In a quiet, upscale Omaha neighborhood, the afternoon of March 13, 2008, was shattered by a brutal act of violence that claimed the life of 11-year-old Thomas Hunter. The young male was a bright and normal sixth-grader who enjoyed playing video games, drinking Dr. Pepper, and eating potato chips. On that tragic day, he arrived home from school, and shortly after, both he and the family's housekeeper, 57-year-old Shirlee Sherman, were found stabbed to death inside the Hunter home.
The discovery was made by Thomas's father, Dr. William Hunter, a pathologist at Creighton University Medical Center. The killer had left a gruesome signature, leaving knives plunged into the necks of both victims.
The shocking nature of the crime left the community stunned and investigators with a perplexing case. There were no immediate suspects, and the motive was a mystery. For years, the investigation languished, leaving the Hunter family and the community searching for answers. The case went cold, a painful and unresolved tragedy for all who knew the victims.
A break in the case finally came five years later, in May 2013, with another double homicide in Omaha. Dr. Roger Brumback, a former colleague of Dr. William Hunter at Creighton University, and his wife, Mary, were found murdered in their home. The Brumbacks had been shot and stabbed, and the brutality of the crime bore striking similarities to the Hunter and Sherman murders. This tragic event provided investigators with a crucial link. They began to explore a connection between the two families through their work at Creighton University.
The investigation quickly zeroed in on a former pathology resident at the university, Anthony Garcia. Garcia had been fired from the residency program in 2001 by Dr. Hunter and Dr. Brumback for unprofessional conduct. It was discovered that Garcia held a deep-seated grudge against the two doctors, blaming them for his dismissal and subsequent inability to find work as a physician. Investigators believe this long-simmering rage fueled a desire for revenge. Evidence, including cellphone records and credit card purchases, placed Garcia in Omaha at the time of the Brumback murders. Two months after the Brumback killings, Anthony Garcia was arrested during a traffic stop in southern Illinois.
In October 2016, a jury found Anthony Garcia guilty of four counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Thomas Hunter, Shirlee Sherman, and Roger and Mary Brumback. He was also convicted on weapons charges. Prosecutors argued that the killings were meticulously planned acts of revenge. Witnesses from 2008 had reported seeing a man with an olive complexion and a silver Honda CR-V, a vehicle Garcia owned at the time, near the Hunter home. In 2018, a three-judge panel sentenced Garcia to death for his crimes. The violent end to young Thomas Hunter's life was a devastating consequence of a years-long vendetta against his father.
