Johnny Bonds
We're sitting here talking and I'm seeing Kevin Wanstrath laying in a pool of blood surrounded by stuffed animals. That's something I can't unsee. I wish I could.
Yes, the baby. Yeah.
Robert Riggs
Haunting memories from the homicide detective known as âThe Cop Who Wouldnât Quit.â
This is Robert Riggs with a True Crime ReporterÂŽ story from inside the crime scene tape.
God forbid if I ever was murdered, I would want Johnny Bonds on the case.
Bonds is a legendary Houston, Texas homicide detective known as âThe Cop Who Wouldnât Quit.â
After four decades in law enforcement and a thousand cases, Bonds sat down with me to talk about the motives for murder.
One case sticks out. The murders of John and Diana Wanstrath and their baby son Kevin.
Their killers would have gotten away with the murder if not for the relentless and fearless work of Johnny Bonds
JOHNNY BONDS
:15
I joined police department in Houston in 1967. I was promoted to Detective which was the same as Sergeant Detective Sergeant nothing 72 and went in homicide. I was in homicide until 1980 got transferred to internal affairs against my wishes. In a when I complained said I did more than go they basically told me so you don't have to find another job.
I was in internal affairs when this broke when this case broke. I kept working on it while I was in terminal affairs.
And that case was? The Wanstrath case. And I was working on my own time, while I was an ID and in the ex wife of one of the suspects gave me information that broke the case. But I kept working on it. And then while I was in IAD, the chief then supported me and he basically took all my IAD cases and gave them to other people and told me work on this full time.
You spent out your so many years investigating murder. What different flavors does it come in? And were there? Signatures you would see it murderers? Uh, you would immediately have a hunch about the motive behind it. What are what are the most common motives you saw as a homicide detective?
Johnny Bonds
Police, for investigators, you don't have prove motive in court, but for a homicide investigator motive is very, very important. So he tried to figure out who this person is, and wow, why would someone want to kill them.
Very few murders are planned. Even when they're planned. They normally don't go as planned. There's usually something some mistake made. You know, like on the Wanstrath case, that one was planned. It was even attempted two weeks before it happened and something went wrong and they couldn't do it. And then they made a huge mistake. They left a They left some evidence at the scene that they brought there.
Robert Riggs
On the morning of July 6, 1979, a housekeeper discovered the bodies of John and Diana Wanstrath and their baby son Kevin in an upscale Houston neighborhood.
The chief medical examiner determined that the familyâs deaths were a double-murder suicide. Ruling that Diana Wanstrath shot her husband and baby to death before turning the gun on herself.
Family and friends of the Wanstraths knew it couldnât be true.
Johnny Bonds knew the ruling was wrong in part because no gun was found at the murder scene.
Bonds challenged the almighty and powerful Harris County Medical Examiner in a case fraught with politics.
Johnny Bonds
The husband and wife were in the den. He was sitting in a easy back chair. The wife was on the floor in front of the fireplace and all all three of them had been shot in the head and the baby was in the nursery, in its crib asleep. been shot in the head. Medical Examiner that was the very first psychological autopsy that was done in Harris County. And they sent a psychologist a Catholic priest named Tom Wally, who was a suicide apologist is what he called himself never heard. It
sounded to me like a little voodoo or something.
Yeah. And it turns out later, there were at least two other cases that had been ruled suicide that later turned out to be murdered, that this guy had ruled suicides. And there were probably more. That's two that I know about. So I don't you know, and it's not done anymore. I don't know if anybody is doing it anymore.
Robert Riggs
Despite the Medical Examinerâs ruling that it was suicide, Bonds never had any doubt it was murder.
But the pressure was on to close the case.
Johnny Bonds
In my case and the one stock case I had three, three murders that would be cleared by, you know, by Susa. So there's not No it's hard. It's hard for people believe this but when it's Ruben suicide by the medical examiner, it's a it's a load off the homicide division back you don't have to work on it anymore. We've got a medical examiner says it's suicide and they say that we can't, we can't do anything with it. Yeah, move on to the next case. And that's a clear case which is good for your stats. Here's something that is going to draw us anger from people in the profession. shouldn't but an autopsy is a medical opinion. And there's been many times that the results of the autopsy have been proved wrong. It's not a fact. It's just an opinion. It's a professional opinion. It's an expert opinion. And in the prosecutors in all law enforcement depend on it is now in, it's wonderful to have a good relationship with medical examiner and law enforcement is absolutely necessary that they have a good relationship. I caused a lot of problems. And I was I was, you know, I was in some trouble for causing problems because I disagreed with one of the prominent, most prominent medical examiner's United States.
Robert Riggs
Bonds drew a bead on suspects. Their motive for murder. Money. More on that in a moment.
Johnny Bonds challenged the suicide ruling.
His investigation focused on Markum Duff-Smith, the dead womanâs brother and beneficiary of her life insurance policy.
Just four years earlier, Duff-Smith's mother also had died under suspicious circumstances.
Johnny Bonds
His mother had been found in her River Oaks mansion dead. It had been the ruled a suicide. I did not work on that case. I remember I was in homicide when it happened. I remember it and it was a little questionable but the MEâ office ruled it suicide.
Robert Riggs
Bonds received information that Duff-Smith had his mother killed to collect on her life insurance.
Johnny Bonds
He inherited about $100,000 from his mother and went through it and this is in 1975 a $100,000 was a fortune. And he went through that in less than two years. He was broke. Two years later, he's dead broke. So he was running an insurance scam to at the same time the Wanstrath were killed he was running the insurance scam.
Robert Riggs
Let's let's go back to that gun a minute because the you couldn't recover the bullets that were shattered that had been used to kill the husband and wife, which you did for the baby and it was really heartbreaking what had been cold so cold blooded what was done to this baby. Talk about the rarity of the gun and how you found the slug.
Johnny Bonds
The 22 Magnum was 20 Magnum hollow points that were used. They shattered in the adult's brain and so we had nothing to work withâŚ
Most of them do. I think, I think they're worried. They're worried. Yeah, they're probably what's the song say? I pray there's a heaven. No, I hope there's a heaven. I pray there is no Hell. I think that's exactly what you're thinking.
Robert Riggs
In closing, hereâs my reporterâs recap and reflections.
The motive for murder is usually driven by money as it was in the case you just heard or bypassion.
Bonds says he is disturbed by an emerging motive for murder. Anger. And the impulse to open fire in traffic or in public over the slightest perceived slight or disrespect.
Youâve been listening to the True Crime Reporter Podcast: Stay True. Stay Safe. And Stay Tuned for more stories from inside the crime scene tape.
This is investigative reporter Robert Riggs.
