Friends recall Eldora resort gunman as shy, smart
By Julie Poppen, Rocky Mountain News (Contact), Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published December 31, 2008 at 7:08 p.m.
Henry Bremers, right, and Rob Linde, both of Eldora Mountain Resort, console each other Wednesday, a day after the resort's general manager, Brian Mahon, 49, was shot to death.
The Derik Bonestroo who came to Eldora Mountain Resort on Tuesday morning packing a gun is as much a mystery to his old friends as are the demons propelling him to a violent end.
They couldn't relate to the ski-lift operator who declared his intent to convert non-Christians then gunned down the resort's popular general manager.
Wounded during a gunbattle with a lawman, the 24-year-old shot himself in the head.
The Derik they remembered was shy and smart. An honor student who played center on the Lyons High School football team that went to the state championships twice before he graduated in 2003.
He was the kid with a deep voice and dry wit who came out of his shell when his family hosted a German exchange student. His family's home near Rabbit Mountain was a favorite hangout for youths, attracted by the terrain suited to four-wheeling and the pool table downstairs.
They knew Derik as a young man who liked comic books, world history, the outdoors and hunting. He loved guns, and even studied gunsmithing in Trinidad.
He was not a guy they thought would ever hurt anyone.
"It was really a shocker," said former friend Abe Vasquez, 23. "I talked to his dad a year or so ago and he said (Derik) was doing good."
Brent Hammans, 24, who was quarterback on the football team with Bonestroo, had the same reaction. "This is so out of character of him," Hammans said. "I can think of 10 other people I'd think could do this before him. He was always a perfectly normal, great, great guy."
Bonestroo's family members could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Boulder County authorities confirmed that Bonestroo killed his cat, leaving the pet in a pool of blood in the ground level room in Nederland where he lived alone, some time before heading to the ski area early Tuesday.
Wearing all black and acting oddly, Bonestroo also showed up at Cynthia Davis' door in Nederland, looking for her former neighbors who had worked for Eldora but had moved away. Davis said she could not believe that the black item strapped to his thigh was a gun, so she didn't call 911.
Shortly after 7 a.m., Bonestroo appeared in the locker room in the pump house near the base of the mountain during a meeting of 15 to 20 resort workers.
Bonestroo, who wasn't well-known in Nederland or at Eldora, where he had worked for a month, fired a bullet into the ceiling after saying something like: "I'm a Christian, and if you're not a Christian I'm here to convert you."
The ski area's general manager, Brian Mahon, a 49-year-old husband and father of two daughters, was working in an adjacent room. He burst into the locker room when he heard the shot.
According to witnesses, Bonestroo asked Mahon which religion he believed in. When Mahon answered that he was Catholic, Bonestroo shot him once in the head and once in his chest.
Bonestroo fled in his Infiniti vehicle but was intercepted by Boulder Sheriff's Deputy John Seifert, with whom he exchanged gunfire on the Peak to Peak Highway a mile south of town.
Seifert wounded Bonestroo, but those wounds did not kill him, Boulder County Coroner Thomas Faure ruled Wednesday. Faure listed the cause of death as suicide by a gunshot to the head.
The ski area reopened Wednesday after being closed Tuesday. Counseling was offered to employees, and a handful of lift operators who saw the carnage stayed home. Asked if there were any red flags about Bonestroo's behavior before Tuesday morning, resort spokesman Rob Linde declined to comment.
At a community meeting Tuesday evening, Sheriff Joe Pelle said that Bonestroo's mental health had deteriorated in recent days and that he had become "fixated with religion," according to the Longmont Times-Call.
That stunned his old friends, who don't recall Bonestroo being particularly religious.
"I don't remember hearing about any religion from him," Hammans said.
John Nichols, coach of the Lyons High School Lions, said Bonestroo seemed fine when he ran into him in the past year or so. Now, he knows the young man whom he described as incredibly "hard working" suffered in ways that few understood.
"I think sometimes it's important for people to understand that mental illness gets people to do things that are beyond themselves," Nichols said. "It's a horrible thing for his family. He did kill somebody."
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December 31, 2008
8:56 p.m.
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smith writes:
Tragic. Must have been a big kid if he was playing center
January 1, 2009
12:36 a.m.
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dirty writes:
I love the way the Rockie is always trying to give us feel good stories about murderous scum...so frickin what if he played ball in highschool...
January 1, 2009
7:44 a.m.
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gratefulweb writes:
religious zealots are scary...
January 1, 2009
8:10 a.m.
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oldgunney writes:
Another one dies IN THE NAME OF GOD!!!
January 1, 2009
9:17 a.m.
