The Kathy Bonney murder was the 1987 killing of a 19-year-old Chesapeake, Virginia woman by her own father, Thomas Lee Bonney, who shot her 27 times and dumped her body near the Dismal Swamp Canal in North Carolina. He was convicted of first-degree murder in 1988 and originally sentenced to death. Nearly two decades of appeals, a mistrial, and a prison escape followed before he was finally sentenced to life in prison in 2007.
What Happened in November 1987
On November 22, 1987, Kathy Carol Bonney’s nude body was found alongside the Dismal Swamp Canal near U.S. Route 17 in Camden County, North Carolina. She had been shot 27 times, and her face was so badly disfigured that police identified her through fingerprints. Kathy was one of six children of Thomas Lee Bonney, a 45-year-old former auto salvage dealer from Chesapeake, Virginia.1Virginian-Pilot. Bonney Escape Coverage She was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Norfolk, Virginia.2Virginian-Pilot. Graves of Interest in Local Cemeteries
The Father’s Confession
Investigators found bloodstains in Thomas Bonney’s car that matched his daughter’s blood type. He told police he had argued with Kathy, shot her, and stripped her body before leaving the scene.2Virginian-Pilot. Graves of Interest in Local Cemeteries “The gun just went off,” he said. Asked about the 27 shots, he answered, “I just cracked.”1Virginian-Pilot. Bonney Escape Coverage
The Trial and the Multiple Personality Defense
Bonney was indicted for first-degree murder and tried at the October 1988 Criminal Session of Superior Court in Camden County, North Carolina. His lawyers entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, arguing that he suffered from multiple personality disorder and that one of his alternate personalities had taken control the night Kathy was killed.3Orlando Sentinel. Guilty: A Man Who Claimed He Has Multiple Personalities Defense attorney John Morrison described Bonney as having a “diseased mind.”1Virginian-Pilot. Bonney Escape Coverage
The defense played videotaped sessions conducted by Dr. Paul Dell, a psychiatrist from the Churchland Psychological Center in Norfolk. On the recordings, Bonney identified what he said were 10 distinct personalities, including one he called “Satan” and another he said was his deceased grandmother. Under hypnosis in one session, he said, “You’re just a mortal. You don’t know nothing.”3Orlando Sentinel. Guilty: A Man Who Claimed He Has Multiple Personalities
The jury rejected it. On November 25, 1988, after six hours of deliberation, jurors in Elizabeth City found Bonney guilty of first-degree murder based on premeditation and deliberation.4Washington Post. Va. Man Guilty of Murdering His Daughter Five days later, on November 30, 1988, the jury recommended death, and the court imposed a death sentence.1Virginian-Pilot. Bonney Escape Coverage
Why the Death Sentence Was Overturned
On June 12, 1991, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled in State v. Bonney, 329 N.C. 61, 405 S.E.2d 145. The justices found no prejudicial error in the murder conviction itself but concluded that the sentencing phase had been tainted by improper jury instructions on mitigating factors, particularly the evidence of multiple personality disorder. The court vacated the death sentence and sent the case back to Camden County for a new capital sentencing proceeding. The first-degree murder conviction stood.5vLex. State v. Bonney, 329 N.C. 61
A resentencing attempt in August 1992 ended in a mistrial, derailed by Bonney’s courtroom behavior and renewed questions about his competency.1Virginian-Pilot. Bonney Escape Coverage He remained in custody at Central Prison in Raleigh.
The 1994 Escape From Central Prison
On the morning of Friday, July 29, 1994, Bonney and a fellow inmate, James Stromer, carried out what authorities said was the first successful escape from Central Prison’s 12-year-old maximum-security facility. Stromer, 48, was serving a life sentence for rape, kidnapping, and burglary and had a background in construction management and engineering from East Carolina University; investigators believed he used that knowledge to study the prison’s garbage disposal system.6Virginian-Pilot. Bonney Escape Details
Around 8:30 a.m., the two men slid down a garbage chute and hid inside a locked, detachable trash compactor. A garbage truck hauled it to a landfill about four miles away. Officials at first thought no one could have survived; a correctional officer said there was “no way anyone could survive the compacting, unless the compactor was empty.”1Virginian-Pilot. Bonney Escape Coverage Stromer had apparently calculated that the unit’s trash was mostly styrofoam dinner trays, which would not build enough pressure to crush them. Searches of the landfill turned up nothing, and on Monday, August 1, officials confirmed both men were gone.6Virginian-Pilot. Bonney Escape Details
The pair stole a 1987 Oldsmobile Regency from a Jiffy Lube near the landfill, drove to the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, and lifted a license plate in Virginia Beach.6Virginian-Pilot. Bonney Escape Details On Saturday morning, Stromer dropped Bonney off near the Willoughby Spit neighborhood of Norfolk and continued alone.7Virginian-Pilot. Bonney Recapture Coverage
Bonney visited Forest Lawn Cemetery, where Kathy was buried, then wandered the Ocean View area for four days.8Virginian-Pilot. Bonney Post-Recapture Details Police found him around 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, August 2, 1994, under an Interstate 64 overpass near 13th View Street.7Virginian-Pilot. Bonney Recapture Coverage He was disoriented, unarmed, and carried only asthma medicine and family photographs. He wore a mechanic’s shirt labeled “Robert” and a hospital smock, with his right arm in a cast from injuries he suffered sliding down the chute. He was treated at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. He later told officials that if he had not been caught, he had planned to turn himself in to get food and medication.
How the Case Finally Ended
Resentencing stalled for years after Bonney’s return to custody, tangled up in ongoing concerns about his mental competency. On October 15, 2007, nearly 20 years after Kathy’s death, the Camden County District Attorney moved to have Bonney sentenced to life in prison, and the court imposed that sentence in Camden County Superior Court.9Virginian-Pilot. Nearly 20 Years Later, Bonney Gets Life for Daughter’s Murder The 1988 first-degree murder conviction had never been disturbed; only the death sentence vacated by the state Supreme Court in 1991 had needed to be replaced.
The Television Movie
The case was adapted into a made-for-television film, Deadly Whispers, starring Tony Danza.2Virginian-Pilot. Graves of Interest in Local Cemeteries