Colleyvilles first homicide in 23 years was a real whodunit

dallasnews.com /news/news/2015/04/05/colleyvilles-first-homicide-in-23-years-was-a-real-whodunit

4/5/2015
Colleyvilles first homicide in 23 years had the makings of pulp fiction: a secret million-dollar insurance policy,
the brutal slaying of the elderly policy holder and a suspect who died of natural causes before police could question
him.

The twists, turns and dead-ends, however, didnt keep local authorities from unraveling the complicated case that
could have taken years to solve.

We had to take baby steps, Colleyville police Detective Kevin Maddux said. It was a huge puzzle.

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The victim, 72-year-old Anita Fox, was found Sept. 23, lying in a pool of blood in an upscale house she was hired to
clean.

The house where she was found is in a secluded neighborhood, suggesting to police that the crime wasnt random.
But investigators couldnt identify anyone who would want to kill the housekeeper from Alvarado.

At the time, it was a real whodunit, Lt. Hillary Wreay, who oversaw Colleyvilles part of the investigation, recalled in
a recent interview.

Six months after Foxs death, her alleged killer is dead of natural causes, and his son is charged with murder.

A moving target

Police say Gerard Gorman, 48, and Bernard Gorman, 26, drove to North Texas from Houston to kill Fox and collect
on her $1 million life insurance policy a policy she didnt know about.

The father and son are part of a group called the Irish Travellers, a detail first reported last month by the Fort Worth
Star-Telegram. Some members of the group are notorious in law enforcement circles for engaging in theft and fraud.

These people are very transient by nature, said Joe Livingston, a Travellers expert who works as a detective in the
South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. Theyre always moving. Its hard to hit a moving target. Its also hard to
identify one.

Bernard Gorman turned down interview requests from The News. His father died in the Houston area in January.

Though Wreay said the Gormans and Fox dont seem to have any close blood ties, Fox apparently has a Travellers
connection.

Foxs son told the Star-Telegram that she married an English Traveller who distanced himself from the group in the
1980s.

Her slaying last fall hit the affluent Tarrant County suburb like a bolt from the blue.

First puzzle piece

The Colleyville Police Department assigned a sergeant and all three of its detectives to the case. They worked 12 to

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16 hours a day to make sense of it while juggling their other cases.

They also sought help from the Texas Rangers, the Texas Department of Insurance and the FBI, which is routine for
a suburban department of its size.

Early in the investigation, authorities learned that a pickup had followed Fox for a few days before she was killed.
The truck, police said, was the puzzle piece that helped authorities uncover a possible motive behind her killing:
insurance fraud.

Our first thought was, maybe it was random, Wreay said. But as the investigation went on, we realized maybe that
was not it.

Foxs husband died in 2000. She stayed busy by cleaning houses and volunteering at her church in Hurst.

Shed say there are people who use money and love people and then there are people who use people and love
money, her son, Al Fox III, told the Star-Telegram.

Authorities say its the latter breed of people who set their sights on Fox.

The woman who found Foxs body told police she saw a heavyset man walk away from the Colleyville home and get
into a white pickup driven by a thinner man.

Another person reported seeing the same pickup at a convenience store in Joshua two days before Fox was killed.
The witness sent police a photo of the truck outside the store, and police determined it was owned by Bernard
Gorman.

Without the photo, we would have been months from figuring it out, said Sgt. Greg Prewitt, who worked several
homicide cases in northeast Texas before joining Colleyville PD in 2003.

The Texas Department of Insurance soon learned that Gerard Gorman and three other people had been paying
$700 a month to maintain a $1 million life insurance policy in Foxs name.

Chasing the evidence

The next big clue came in October, when Texas Rangers found the getaway car in a trailer park in Harris County and
arrested its driver, Bernard Gorman, on a traffic warrant.

Prewitt and another Colleyville detective drove to Katy to inteview Bernard Gorman about the Fox case. Bernard told
them his father, Gerard Gorman, had borrowed his car to drive to Tulsa, Okla. Police obtained search warrants for
the pickup and the electronics inside.

In January, Colleyville police and the Texas Rangers interviewed Bernard Gorman again.

This time, he admitted he had driven his dad to North Texas in September and accompanied him to locations where
Fox was known to be.

The morning of Sept. 23, Bernard Gorman said, Gerard Gorman went inside the home Fox was cleaning and
returned with blood on his arm. They drove back to Houston the same day.

Police said the January interview with Bernard Gorman sped up their investigation. Three days later, however,
Gerard Gorman died of natural causes.

Bernard Gorman was arrested a few weeks later in Florida. He is currently free on bond in Tarrant County, facing a

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murder charge.

Tracking down the Gormans was a welcome relief for the criminal investigations department in Colleyville, where
stress levels are finally returning to normal.

Its almost like we can breathe, Wreay said. We've been holding our breath for several months.

Maddux jokes the investigation has given him a few gray hairs along the way. But, he says, hes thankful he and his
colleagues were able to follow through.

I think it has really surprised a lot of people how far weve come, he said. Its been months, but thats a short
amount of time for cases like this. For some cases, you are years in before you ever get a break.

TIMELINE

Sept. 19, 2014: A pickup, later identified by police as the getaway car, was seen idling near a cancer clinic where
Anita Fox worked in Cleburne. A witness said the truck was parked there around the time Fox arrived.

Sept. 21: A man becomes suspicious of a pickup parked outside a convenience store in Joshua and tells his wife to
take a photo of it.

Sept. 23: Fox is found dead in the front of a home she was supposed to clean. Later, a medical examiner ruled Fox
died of stab wounds and blunt force injuries.

Sept. 25: Police learn someone had a monster life insurance policy on Fox. Records show Gerard Gorman and
others were each paying $700 a month to maintain the policy. Police wont say whether anyone tried to collect on
the policy.

Oct. 4: Authorities in Harris County find a truck matching the license plate in the photo taken Sept. 21. Bernard
Gorman is arrested on an unrelated traffic warrant and jailed in Katy. Police obtain search warrants for the pickup
and the electronics inside it.

Oct. 10: Colleyville police interview Bernard Gorman in Katy. He says his dad borrowed his truck on Sept. 19 to
drive to Tulsa, Okla.

Jan. 19, 2015: Police interview Bernard Gorman again. This time, he admits to lying in his initial interview. He also
admits to driving his dad to North Texas and then to the home where Fox was slain.

Jan. 22: Gerard Gorman is found dead, seemingly of natural causes, in a motel room in Brookshire, near Houston.

Feb. 18: Bernard Gorman is arrested on a murder charge in Davenport, Fla.

March 24: Bernard Gorman is released from the Tarrant County Jail after posting bond.

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