Aimee Willard

Aimee Willard (June 8, 1974 – June 20, 1996) was a star lacrosse player who was murdered on her way home from a night out with friends. Her car was left running, and her body was found, but the killer was unknown. The unsolved crime was featured on "Unsolved Mysteries." With DNA evidence, her killer was identified as an ex-convict Arthur Bomar, who was charged and convicted of her murder. Bomar was sentenced to death. [cite web | title=Bomar's Battle: Aimee Willard's killer pushes his appeals | url= http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16807569&BRD=1675&PAG=461&dept_id=18171&rfi=6 | publisher=DelcoTimes | first=Marlene | last=DiGiacomo | date= 2006-06-19 | accessdate= 2006-12-02] Many theories and suspects were investigated, but all were cleared when Bomar's DNA matched DNA found during the investigation. It is theorized Bomar hit Aimee's car on purpose to get her to pull over.

Willard was a star lacrosse player at the Academy of Notre Dame de Namur in Villanova, Pennsylvania and later at George Mason University. In 1996, Aimee led the Colonial Athletic Association in scoring with fifty goals and twenty-nine assists. She was named to the All-Conference Team in both soccer and lacrosse, and to the All-American team for the Southeast region in lacrosse that year [http://www.palacrosse.com/newsitems.php?id=319] . US Lacrosse has created a national award in her honor.cite news |title= WDNT - Aimee Willard Award |url= http://www.uslacrosse.org/events/awards/aimeewillard.phtml |publisher=US Lacrosse|accessdate= 2006-12-02]

A small roadside memorial on the exit ramp from Interstate 476 to southbound U.S. Route 1 marks the site where Willard's car was found.

The murderer

Bomar was discovered when in June 1997, another young woman, Tracy Pollard, found herself hit in the back of her car while she was driving. Bomar tried repeatedly to get her to pull over but she decided instead to drive off but not before getting his license number. Her father, a police officer like Aimee's, ran the number and found that Bomar had committed murder and manslaughter in Nevada. He also realized that the attempt by Bomar to get her to pull over may have been the same MO as Willard's.

He was in Pennsylvania, where he had family, on an out-of-state joint parole. In fact he had numerous parole violations but was never returned to Nevada to serve out his sentence which proved to have fatal consequences for both her and possibly another woman, Maria Cabuenos, who went missing in December 1996. When Bomar was arrested the license plate was registered to him but the VIN was registered to Cabuenos. The car he was known to have driven in 1996 was a Ford, the muffler grill on the bottom of the car matched a burn scar found on Aimee's back. Hair and fiber evidence in the car showed she was in there at some point.

Cabuenos' remains were found in December 1997. Bomar has not been charged with her murder even though it is believed he killed her in much the same way he killed Willard. All that could be proven is that he stole her car.

Bomar to this date has never admitted to either crime and claims he was framed because he was black.

Because of the repeated failure to return him to prison in Nevada to serve out his sentences, the led to the passing of the the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, better known as "Aimee's Law". It was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on October 28, 2000. It encourages states on to keep murderers, rapists, and child molesters behind bars longer, and holds the original state financially accountable if they fail to do so. This is even if the offender is living under a joint parole plan in another state. The parolee can serve the remainder of the sentence in his new state of residence with the original state paying the cost of incarceration.

References

External links

* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Willard&GSfn=Aimee+&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=8634995& Find A Grave: Aimee Willard (1974 - 1996)]
* [http://www.aimeewillard.com/ Aimee Willard's HomePage ]