Post by Joanna on Nov 29, 2013 21:46:53 GMT -5
Former UI researcher arrested in 16-year unsolved murder case
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Sixteen years ago, an Iowa City woman’s body was found wrapped in garbage bags and bound with duct tape along a rural road in Illinois.
On Tuesday, investigators charged her husband, now 73 and living in St. Paul, Minnesota, with her murder.
Iowa City Police say a DNA match and hair samples helped authorities link the cold case death of 57-year-old Frances Bloomfield (pictured below) to her husband, John Richard Bloomfield, who has been charged with first-degree murder.
Iowa City and St. Paul police arrested John Bloomfield at his home Tuesday morning at 1585 Highland Parkway No. 102 in St. Paul. Iowa City Police Sgt. Vicki Lalla said Tuesday afternoon the arrest was made without incident, and Bloomfield remains in custody in Minnesota pending extradition to Iowa.
“This is why it’s important to keep plugging away on cases, no matter how old they are or how cold they get,” Lalla said. “Because every day there are new advances in technology, so any opportunity that arises for us to use those advances to solve a case, especially a murder case, is important. And that’s why we have a cold case investigator and keep working on them.”
Frances Bloomfield, a British-born mother of two adult sons, was found dead on September 22, 1997, in a ditch outside of Rockford, Ill. The cord that was apparently used to choke her still was wrapped around her neck. Her body was clad in a sweater, jeans and tennis shoes, and her jewelry had not been removed.
Earlier that day in Iowa City, John Bloomfield, a senior engineering researcher at the University of Iowa who also is a native of Britain, called police at 6:30 a.m. to report that he had just returned home from a business trip and found that his wife was missing. John Bloomfield told police it appeared their home – at 38 Wakefield Court, on a southeast Iowa City cul-de-sac – had been burglarized, and that the family car was missing.
Authorities discovered blood stains on the floor and walls of the Bloomfields’ home, indicating Frances Bloomfield may have been killed in Iowa City, according to news accounts from the time. Frances Bloomfield’s body was spotted at 4 p.m. that day by a man test-driving a car near Rockford, Ill., and the Bloomfields’ missing Honda Accura was located on November 25, 1997, in the long-term parking lot of International Airport in Newark, N.J., with its license plates missing.
According to a criminal complaint, filed by Iowa City Police Detective Dave Gonzalez, a forensic analysis of one of the ligatures used to bind the Frances Bloomfield’s body contained DNA evidence from a male source. Investigators found that the Y chromosome profile of the DNA matched that of John Bloomfield’s DNA.
Police also said a hair was found stuck to tape on the body that is microscopically similar to of John Bloomfield’s hair.
According to the police complaint, John Bloomfield “had interest” with another woman, and told authorities he was in the Chicago area during the time his wife was killed, which police pegged to be on or about September 20, 1997 – two days before the body was found.
Police, however, said John Bloomfield was unable to account for his whereabouts for a length of time that would have been sufficient to drive to Iowa City and commit the murder.
After the crime and in years since, John Bloomfield gave inconsistent accounts of the time leading up to the murder and discovering that his wife was missing, according to police.
Joyce Vincent, who worked with Frances Bloomfield at the Courage Center in Minneapolis, a rehabilitation center for disabled people, was among the people who had their suspicions about Frances’ husband, she said Tuesday afternoon. Frances Bloomfield had worked at the Courage Center for 17 years before relocating to Iowa City in 1996 with her husband.
Vincent said she was surprised to learn Tuesday that John Bloomfield had been arrested.
“That is tragic. Fran was an absolutely wonderful person. Everyone liked and enjoyed her. She was very bright and affable,” Vincent said. “... It was sad to hear she had passed away at the time, and now to hear this. There were some of us who had our suspicions.”
The Iowa City Police Department’s cold case officer, Gonzalez, spearheaded the ongoing investigation, Police Chief Sam Hargadine said.
“We’ve had a cold case officer for a couple years now, and this was always one we felt needed extra attention,” Hargadine said. “He’s the one that’s been relentless on this.”
Hargadine said John Bloomfield had been the focus of the investigation for “a considerable time,” and lab results confirmed it.
“Obviously we feel we have probable cause to make the case, and since this was done in conjunction with the Johnson County Attorney’s office, they agree with us, and it’s proceeding forward,” Hargadine said.
In recent years, John Bloomfield has worked as a research associate at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Design in Health and Center for Transportation, specializing in vehicle driver performance. The last record of his employment with the University of Minnesota was in 2012, a spokesman said.
According to his biographical page on the University of Minnesota website, Bloomfield received his Ph.D. in experimental psychology at the University of Nottingham in England. In the U.S., he worked as a researcher at Ohio State University, the University of Iowa, the Battelle Memorial Institute Human Factors Transportation Center, and the Liberty Mutual Research Center for Safety and Health.
Source: Josh O'Leary, The Iowa Press Citizen, November 26, 2013.