A cool, calculated double murder sounds a lot more like a "hit" than a mentally deranged person avenging an imagined on line insult. (by "hit" I mean either a professional job or a "do-it-yourself" job that involves eliminating someone for some sort of personal gain). I keep coming back to the possibility that this was just a mistake. The Perp got the wrong people; the wrong address.

There is a lot of mystery surrounding "on-line" detective work. Sites I have used, such as Websleuths, have threads going back for years. Some may take measures to conceal resent activity. Thomas' CPU Hard drive would have a record of all of his recent exchanges. It might just have his side of a conversation but it would tell if he had disclosed personal information such as a home address. Tracking down on-line traffic to the originating CPU is something that Law Enforcement is able to do but I don't believe anyone with only "normal" access could do that.
Click to expand...

The 'wrong place' theory was raised early on and I think we discussed it some on one of the earlier threads. I remember driving around the area and finding a matching address south of Dodge street (that's the division line for north and south in Omaha). It's not quite as affluent as the Hunter's neighborhood, I think it's a duplex as I recall. It'd be interesting if OPD could run a check on that address and see if anyone moved suddenly from there in the months following the murders. That'd be at least better than nothing which is what seems to be happening now.

Not to berate the subject but I can't recall ever seeing the air go out of anything quite so fast as the evaporation of interest in this crime following the AMW segment. I previously expressed my idea that Tom's alleged activities may be one reason, it's just strange, but heck it's been five years and for most of us life goes on.
 
http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/Crime-Scene-Tape-Surrounds-Omaha-Home-207377751.html

The article linked to does not identify who these people are. WOWT just ran a news story- the murdered man is a Pathology department faculty member at Creighton University. The station ran a short update on the Dundee murders and clearly may be making some link.

My guess is that this may well turn out to be a murder/suicide but it is an eerie coincidence if so. I will update as needed...
 
Snick1946 said:
http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/Crime-Scene-Tape-Surrounds-Omaha-Home-207377751.html

The article linked to does not identify who these people are. WOWT just ran a news story- the murdered man is a Pathology department faculty member at Creighton University. The station ran a short update on the Dundee murders and clearly may be making some link.

My guess is that this may well turn out to be a murder/suicide but it is an eerie coincidence if so. I will update as needed...
Click to expand...

Thanks Snick, looks like a few of the channels are saying that OPD think it is a double homicide. Wasn't there another murder suicide of a doctor in the neighborhood?
 
omaha said:
Thanks Snick, looks like a few of the channels are saying that OPD think it is a double homicide. Wasn't there another murder suicide of a doctor in the neighborhood?
Click to expand...

I noted KMTV's coverage did not seem to indicate suicide/murder. I also noted they ran a clip on the Hunter/Sherman murders. I am not familiar with another doctor killed in that neighborhood, anyone else know who that may be?

Probably premature to speculate as we do not know for sure if these were murders. IMO the odds of two households from one department at a college being hit with murder in their homes in five years are pretty long. My mind is working overtime with theories but I think we need to wait for results of the autopsies before that begins. I wonder if they were stabbed...
 
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