This story has a potential serial killer, numerous victims, corrupt police officials, and finally ends with a killer taken off the streets for good.
Killer Author Jerome Bomar Jr being arrested | via ProDeathPenalty
The Victim
Aimee Willard 22 was a student at George Mason University. While there, she was ranked in the top twenty-five female lacrosse players in the country.
In June of 1996, Aimee went home to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the summer break. There she took summer classes at a local school.
On the night of June 19, she went to Smokey Joe?s Tavern to meet some friends. The tavern was located in Wayne, just outside of Philadelphia. Aimee spent about three hours there and drank less than one beer.
Friends would later say she left the bar between 1:30 and 1:40 am. Only a short time later, at 2:03 am, an off-duty paramedic spotted her car. The car was found running with the headlights on, the radio playing, and the driver?s side door wide open. It was abandoned on the shoulder of a transition road leading from Interstate 476 to Route 1.
While there was no sign of Aimee in the area, blood was found. Including blood on the right side of the car and a guardrail, along with a bloody palm print. The investigators also found tire tracks next to the scene, belonging to a Firestone 440 13-inch tire.
As they broaden the search, they located underwear and tennis shoes at a nearby ramp entrance. They would later be identified as items Aimee was wearing that night.
During the day, they brought out helicopters, K-9 dogs, and search volunteers to look for Aimee. A witness came forward saying they had seen Aimee?s car the night before.
Later that day, Aimee?s naked body would be found in a vacant lot of North Philadelphia at 16th and Indiana, nearly 20 miles from where her car was found. The rest of her clothing she wore out that night, a white sunflower t-shirt, khaki shorts, and white socks have never been found.
An autopsy showed that she had been raped and died from blunt force trauma.
Aimee Willard | via Crime and Capital Punishment, WikiFandom
The Investigation
First Witness/Suspect ? The Police Impersonator
After realizing that the man who said he saw Aimee?s car, only lived five blocks from where her body was found, they thought they had a suspect. They brought him in to the police station for questioning where he cooperated fully. He even gave consent for them to search his car, where police found handcuffs and a flashlight carried by policed officers. Inside the suspect?s home, they found additional police paraphernalia and magazines that sold standard police equipment.
Looking into the suspect?s background, they found that he had previously been charged with impersonating an officer. It was around that time that he stopped cooperating and obtained a lawyer. He also recanted his story and said he was never on the ramp and never saw Aimee?s car the night of the murder.
Second Witness/Suspect ? Off-Duty State Trooper
A Pennsylvania State Trooper who was off-duty the night of Aimee?s murder came forward with information. He said on the night of June 19, he saw not just Aimee?s car, but a squad car and officer parked behind her. He said that he pulled over and spoke to the officer briefly before continuing on his way.
Investigators working the case said they were suspicious because they found information that he was in a different location at the time he claimed to be next to the crime scene. The State Trooper stuck to his story.
Third Witness/Suspect ? Local Police Officer
A week after this, a local police officer said that he had pulled Aimee over, but claimed no State Trooper stopped to talk to him. But, he did say he saw an off-duty paramedic parked behind her car. The paramedic, that called, the abandoned car into the police.
Authorities then spoke to the paramedic again, and he claimed that there was no local police in the area that night, and he spoke to no officers at all. When the investigators went back to the local cop, he admitted to lying and resigned from the force.
Investigators Conclusion
At the end of their investigation, they concluded that all three men could be possible suspects, the Police Impersonator, the Off-Duty State Trooper, and the Local Police Officer. They all had inserted themselves into the investigation without an apparent reason.
The Police Impersonator ? worked near the area where Aimee?s body was found.
The State Trooper ? only lived a block away from Aimee?s family home.
The Local Police Officer ? frequently visited the hospital where Aimee?s mom worked.
Her family said that Aimee would not have just stopped for anyone alone the road, giving more credence to the fact that would have only pulled over for someone in authority.
Arthur Jerome Bomar mug shot | via Delaware County
An Attempted Carjacking 19 Months Later
In December 1997, a 19-year-old woman reported an attempted carjacking. She said that a man had followed her after she left a nightclub. While she was driving, he rammed into the back of her car, then attempted to get her to pull over, she refused. She drove off but wrote down his license plate number.
The registration came back to Arthur Jerome Bomar Jr 38.
A quick search proved he had been convicted of murder in Nevada in 1978. He had killed a woman in a parking lot. Even though he was given a life sentence, Bomar was proved after only 11 years behind bars.
His wrap sheet also included several assaults on young women over the years. Bomar had also been charged with the attempted murder of a woman named Theresa Thompson, but she died of an overdose before the case could go to trial, and he was released. And lastly, he had a rape complaint from a college student in Philadelphia.
Connecting a Killer to the Victim
Now with a new suspect in mind, the police looked into connecting Bomar to Aimee?s murder.
The night of the murder, Bomar was in the area, he had been pulled over by police only six blocks from where her body had been dumped. They wanted to pull him in for questioning, but he was nowhere to be found.
A few days later, he landed in the authority?s laps. He was arrested trying to break into a woman?s apartment.
When he was pulled in, they found a set of keys in his pocket; they went to a Honda. A search of the vehicle showed the plates belonged to Bomar, but the car was registered to Maria Cabuenos 25. She had disappeared three months before his arrest, having last been seen on route 476. Inside the vehicle, police found dried blood, and that both bumpers had scrape marks.
When questioned about June 19, 1996, Bomar said that he had been at a birthday party. His fiancee gave a different story, telling police that Bomar had been at Smokey Joe?s Tavern.
Bomar?s car, a Ford Escort, was finally located and searched for evidence. They found the front bumper had marks, the kind left from bumping a car in front of it. The tires also matched the impressions left at the scene in Aimee?s case. Blood located in the car came back to Aimee?s. Also, underneath the vehicle, the oil pan had a distinct mark on it that matched a burn that had been left on Aimee?s upper body.
The undeniable proof came when Bomar?s DNA matched semen on Aimee?s body.
Working Theory
Police believed that Bomar saw Aimee at the bar and followed her out. He drove behind her on Route 476, where they assumed he used his same ruse of bumping the back of Aimee?s car. Both cars showed transfer on each other?s bumpers.
Believing that Aimee got out of her car willingly to exchange information with the driver, is when Bomar attacked her. He hit her on the head with a tire iron, and then shoved her into his car. He, throughout part of her clothes along the way, maybe when he stopped and raped her.
Newsaper clipping ?Bomar guilty in rape and murder of Aimee Willard? | via Newspapers
Final Punishment
With the information, they had enough to charge Arthur Jerome Bomar Jr with the murder of Aimee Willard. He was convicted and sentenced to death by lethal injection.
During his sentencing, he flipped off Aimee?s mother and yelled at her to ?f**k herself and her two kids.?
Currently, Bomar is sitting on death row, he has not been charged in the Maria Cabuenos case, but it is believed she suffered the same fate as Aimee.
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