Anthony Joseph Garcia: The Omaha Revenge Murders
Anthony Joseph Garcia is an American former physician who was convicted of murdering four people in two separate double homicides in Omaha, Nebraska. The killings occurred five years apart, in 2008 and 2013, but investigators eventually concluded that they were connected by Garcia's history with the pathology department at Creighton University. Prosecutors described the murders as carefully planned acts of revenge against people associated with the medical residency program from which Garcia had been dismissed. His victims were not strangers selected at random. Each crime scene had a direct connection to physicians involved in Garcia's former professional life.
Garcia's Connection to Creighton University
Garcia worked as a pathology resident at Creighton University in Omaha from 2000 into 2001. His time in the program ended after problems involving his professional conduct, and physicians in the pathology department were involved in the decision to remove him. Among the doctors connected to his dismissal were Dr. William Hunter and Dr. Roger Brumback. The consequences followed Garcia for years because his incomplete residency and termination became issues when he later applied for medical licenses and other positions.
Prosecutors argued that Garcia came to blame members of the Creighton pathology department for damaging his medical career. According to the prosecution's theory, that resentment eventually developed into a revenge campaign. The first killings struck the household of Dr. William Hunter in 2008. Five years later, Garcia targeted other people connected with the pathology department, including Dr. Chhanda Bewtra and Dr. Roger Brumback.
The Murder of Thomas Hunter and Shirlee Sherman
On March 13, 2008, Dr. William Hunter returned to his family's home in the Dundee neighborhood of Omaha and discovered an extraordinarily violent crime scene. His 11-year-old son, Thomas Hunter, and the family's 57-year-old cleaner, Shirlee Sherman, had both been killed inside the residence.
Thomas and Sherman had suffered deep knife wounds to their necks. Major blood vessels had been severed, including their carotid arteries and jugular veins, and the knives used in the attacks had been left in their necks. The similarity of the wounds strongly suggested that the same attacker had killed both victims during the same incident. Investigators also found that theft did not appear to be the purpose of the crime. The killer had entered the home without the type of obvious forced entry normally associated with a burglary, and nothing of significant value had been taken.
The identity of the killer was initially a mystery. Thomas was a child with no apparent connection to criminal activity, while Sherman was a longtime Omaha resident who was simply working in the Hunter home. Police examined numerous possibilities and interviewed people who had been in the Dundee neighborhood. Witnesses reported seeing a suspicious man in the area, but the information did not immediately lead detectives to Garcia. Although Garcia had once worked under Thomas's father at Creighton, investigators did not have enough evidence at the time to establish him as the killer. The double homicide gradually became a cold case.
The 2013 Return to Omaha
Five years later, Garcia returned to Omaha while living in Indiana. Evidence later presented in court showed that he had been researching people connected with his former Creighton pathology department. On May 12, 2013, investigators placed Garcia in the Omaha area through electronic records, financial transactions and other evidence.
That afternoon, someone attempted to enter the Omaha home of Dr. Chhanda Bewtra, another Creighton pathology physician with whom Garcia had a history. The home's security system was activated during the attempted entry. Garcia was later convicted of attempted burglary in connection with the incident, and DNA evidence linked him to the handle of the home's back door. Investigators also recovered electronic evidence showing searches associated with Bewtra and other former Creighton physicians.
The failed entry at the Bewtra residence was followed by a search on Garcia's electronic devices for the address of Dr. Roger Brumback. Brumback had been a prominent Creighton pathologist and had served as chairman of the university's Department of Pathology. He had also been directly connected with Garcia's earlier residency problems.
The Murders of Roger and Mary Brumback
Roger and Mary Brumback were last known to be alive during the afternoon of May 12, 2013, which was Mother's Day. Court records established that they were killed sometime between approximately 2:40 p.m. on May 12 and the morning of May 14, with the evidence indicating that the murders most likely occurred on May 12.
Inside their west Omaha home, Roger Brumback was attacked with both a firearm and a knife. He was shot and also suffered a serious stab wound to the neck that severed a carotid artery. His fatal injury was determined to be the gunshot wound. Mary Brumback was attacked with a knife. Her carotid artery and jugular vein were severed, and evidence showed that she had defensive injuries as well as other stab wounds, indicating that she had attempted to protect herself during the assault.
The Brumbacks' bodies were discovered on May 14, 2013. People who had come to the residence in connection with moving a piano became concerned and police were contacted. Once Omaha homicide detectives examined the scene, the unusual neck wounds immediately reminded investigators of the unsolved 2008 murders of Thomas Hunter and Shirlee Sherman.
