Detectives were confused by a double-
murder that apparently had no motive.
The only evidence they had was an
eye-witness who had seen a smart-looking
man call at the house carrying what
looked like a briefcase.
Shirlee had two children and five
grandchildren. “She would take care of
everyone else before she took care of
herself,” said her daughter.T
wo years later, Anthony Garcia was in
another temporary post – this time in
Indiana – when he was dismissed after a
letter from Dr. Roger Brumback told the
employer that the reference Garcia had
produced for them was a fake.
Garcia was angry. “I feel my actions
do not rise to the level of denial of my
medical licensure application,” he wrote.
“I have been aggrieved and adversely
affected by not being able to work as a
physician in the state of Indiana.”
On Mother’s Day, May 13th, 2013,
a piano remover arrived at the Omaha,
Nebraska, home of Roger Brumback
and his wife Mary, both 65. Surprised at
finding the door ajar, he walked in, calling
Dr. Brumback’s name.
He found the doctor and his wife dead
with stab wounds to the neck. Roger had
also been shot as he opened the door –
blasted in the hallway. Detectives found
the clip from a Smith & Wesson 9mm
pistol on the floor of the hall.
“All the wounds were in a small area of
the right side of the neck,” said Detective
Mois. “All of these wounds told us“A
BSTAIN FROM doing
harm,” is the phrase found
in the fourth-century BCE
Hippocratic Oath taken to heart by all
doctors. Well, almost all.
Dr. Anthony Garcia, a graduate of Utah
Medical School in 1999, screwed up his
first residency at a family practice in New
York when he yelled at a radiologist. It was
the first sign of his quick temper – but not
the last.Six-foot-six Garcia was given a second
chance a year later in the Pathology
Department at Creighton University
Medical School in Omaha, Nebraska –
only to be dismissed for “unprofessional
conduct toward a fellow-resident and the
fellow-resident’s wife.” Doctors Roger
Brumback and William Hunter were the
signatories to the dismissal.
Professionals of all stripes – doctors,
lawyers and teachers amongst them- know that a single bad reference
can destroy a career, cost you tens of
thousands in earnings and dog you for
decades. So the watchword is “Think
what you like, but don’t say it.”
Anthony Garcia learned this the hard
way. For the next eight years, he drifted
on the fringes of medicine, bouncing from
one short-term appointment to another.
Wherever he went, those references
from Brumback and Hunter pursued
him. “Every time he tried to get a licence
from somewhere it appeared that the
information Creighton would provide was
coming back to haunt him,” said Omaha
Police Department homicide detective
Derek Mois.
The final straw came in February
2008 when Louisiana State University
discovered he had faked his references.
They fired him.
Two weeks later, on March 13th, 2008,
Dr. William Hunter arrived home to find
the bodies of his 11-year-old son Thomas
and his housekeeper Shirlee Sherman,
- Both had been stabbed with precision
in the carotid artery. Thomas was the
youngest of Dr. Hunter’s four sons. He
loved maths and science and was a “junk
food addict,” said his father.
6 Murder Most Foul Doctor Sleeps Through His Own Death SentenceAnthony Garcia blamed
two fellow-doctors and
their poor references
for ruining his career.
His response was to
carry out two horriic
double-murders in a bid
for vengeance. But when
justice inally caught up
with the medic-turned-
serial killer he could, it
seemed, barely keep his
eyes open...By Donald Carne
DOCTOR SLEEPS THROUGH
HIS OWN DEA
“All the wounds
were in a small area
of the right side
of the neck. The
wounds told us that
whoever did this
was looking for this
geographic spot.
‘Someone knows
anatomy’ is what it
told us”