Dallen Forrest Bounds – Serial Killer
Overview
Dallen Forrest Bounds was an American serial killer whose confirmed murders occurred in South Carolina during a six-month period in 1999. Four people were ultimately attributed to Bounds: Jonathan Lemuel Lara, Karen Moore Hayden, Sandra "Sandi" Roberts Ott, and Timothy Ott. His crimes began with the calculated killing of a store employee in Greenville and ended with a double homicide in Easley, a widespread police manhunt, a hostage situation, and Bounds taking his own life as officers closed in on him.
Bounds was born on August 9, 1971, in Ashland, Oregon, and spent much of his youth in Lacey, Washington. By the time of his death at age 28, he had accumulated a history of theft, burglary, violence, unstable relationships, and repeated encounters with law enforcement. Although investigators eventually established his responsibility for four South Carolina murders, authorities in Washington also examined him as a possible suspect in additional unsolved homicides. Those additional cases were never conclusively attributed to him.
Early Criminal History
Bounds grew up in the Lacey, Washington, area and attended Timberline High School. His encounters with the criminal justice system began while he was young. As an adult, one of his most significant early offenses occurred in April 1990, when Bounds and another man burglarized a discount business in Lacey and stole several firearms, including pistols, a rifle, and a shotgun. Bounds was eventually convicted of second-degree burglary and possession of stolen property and served approximately nine months in prison.
Additional arrests for theft followed in Washington. During the 1990s, Bounds married and became a father, but the marriage deteriorated. After the family moved to Arizona, he was arrested in 1997 in connection with a domestic violence incident involving his wife. The marriage ended, and Bounds subsequently moved again. He eventually settled in Greenville, South Carolina, where he held several jobs and lived in an apartment on East Park Avenue.
People who encountered Bounds socially or through work did not necessarily see an obvious murderer. He could appear friendly and function normally around coworkers and acquaintances. At the same time, later investigations uncovered evidence of a much darker private life. Accounts of his behavior described increasingly unstable emotions, fascination with violent or racist imagery, trouble maintaining relationships, and periods in which he wrote about death and suicide.
The Murder of Jonathan Lemuel Lara
Bounds' first confirmed murder occurred on June 26, 1999, at a Radio Shack on Laurens Road in Greenville, South Carolina. Jonathan Lemuel Lara, a 26-year-old employee, was working inside the business when he was attacked. Lara was restrained to a chair in a back area of the store with plastic flex ties. His killer then stabbed him in the neck with a screwdriver, inflicting a fatal wound.
The crime scene was particularly disturbing because of how controlled it appeared. The front entrance had been locked, the lights were turned off, and a closed sign was displayed, creating the appearance that the business was simply not open. Lara's body was discovered when a coworker came to the store and realized something was wrong. There was little evidence of the type of disorder that might ordinarily accompany a violent struggle.
Investigators initially had no reason to connect Lara's death to a series of murders. Bounds remained unidentified as the killer for months. It was only after his later crimes and death that investigators were able to connect him to the Radio Shack homicide.
Casandra Cae Laster, who lived with Bounds, was later prosecuted in connection with the Lara case. She was convicted of being an accessory after the fact to murder and received a 15-year prison sentence. Her appeal was dismissed by the South Carolina Court of Appeals in 2003. Bounds himself was never prosecuted because his identity as Lara's killer was established after his death.
The Murder of Karen Moore Hayden
Nearly six months after Lara was killed, another Greenville employee was murdered under circumstances that immediately reminded detectives of the Radio Shack crime. On December 22, 1999, 30-year-old Karen Moore Hayden was working at a Greenville-Pelham Florist location on Rutherford Road in Greenville.
Hayden, a wife and mother, was attacked inside the flower shop during the daytime. Her throat was cut, and she was left in a rear storage area of the business. When a delivery worker was sent to check on the store, he encountered an unsettling scene. The lights had been turned off, the business appeared closed, and a sign indicated to customers that the store was not open. Hayden was subsequently discovered inside.
The similarities to Jonathan Lara's murder were difficult to overlook. In both cases, an employee had been isolated inside a Greenville business, killed away from the public portion of the store, and the business had then been made to appear closed. The interior of the flower shop was largely undisturbed, with flowers and other items still in place. Investigators began considering the possibility that the two killings were connected.
Police did not have to wait long for the investigation to take another dramatic turn. Within hours, Bounds would commit two more murders, this time against people he personally knew.
The Easley Double Murder
During 1999, Bounds became intensely interested in Sandra "Sandi" Roberts Ott, a 33-year-old nurse and divorced mother. Contemporary accounts described her as a girlfriend, former girlfriend, or romantic interest of Bounds, although the exact nature and duration of their relationship has been described differently in various accounts. What is clear is that Bounds became preoccupied with her and continued pursuing her after the relationship deteriorated or his advances were rejected.
On December 23, 1999, only one day after Karen Hayden's murder, Bounds went to Easley in Pickens County. Sandra was at the Antioch Road home of her former husband, 32-year-old Timothy Ott. Authorities said Bounds entered the residence through a window. Once inside, he shot Sandra in the head near the kitchen.
Timothy attempted to escape and obtain help. He fled toward a neighboring residence, but Bounds pursued him. Timothy was shot and killed while attempting to reach safety and summon authorities. The violence occurred while Sandra and Timothy's young son was inside Timothy's home. Police later found the child asleep and physically unharmed.