Victims
- Thomas C. Hunter, age 11 — Died March 13, 2008, inside his family's home in the Dundee neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska. Thomas was the son of Dr. William and Dr. Claire Hunter. He was stabbed in the neck, severing major blood vessels. A knife was left in the wound.
- Shirlee Sherman, age 57 — Died March 13, 2008, at the Hunter family home in Dundee, Omaha, Nebraska. Sherman worked as the family's cleaner or housekeeper. She was killed in a manner closely matching Thomas Hunter, with severe knife wounds to the neck that severed major blood vessels. The murder weapon was also left in her neck.
- Dr. Roger Alan Brumback, age 65 — Most likely died May 12, 2013, inside the Brumback residence in west Omaha, Nebraska. The bodies were discovered May 14. Brumback was a Creighton University pathology professor and former chairman of the pathology department. He was shot and stabbed in the neck; the gunshot wound was determined to be fatal.
- Mary Helen Brumback, age 65 — Most likely died May 12, 2013, inside the Brumback residence in west Omaha, Nebraska, and was discovered with her husband on May 14. She was fatally stabbed in the neck and suffered defensive and additional stab wounds during the attack.
How Investigators Connected the Murders
The Brumback murders transformed the investigation. Detectives recognized that Dr. William Hunter, whose son had been murdered in 2008, and Dr. Roger Brumback were both members of Creighton University's pathology department and both had connections to Garcia's termination from the residency program. Investigators began examining former residents and other people who might have held a grievance against the department, bringing Garcia into much sharper focus.
Evidence increasingly connected Garcia to Omaha at critical times. Investigators examined his cellphone records, location information, financial transactions and electronic devices. Evidence showed his location in Omaha before the Brumback murders and then tracked his movement east into Iowa afterward. A cellphone call received at approximately 5:15 p.m. on May 12 connected with a tower near Atlantic, Iowa, roughly an hour east of Omaha. By approximately 7 p.m., evidence placed Garcia around West Des Moines. Prosecutors argued that the timeline was consistent with Garcia leaving Omaha after killing the Brumbacks.
The attempted burglary at the Bewtra residence also became an important piece of the case. Garcia's DNA was found on the home's back-door handle, and investigators found digital searches relating to Bewtra and the Brumbacks. The similarities among the murder scenes added further weight to the prosecution's case. All four murder victims suffered serious knife wounds to the neck, the crimes involved homes connected to Creighton pathology personnel, and robbery did not appear to be the primary motive.
Arrest, Trial and Conviction
Garcia was arrested in Illinois on July 15, 2013, after investigators from Omaha and the FBI had been tracking his movements. Searches were subsequently conducted at his residence in Terre Haute, Indiana, and at his parents' home in California. Prosecutors ultimately charged him with the four murders, weapons offenses and the attempted burglary of the Bewtra residence.
Garcia's murder trial began in October 2016. The prosecution presented the two double homicides as parts of a single revenge scheme directed at people connected with Garcia's failed Creighton residency. The case included forensic evidence, electronic records, location information, testimony about Garcia's professional history and evidence relating to the similarities between the two murder scenes.
On October 26, 2016, a Douglas County jury found Garcia guilty of four counts of first-degree murder, four weapons offenses and attempted burglary. The jury also considered aggravating circumstances associated with the killings. On September 14, 2018, a three-judge panel sentenced Garcia to death for each of the four murder convictions, along with additional prison sentences for the weapons and burglary offenses.
The Meaning of the Case
The Anthony Garcia case was unusual because the two groups of victims initially appeared to have little in common. An 11-year-old child, a housekeeper, a university physician and his wife were killed across a five-year period. The central connection was not the victims themselves but Garcia's long-running grievance against Creighton University's pathology department. Prosecutors successfully argued that the killings were calculated acts intended to punish physicians Garcia believed had damaged his career, even when the people he encountered in their homes were family members or employees rather than the physicians themselves.
The Nebraska Supreme Court reviewed Garcia's convictions and death sentences and, in 2023, upheld them. The court described substantial evidence supporting the conclusion that Garcia deliberately returned to Nebraska on separate occasions, selected victims because of their connection to his former medical program, and carried out two sets of murders separated by approximately five years. The case remains one of Nebraska's most disturbing examples of a professional grievance developing into a prolonged series of retaliatory killings.
