Indiana Doctor Arrested In Connection To Four Nebraska Murders
By Samantha Abernethy in News on Jul 16, 2013 3:45PM
A doctor from Terre Haute, Ind., was arrested during a traffic stop in Illinois and charged with four murders committed in Omaha over the last five years. Police say Dr. Anthony J. Garcia, 40, had “the elements of a serial killer,” and they did not feel he "would stop unless an arrest was made.”
Garcia is accused in two separate double homicides in May 2008 and March 2013. Police believe all four murders were motivated by revenge related to Garcia's firing from Creighton University, where he worked in the pathology lab from July 2000 to June 2001. Police said so much time had passed since Garcia's termination that "they didn’t originally connect him to the [2008] slayings."
Dr. William Hunter, Dr. Roger Brumback and his wife, Mary Brumback fired Garcia for "erratic behavior" in 2001. On March, 13 2008, Hunter found his 11-year-old son Thomas Hunter and the family housekeeper Shirlee Sherman, 57, dead of multiple stab wounds to the neck. On May 14, 2013, a piano mover arrived at the Brumback home and found the bodies of Roger and Mary Brumback, both 65. Roger had been shot to death, and Mary had been stabbed.
Garcia, who was licensed to practice medicine in Illinois, was pulled over in Union County, Ill., on Monday. A task force investigating Garcia "for some time." Garcia was also suspected of drunk driving at the time, and police found a .45-caliber handgun on him. Police say Garcia has not lived in Omaha in 12 years, but they have evidence he was in town at the time of both murders as a gray SUV he owned was connected to both crime scenes. Police say Garcia allegedly gave the car to a relative in another state after the May murders.
"At this time, and every member of the task force feels this, but he does fit the elements of a serial killer, yes," said Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer at a press conference. See a timeline of the police investigation on Omaha.com.
Garcia is charged with four counts of first degree murder. Police believe he acted alone.