The killings immediately triggered an intensive search for Bounds. Unlike the earlier Greenville murders, investigators knew who they were looking for. Bounds was armed, had just killed two people, and was moving through residential neighborhoods in Easley.
Confirmed Victims
- Jonathan Lemuel Lara, 26 — Killed June 26, 1999, inside a Radio Shack on Laurens Road in Greenville, South Carolina. Lara was restrained to a chair with flex ties and fatally stabbed in the neck with a screwdriver. The store was locked and made to appear closed after the killing.
- Karen Moore Hayden, 30 — Killed December 22, 1999, at a Greenville-Pelham Florist location on Rutherford Road in Greenville, South Carolina. Hayden was attacked in the business and suffered a fatal wound to her throat. Her body was found in a rear portion of the flower shop, which had been made to appear closed.
- Sandra "Sandi" Roberts Ott, 33 — Killed December 23, 1999, at the Antioch Road residence of her former husband in Easley, South Carolina. Bounds entered the residence and fatally shot Sandra in the head.
- Timothy Ott, 32 — Killed December 23, 1999, in Easley, South Carolina. After Sandra was shot, Timothy fled toward a neighboring residence seeking help. Bounds pursued him and fatally shot him.
The Manhunt Through Easley
After killing Sandra and Timothy Ott, Bounds fled into the surrounding Easley area. What followed was an unusual and dangerous manhunt in which Bounds entered several residences while police searched neighborhoods for him. At some homes, he behaved strangely but did not attack the occupants. One elderly resident encountered him after he entered her home and asked to use the bathroom before leaving. At another residence, a woman initially believed Bounds was connected to one of her neighbors and allowed him inside. He remained there for a period of time, watching television and paying attention to news coverage of the killings.
Bounds eventually entered a house on South Third Street occupied by 87-year-old Martha Browning and her granddaughter, Deanna "Dee" Tinsley. Once inside, he made it clear that the women were not free to simply leave. He disabled Browning's medical alarm and remained in the house while police activity intensified outside.
Despite the danger, Browning was eventually able to alert a neighbor that something was wrong. Police were notified and officers surrounded the residence. As officers began entering and the two women attempted to get away from him, Bounds realized that capture was imminent.
Death of Dallen Bounds
On December 23, 1999, the same day he murdered Sandra and Timothy Ott, Dallen Bounds ended his life inside the South Third Street residence in Easley. As police moved in to arrest him, Bounds placed a semiautomatic handgun to his head and fired. He died at the scene at the age of 28. The hostages survived.
Bounds' death meant investigators would never be able to interrogate him about the full extent of his crimes or place him on trial. Instead, detectives began reconstructing his activities through physical evidence, statements from people who knew him, evidence recovered from his residence, and information supplied by associates.
Connecting Bounds to the Greenville Murders
The Easley murders provided investigators with the name of a violent killer, but the investigation quickly expanded beyond Sandra and Timothy Ott. Detectives revisited the still-unsolved murders of Jonathan Lara and Karen Hayden. The unusual similarities between the two Greenville business killings had already attracted attention, and information received after Bounds' death directed investigators toward him.
Evidence subsequently connected Bounds to both crimes. Authorities ultimately concluded that he had murdered Lara in June and Hayden on December 22 before killing the Otts on December 23. The discovery transformed what had initially appeared to be separate homicide investigations into the case of a serial murderer who had been operating in the Greenville area for months.
Bounds never provided investigators with a complete explanation for why he killed Lara or Hayden. The final murders appear to have been connected to his fixation on Sandra Ott, but the motives behind the two workplace killings remain considerably less clear. The controlled nature of the scenes, particularly the effort to lock the businesses and make them appear closed, demonstrated planning and an attempt to delay discovery.
Possible Victims Outside South Carolina
After Bounds was identified as responsible for the four South Carolina murders, investigators elsewhere began reviewing his history. Authorities in Washington reportedly considered him a suspect in at least three unsolved murders from the period when he had lived in that state. His earlier residence in the Lacey and Olympia area, criminal record, frequent movement between states, and newly discovered history of homicide gave investigators reason to examine whether his violence had started before 1999.
Those Washington suspicions did not result in additional murders being conclusively attributed to Bounds. Available accounts do not establish the identities of additional victims with sufficient certainty to include them among his confirmed victims. As a result, Jonathan Lara, Karen Moore Hayden, Sandra Roberts Ott, and Timothy Ott remain the four murders definitively associated with Dallen Bounds.
Aftermath
Dallen Bounds' confirmed killing period lasted from June 26 through December 23, 1999. In less than six months, four people were killed in two South Carolina counties. His first two known victims were employees attacked while working in Greenville businesses. His final two victims were connected to a woman with whom he had developed a troubled personal fixation. The final hours of the case unfolded across Easley as an armed Bounds moved from house to house while police attempted to locate him.
Because Bounds died before he could be questioned, significant questions remain about his motives, whether he had committed violence before arriving in South Carolina, and whether there were additional victims. What investigators were able to establish was enough to close four murders and reveal that the seemingly separate Greenville workplace killings and the Easley double homicide had been committed by the same man. His death brought the immediate killing spree to an end but prevented the victims' families from ever seeing Bounds prosecuted in court or hearing a complete account of why their loved ones were targeted.