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Rutt writes:
Really hard to pass judgment on this. No one here knows what he was going through. Evidently some demons present that few or no one knew about. My sympathies to Mr. Mahon, his family and to Bonestroo's family.
January 1, 2009
9:21 a.m.
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Darwin writes:
Why the "feel good" story on the murderer and not the general manager who was murdered?
January 1, 2009
9:54 a.m.
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Spencer writes:
anyone heard from Lets Think?
January 1, 2009
10:18 a.m.
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smith writes:
Good point, Darwin. I'd expected to see Griego's name on the byline, they must have given her New Years off
January 1, 2009
10:28 a.m.
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Miss_Sin_Link writes:
Wow, impressive. It appears that Obama_Is_A_Nazi channels information directly from God.
January 1, 2009
11:19 a.m.
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Cowboy63 writes:
oldgunney writes: "Another one dies IN THE NAME OF GOD!!!"
More like, in the name of insanity. The world is full of crazy people. Just because they finally go off and start killing random people "in the name of God", doesn't mean they are speaking for anybody but themselves.
People are killed everyday "in the name of" greed, selfishness, envy, lust, or just plain stupidity. Don't let the crazy people dictate reality to you.
Some crazy old man just set bombs up in Aspen last night. What "group" does he claim to represent? Do they know he has taken it upon himself to "represent" them?
January 1, 2009
11:26 a.m.
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commoncents writes:
There will be a link to rap music in his disturbed actions I am sure
January 1, 2009
11:27 a.m.
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hikingartist writes:
You know that whole "he loved guns" thing sounds mighty familiar, like the guy who shot up the church at Colorado Springs. My wife works with people who have mental illness; it is not a good time to have guns when one starts hearing voices inside their head.
And I don't think it is a "feel good" story, they are just saying the dude was normal and went off the deep end. That's what mental illness does. It creeps up on people and before they know it, they have created their own reality. Sad story all around.
January 1, 2009
11:56 a.m.
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HolierThanThou writes:
As a non-believer I was amazed when God spoke to me recently. Naturally, I thought it was some kind of joke. Then I was afraid He was going to ask me to do something crazy. But it wasn't like that at all. He's chapped about stuff like this and a bit disgusted, too. He asked, "What part of 'Thou shalt not kill.' do they not understand?"
January 1, 2009
1:08 p.m.
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drnugget writes:
Listen people, the real issue here is gay marriage. It is the number one threat facing America today. Praise Jesus.
January 1, 2009
1:50 p.m.
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Now_You_Know writes:
He voted for Bush "twice".
January 1, 2009
4:02 p.m.
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oceanview78382 writes:
LOL drnuggut will be one of those guys committing suicide when his gay lover is revearled. umm this isn't about gays- get your ,mind on something else.
Sad story but here's another religious zealot -hunter - Bush supporter being violent-- are we supprised?
January 1, 2009
9 p.m.
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WestminsterJ writes:
"freeman"- If this guy was a Muslim it wouldn't have even been mentioned.
Uh, yeah, it would have been mentioned, especially if he had said he intended to convert people to Islam.
January 1, 2009
10:15 p.m.
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forty5ford writes:
Cowboy63 and hikingartist -
thanks for the introspective and thought provoking content.... constructive posts like yours are welcome reading.
January 2, 2009
9:09 a.m.
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classiccoupe writes:
There has to be more to this story than we are hearing...was there any violent media such as vidio games, or drugs such as meth involved?
January 2, 2009
9:30 a.m.
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classiccoupe writes:
There has to be more to this story than we are hearing...was there any violent media such as video games, or drugs such as meth involved?
January 2, 2009
9:54 a.m.
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TheDenverB writes:
"I love the way the Rockie is always trying to give us feel good stories about murderous scum...so frickin what if he played ball in highschool..."
feel good? they7 are just trying to paint a picture of this guy as who his friends remember him as.
they are trying to help us all answer the question "why". I'm sorry you can't see that.
and if you think someone isn't working on a huge piece on the manager who died (a piece that likely is going to take more time becuase i is going to be a 'feel good' one) -- then you TRULY have proven you know little about newspapers.
January 2, 2009
11:08 a.m.
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davies writes:
Hello religion-bashers:
Lots of people kill in the name of God or religion. But if a person is immoral enough to kill, it may be logical to question that person's truthfulness, don't you think?
Most people who are 'religious' in the traditional sense believe in an afterlife in which those who have been faithful are rewarded while others face some sort of adverse divine judgement up to and including eternal damnation and punishment in the fires of he11. So again, it may be logical for the discerning adult to question whether a person who has chosen to murder and then commit suicide, was truly 'religious'.
