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This story originally appeared July 11, 2003
| Thursday, Feb 15 2007 1:56 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, Feb 15 2007 1:56 PM
The five members of the Harper family who were found slain early Tuesday morning were stabbed and shot to death, according to court papers revealed Thursday. That and other information about the murder investigation spilled out in a search warrant affidavit presented by police.
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The news came a day after a slew of fast-paced developments and a desire to "do it right" led police to arrest and later release Vincent Brothers.
Brothers was married to Joanie Harper, 39, who was killed along with their three children and her mother in their home on Third and P streets.
Brother, 41, is the vice principal at Fremont School and the only suspect police have named in the case. According to court documents, he was known to have had affairs with several women, and at the time the warrant was issued, police said they were uncertain of his whereabouts between July 2 and when the bodies were discovered early Tuesday. However, according to information uncovered after the warrant was issued, Brothers had left Bakersfield on July 2 and visited a relative in Ohio and his mother in Elizabeth City, N.C., where he turned himself in to police.
The court documents state that even as police pleaded with a nationwide audience for help in locating Brothers, he called fellow school district employees to ask about the killings, but never called police.
The victims were last seen alive on July 6, when they attended Sunday church services. National news accounts of the homicides appeared throughout much of Tuesday, but police say Brothers didn't contact authorities until 13 hours after the bodies were found.
That information, in part, led detectives to arrest Brothers on Wednesday. He was released a few hours later after information surfaced from Ohio, apparently weakening the case against him, police said.
The information was not explained by police, but sources have indicated Brothers has a sibling in Ohio. He arrived in Elizabeth City on Tuesday evening, and some family friends say he had planned to be in Ohio first.
Brothers walked into the Elizabeth City Police Department Tuesday night saying he would cooperate with police, but by the time Bakersfield detectives arrived Wednesday, Brothers declined to talk.
He had hired Bakersfield attorney Curtis Floyd, who on Thursday promised through his Bakersfield office to release a statement at a news conference today in Elizabeth City. Floyd didn't return telephone calls Thursday.
"Things were moving so fast," said Bakersfield Police Chief Eric Matlock Thursday morning at a news conference. "We want to make sure to do it right. The family deserves it. The community deserves it."
He added that police have to be mindful of the rights of the suspect, too.
Information coming out of California, North Carolina and Ohio raised and lowered suspicions Wednesday that Brothers shot five of his family members to death, police Capt. Neil Mahan said.
Authorities "made the right decision" to arrest Brothers, Mahan said. After the arrest, authorities had 48 hours to meet a higher level of proof and seek charges against Brothers, he said. Because of new information from Ohio, and other reasons he wouldn't disclose, that didn't happen, Mahan said.
Mahan said Brothers remains a suspect. He wouldn't say whether Brothers is under surveillance and said he doesn't know where Brothers is.
Mahan has publicly encouraged the suspect to talk to police, both to disprove suspicions that he killed his family at their central Bakersfield home and to help determine who the killer is.
The victims were his wife, their three children, Marques Juwan, 4, Lyndsey Michelle, 2, and Marshall, 6 weeks, and his mother-in-law, Earnestine Harper, 70.
"He should want to talk to us," Mahan said of Brothers. Mahan described Brothers as being "emotional."
Mahan did not detail the roller-coaster developments of Wednesday. He did say that while detectives were en route to North Carolina, new information caused them to be less suspicious of Brothers. Still, he said Brothers remains their only suspect.
Detectives flew to Ohio on Thursday.
Earlier Thursday, Elizabeth City police and prosecutors held a news conference. Police said two search warrants were served there: one at Brothers' mother's home and one to obtain DNA from Brothers, which he gave.
Back in Bakersfield, Mahan was asked if Brothers poses a flight risk. Mahan said Brothers has property and a career here and that the risk was considered in the decision to release him.
The investigation will be pursued. "We will be methodical, meticulous and relentless," Matlock said.
Details of the autopsies, which were completed Wednesday, were being withheld at the request of police, Kern County coroner spokeswoman Margaret Soliz said.
The department's pathologist, Dr. Armand Dollinger, performed all five of the procedures, ending after 11 p.m. Wednesday, Sheriff-Coroner Mack Wimbish said.
Wimbish also noted that he had pledged any support he could provide to the Bakersfield police, which has assigned a large portion of its investigative officers to the case.
The search warrant affidavit describes how the case began:
A close friend of Joanie Harper, who normally speaks with her every day, went to the Third Street home Tuesday morning and found an unopened sliding glass door. She told police that door is always locked.
She walked inside and saw at least two victims in one of the bedrooms. She called police.
Police have said Joanie and her children were in one bedroom, and Earnestine Harper was in another room in the house.
The family friend said Joanie Harper had told her that Brothers was leaving Bakersfield and flying out of Los Angeles International Airport to visit his relatives somewhere back east, the affidavit says.
Police found Brothers' 1994 Chevrolet S-10 pickup at Airport Bus of Bakersfield on Tuesday. Brothers apparently drove it there early on July 2 when he bought a ticket to go to the United Airlines terminal at LAX.
But the affidavit, filed in support of a request to search Brothers' apartment and his storage locker, says a detective verified the pickup was parked in front of the Harpers' home on July 3.
The pickup at the bus terminal and a 2003 Mercedes owned by Brothers were seized by police Tuesday. The Mercedes was at 24 Hour Fitness, 4302 Gosford Road.
The affidavit says Brothers frequently kept the Mercedes at the fitness club because it was safer than keeping it in the Harpers' neighborhood, an area viewed as rough.
Brothers arrived at the home of his mother, Margaret Brothers, in Elizabeth City late Tuesday. She has declined to talk to The Californian.
At the the news conference Thursday morning, Mahan made this statement:
"Mr. Brothers has the opportunity to lower our suspicions. All he has to do is talk to us. If he wants to talk to us with his attorney present, we have absolutely no problem with that.
He ended with a warning for those hoping for a speedy resolution to the case.
"Clearly, we would like to wrap this case up tomorrow," Mahan said. "That's not going to be the case."