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Meridian bondsman murdered in desert
The suspect in the murder of a Meridian man in Elmore County died only a few hours later in an exchange of gunfire with law enforcement officers in Canyon County last week.
Six different law enforcement agencies were directly involved in the investigation of the homicide. The Ada County Sheriff's Office was the lead agency since, under state law, any homicide anywhere in the state where the exact location of the murder is not known, devolves on that office to investigate.
Initially, authorities weren't sure where the killing took place, although within 24 hours of the murder they had a solid time-line of the events that led up to the murder of 30-year-old Joshua Menno Schmidt of Meridian, a newly hired bail bondsmen working for Advantage Bail Bonds of Meridian, and the subsequent death of the suspect in his killing, 30-year-old Anthony Bosworth II, of Star.
Bosworth had been arrested by Ada County authorities in Star on Wednesday, March 14, charged with domestic violence against his girlfriend. According to Lt. Scott Johnson, a spokesperson for the Ada County Sheriff's Office, Bosworth had expected to be bailed out that weekend, and reportedly was upset when bondsmen didn't show up until Tuesday, March 20. He had been held on $16,500 bail, which meant that with associated fees and charges, he would have been required to provide about $1,700 as a cash deposit to the bondsmen before being released.
Usually, that cash must be provided to the bondsmen at the time they are bailed out, but in what authorities all described as a highly unusual case, Schmidt, who had been on the job only two weeks and had had little training, according to Elmore County Detective Captain Mike Barclay, put up the bond apparently on the promise that Bosworth would be able to cash a check at the Meridian branch of Pioneer Credit Union, to cover the deposit and fees for the bond.
At 1:08 p.m. that day, Bosworth was released from the Ada County jail. At 4 p.m. the pair were at the Meridian branch of Pioneer. But there was a problem trying to cash his check, and bank officials there told Bosworth he would have to go to the firm's main headquarters in Mountain Home to clear up the problem.
The two men arrived at the Mountain Home office at 5:03 p.m., just minutes after closing.
According to Elmore County Sheriff Rick Layher, a female employee at the bank spoke briefly with the two men at that time, telling them the bank was closed and she couldn't let them in. Layher said she heard them say they might try the bank's branch on base, but there is no evidence they actually tried to do so.
It was the last time Schmidt was seen alive.
Authorities said they will never know exactly what happened in the next 30-60 minutes, but both Johnson and Layher speculated that at some point on the drive back toward Boise Schmidt must have informed Bosworth that, lacking the bond deposit, he would have to return Bosworth to jail, "and he clearly didn't want to go back," Johnson said.
Barclay said Schmidt had called his boss on his cell phone at about 5:30 p.m. and had been told to return Bosworth to jail. According to Johnson, Schmidt then apparently allowed Bosworth to make a call to his ex-girlfriend, who had moved to Nampa shortly after Bosworth had been arrested on March 14. The girlfriend did not recognize the number on her caller ID, and initially did not answer the phone. But at 5:39 she called the number back, Schmidt answered and handed the phone to Bosworth. Apparently, Johnson said, a brief, angry conversation ensued in which the girlfriend said there was a no-contact order with Bosworth, and then she hung up. That phone call was the last time Schmidt was known to be alive.
Authorities said Schmidt carried a semi-automatic handgun in the console of his silver 2006 Dodge pickup. Somehow, authorities believe, Bosworth became aware of and got hold of the gun. He then apparently ordered Schmidt to turn off I-84 at the Simco Road exit, where they headed west to Desert Wind Road. Where the exit road intersects with Desert Wind is a small dirt road that heads west. Layher said the pickup was driven about 150 yards up the dirt road, then turned left, going across the desert about 500 yards to a spot where there is a deep ravine.
It's there, Barclay said, that Bosworth apparently shot Schmidt directly between the eyes, in the pickup, and then dumped the body in the ravine.
According to Johnson, a "perfect storm" of events over the next two hours then led authorities to begin looking for Bosworth and the Schmidt pickup.
At approximately 6:30 p.m., Johnson said, Bosworth showed up at the apartment of his ex-wife in Nampa, covered in blood, waving a gun, and apparently telling her he had killed a man. The inside of the pickup he was driving was covered in blood, some dripping onto the pavement. He took a shower, changed his clothes, dumped his blood-soaked clothes there, and then drove off.