January 2, 2009
11:14 a.m.
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crystalgreeley writes:
I'll never understand why things like this happen.
January 2, 2009
11:32 a.m.
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buffsblg writes:
The idea that this man made some rational religious choice is ridiculous. This is a very common age for severe mental illness to manifest itself and these are classic symptoms of schizophrenia. As I said earlier, this is about insanity, not religion.
I understand the desire to find an explanation for his actions but sometimes, sadly, people go "crazy" seemingly out of nowhere. Most of the time they do not end up hurting others, but in a few sad cases they do and it is a tragedy for those they hurt and them as well. To use this case as some telling example of the pluses or minuses of religion seems completely out of line with the facts.
I guess I would ask Darwin, do you have no curiosity as to what happened or where this may have come from? This man committed a heinous act, but he did not cease to be a human and his death affected those who knew and cared for him. You apparently want him to simply be condemned as "evil" and then ignored. I and I think most people agree, find more information interesting and helpful. By the way, most of the stories earlier this week were filled with tributes to the victim, so to say that side of the story was ignored is simply incorrect.
January 2, 2009
11:46 a.m.
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mytwosense writes:
I have a friend who lives in Nederland; she knows the family of the slain manager. He leaves behind two young daughters. What a senseless tragedy - my heart truly goes out to this family.
And I have to agree with a poster who mentioned the difficulty of passing judgment in this situation. I believe there are different categories of murderers. Most are bitter, angry, filled with delusions of grandeur, and these feelings build up in them over time. They may even just be pure evil. However, this situation has all the signs of someone who was suddenly seized by severe mental illness. I could be wrong, but everyone who knew him is saying this was just not in line with the young man they knew. I wouldn't be surprised if an autopsy revealed some kind of a major abnormality in his brain, or blood chemistry levels.
It's just a tragic situation for everyone involved.
January 2, 2009
11:47 a.m.
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davies writes:
One time my mentally ill brother stopped his motorcycle near the railroad tracks north of Stillwater, Minnesota. He took off his license plate, put it on the track, and hid back in some trees while a passing train ran over it. Then he went back over to the tracks and urinated on the mangled plate. I asked him why and he said he "didn't like the numbers".
And no, it did not have '666' on it; so I'm thinking God had nothing to do with that particular act.
January 2, 2009
12:17 p.m.
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davies writes:
Hey there mytwosense, I hadn't seen anything from you for awhile. Someone has started posting as 'Mytwocents' and I wondered if you had been naughty and gotten banned under your old moniker, and had started using a new one.
But this other Mytwocents person doesn't seem to write the same kind of caring compassionate drivel as you, so I decided it must be someone else ;-)
Happy New Year to you.
January 2, 2009
12:28 p.m.
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mytwosense writes:
Thanks, davies. And no, I'm not mytwocents. Rather to my surprise, I've never even had a post deleted by the RMN, so I'm still using the same handle.:) Happy New Year to you, as well. Let's hope we can run into each other on some happier news stories in 2009. This one has just left me feeling really sad.
January 2, 2009
12:31 p.m.
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ThingFish writes:
"As I said earlier, this is about insanity, not religion."
Religion is a symptom of insanity!
January 2, 2009
12:31 p.m.
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mytwosense writes:
ha ha, just caught the "compassionate, caring drivel"...! Come now, davies, I suspect you have a bit of a marshmallow heart yourself. But I won't tell anyone...
January 2, 2009
1:23 p.m.
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Heidi writes:
davies is like Jekyll and Hyde.
January 2, 2009
2:07 p.m.
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davies writes:
Hey there Heidi. Did you mean Abbott and Costello? I know, I know, I'm showing my age again.
Well now there's you, mytwosense and buffsblg all on this thread; nice to hear from some familiar (and reasonably rational) voices.
I saw someone posting on a story Wednesday about how the minimum wage in Colorado would be going up automatically on the first of the year. 'INC' came on with a typical rant about neo-cons, and then someone going by the name of 'iron' asked: "INC, why are you so angry, especially after you just got a raise?"
Man, that was a good one. Maybe 'iron' is someone we used to know?
January 2, 2009
3:04 p.m.
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davies writes:
Reality_Check writes:
"Religion = Insanity ... ipso facto."
Then I suppose the following qualifies as rational thought... quid pro quo:
"If I cannot detect it with my five senses, it does not exist."
January 2, 2009
4:13 p.m.
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Cowboy63 writes:
"The Derik they remembered was shy and smart."
You can also add emotionally stunted, lonely and lost. How many others suffer in miserable silence until they finally crack?