NEW BLOOMFIELD – The victims in a Christmas Eve double homicide were killed by shotgun wounds to the head, authorities said, and a cousin of one of the victims is in custody facing murder charges.
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Brian J. Dorsey, 34, of Jefferson City was arrested yesterday two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the slayings of Benjamin Bonnie, 28, and his wife, Sarah Bonnie, 25. Dorsey was being held in the Callaway County Jail on $750,000 bond.
Police arrested Dorsey yesterday shortly after he arrived at the Callaway County Sheriff’s Department to be interviewed by law enforcement authorities. “He basically walked into the sheriff’s department about 11 o’clock yesterday morning,” said Sgt. Jason Clark, a public information officer with the Mid-Missouri Major Case Squad.
Relatives discovered the bodies of Benjamin and Sarah Bonnie in their home on Sunday after the couple failed to show up at a holiday gathering. The Bonnies’ 4-year-old daughter was found at the home unharmed and is staying with relatives.
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| S. Bonnie | B. Bonnie |
A 1997 Pontiac Grand Prix stolen from the residence was found yesterday in southern Callaway County.
Police officials considered Dorsey one of two “persons of interest” in the case. Dorsey is a cousin of Sarah Bonnie and frequently visited the Holts Summit area, authorities said.
“He has always been a person of interest,” Clark said. “Basically, it just took two days for us to locate him.”
Court records show Dorsey was on supervised probation after pleading guilty earlier this year to leaving the scene of an injury accident. In 2005, he pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana, unlawful use of drug paraphernalia and driving a car while under the influence of drugs.
Meanwhile, an autopsy by the Boone/Callaway County Medical Examiner’s Office found that the couple was killed by shotgun blasts to the head. The weapon has not been recovered.
“They don’t have a gun, so that’s all we know,” Boone County Medical Examiner Eddie Adelstein said. “We do know it’s a shotgun.”
News of the double homicide shocked this town of 529 people between Jefferson City and Fulton.
New Bloomfield resident Leon Walters, who lives a few hundred feet from from the Bonnies’ home, said the only contact he’d had with them was when Sarah Bonnie knocked on his door searching for her lost dog.
“I’m sorry to hear that it happened,” Walters said. “I moved out here in the country to get away from city crime, and then it happens out here.”
Keith Brunstrom, an Ashland lawyer who knew Benjamin Bonnie when he was an auto mechanic in Ashland, described his former client as a “real nice guy.”
“I can’t imagine why anybody would want to do this,” Brunstrom said. “I just feel awful. Can you imagine that 4-year-old kid? She’s probably going to need therapy her whole life. I’m hoping I can do something to help the family somehow.”
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