At 7:20 p.m., as he was driving away from the apartment complex where his ex-wife lived, a Nampa police officer was pulling into the parking lot on an unrelated matter. Bosworth's ex-wife, described as highly distraught, ran out to tell the officer that her ex-husband had apparently killed someone, and that he had just turned the corner as he drove off.
At that point, an attempt to locate (ATL) bulletin was issued for Bosworth, describing the Schmidt pickup. As the ATL went out, a Meridian police officer was just finishing up taking a missing person's report from Schmidt's wife, Lisa, who is 11 weeks pregnant with the couple's first child. She had earlier received a phone call from her husband's employer, asking if Schmidt had showed up there, since he was overdue returning to Boise, and she had called Meridian police to report him missing.
The ATL being broadcast by Nampa police matched the description of Schmidt's pickup that the Meridian officer had just taken, "and he put two and two together," Johnson said, and notified Nampa that the owner of the pickup they were looking for was missing.
Authorities aren't sure what Bosworth did over the next few hours, but at 1 a.m. that morning an Idaho State Police officer spotted the Schmidt pickup near Ustick and Middleton roads in Canyon County, but by the time he got turned around, the officer had lost sight of the vehicle.
Meanwhile, Nampa police, reasoning that Bosworth might try to contact his ex-girlfriend, had stationed a female police officer and her K-9 unit near the ex-girlfriend's house in the 17000 block of Monarch street in Nampa. That precaution paid off when at 3:30 a.m. Bosworth showed up there and got out of the pickup.
The officer then identified herself and demanded his surrender. Instead, Bosworth ran around the back of the house and into a field behind the house. The field bordered on Middleton Road, where two Canyon County Sheriff's Deputies happened to be patrolling at that time.
The Nampa officer released her dog, began to chase the suspect into the field, and radioed for backup, to which the two Canyon Count deputies immediately responded.
As the three officers and police dog chased Bosworth he turned and began firing at them, the bright flashes from what is believed to be Schmidt's gun exploding in the dark. Officers returned fire. The Nampa officer then took a knee, aimed and shot Bosworth in the head, killing him instantly.
A quick inspection of the pickup he had been driving showed it was covered in blood and authorities quickly initiated a search for Schmidt.
Elmore County authorities were notified that Schmidt was last known to have been returning to Boise from Mountain Home, and asked to launch a search in this area.
While city police and volunteers from the local fire department began a grid search of the city, Layher launched a massive search in the county, using deputies, the sheriff's office COPs members, Elmore County Search and Rescue teams, and officers from the Idaho State Police. More than 35 officers were involved in the county search alone.
Meanwhile, since the location of the murder wasn't known at that point, and only suspected, Ada County authorities were called in, and early on Wednesday morning, March 21, launched a helicopter to aid in the search.
"If it hadn't been for the helicopter, we might never have found the body" as quickly as they did, Layher said, since searchers driving along the roads probably wouldn't have seen the body in the ravine. At about 12:30 p.m. that day, the helicopter spotted the body and vectored searchers to the site, where Layher quickly set up a command post. "It looked like a police convention out there," Layher said, with more than two dozen officers showing up to investigate the scene.
By 5 p.m. that day, less than 24 hours after the murder, authorities had put together the complete story of events and were holding a press conference to explain what had happened. Autopsies on Schmidt and Bosworth were conducted last Thursday, and ballistics tests, which often take several weeks, still haven't been completed, but authorities have essentially completed their work on the case.
"It was a good, cooperative effort among a number of agencies," Layher said, crediting Ada County Sheriff Gary Rainey with having previously developed a series of cooperative meetings between all of the agencies that were eventually involved in the investigation.
Schmidt, a native of South Dakota who had moved to Idaho several years ago, was described by his family as a man filled with a love for life. The family "thanked the community for the outpouring of love and compassion for friends and family," following his death.
Memorial contributions can be made at Washington Mutual or Wells Fargo in the name of Lisa Schmidt, for the benefit of Lisa and the couple's unborn child.