Criminology - The Moses Lake Bombings

Episode Date: December 6, 2020

In August of 2008, two separate explosions occurred in the town of Moses Lake, Washington. Bill Walker and Javier Adame were killed when they plugged in ordinary items that each held inside a pipe bomb. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the case of the Moses Lake bombings. The explosions happened a day apart and police were baffled from the very beginning. They've never been able to establish a connection between Bill and Javier or figure out a motive for the bombings. Bill Walker's granddaughter Victoria Otto joined us to discuss her grandfather, and to give an insider's perspective on the case. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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With Wayfair's room of choice delivery and fast experts set up on qualifying orders, life gets a little easier. Visit Wayfair.com or the Wayfair app. that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 138 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And I'm Mike Morford. Mr. Mike Morford, what is going on with you?

Not too much. I'm just sitting back here, relaxing in Florida, enjoying the sun when I can get it. How about you? I'm not doing none of those things. It is about 32 degrees where I live. It's icy. We've had a lot of snow. So I wish I could say I feel your pain, but I don't miss that at all.

I'm happy for you, man. I'm happy for you that you got to a little bit warmer climate. But won't you miss snow just a little bit? I like to look at it on postcards or maybe on Christmas morning if there's a dusting. But the rest of the year, I don't miss it whatsoever. I do miss the cold fall mornings coming out of my house and taking that deep fresh breath of air. When you step out of the house here in Florida and at 70 degrees, that's a little bit of a different feeling. Okay. So your answer is no. Your answer is no. I got you. We continue to see some

amazing Patreon support more. Let's give some shoutouts. We had Mary Lancaster, Jessamy, Azinger, Stefan Blondin, Shay Roach, and Amanda Morrill. You know, as we always say, that's amazing support. We really appreciate it. Yeah, we've got some great. great supportive listeners and we we can't thank you enough if there's anyone out there that's thinking about supporting the show you can do so by going to patreon.com slash criminology. As always, if you haven't done so yet, check out Stitcher Premium. That's where you can find all of our episodes older than six months. They have a great free 30 day trial. So you really have nothing to lose. Check that out. All right, buddy. Are you ready to get into this episode?

Yeah, I'm excited about it. We are headed to the state of Washington. because it was there in August of 2008 that two separate explosions killed two different men in the town of Moses Lake. Those two men were Bill Walker and Javier Adami. Both of the explosions were found to have been the result of rigged devices set to explode when the victim plugged them into an outlet. And although investigators believe that the pipe bombs were the creations of one person, they've yet to find out exactly why these two victims who were killed were chosen. They also have not been able to find any known links between the two victims. And the case remains unsolved 12 years later. Bill Walker's granddaughter Victoria Otto joined us to discuss her grandfather.

and to share with us an insider's perspective on the case. You'll hear from her throughout this episode. In Grant County, Washington, Moses Lake is a small community that lies on a lake for which the town is named, and it has a pretty rich history. I-90 connects Moses Lake to the larger metropolitan cities of Seattle and Spokane. Moses Lake is a shallow natural lake named after Chief Moses, a brave warrior and fierce leader of the Columbia Band of Indians. Native Americans had lived in this area for centuries until white settlers made their way into the Moses Lake area in the late 1880s and the government established reservations. In 1910, the settlers had formed the small community named the Pell. Almost two decades later,

the town held a vote to incorporate under the name Moses Lake and the measure passed by a vote of 71 to 41. On September 15, 1938, the town officially became Moses. Moses Lake, with a population of 302. On November 24, 1942, Moses Lake Army Air Base was activated as part of a rapid military installation buildup after Pearl Harbor, according to the Pacific Coast Architecture Database. It served as a training center for Lockheed's P-38, Lightning Fighter aircraft, and later for Boeing's B-17 flying fortresses made nearby in Seattle. By the end of the war, the base was

rarely being used, but it was not entirely abandoned. In 1948, the base reopened as a U.S. Air Force Base and the 325th All-Weather Fighter Wing headquarters. Their base brought in over 1,000 military personnel and civilian employees, it was renamed Larson Air Force Base in 1950 as a tribute to late fighter pilot Major Donald A. Larson, who had flown 57 combat missions during World War II and was lost over Germany on August 4, 1944. By 1952, Moses Lake was booming, with a population estimated at 4,244, up 60% from 1,679, just two years earlier. At the end of the 50s, Interstate 90 had been completed and crossed through the southern edge of town and helped increase the city's prominence.

Then on May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted almost 300 miles away. and Moses Lake fell directly in the path of the ash clouds. Residents reported seeing dark black, fluffy clouds approaching from the west. Ash started falling and several inches ultimately covered the city. Businesses and roads were closed for several days and a lot of crops were damaged. It took months for Moses Lake to recover and clean up the mess. Today, Moses Lake's popular population. is around 24,000. While it's by all appearances of safe community, drug gangs moved into Grant

County over a decade ago. With the gangs came on increase in violence, leading law enforcement officials to wonder about their involvement in a couple of bombing murders in 2008. 69-year-old William Arley Walker, known to Bill by his family and friends, resided at 149-28-4th northeast in Moses Lake. Bill and his third wife, Dorothy, had been. previously lived in Ohio. But after an industrial accident left him unable to work, the couple moved to Washington in the 1990s, settling first in Wheeler, where they looked after the widow of a fishing buddy, and then eventually they went to Moses Lake. Bill spent his free time repairing cars and small power tools in a shop inside his garage. My grandfather was what I would call a real man's man.

He was the hunting and fishing type of guy. He had just turned 60, the month before his murder, he was retired and living in a very small town called Moses Lake Washington. And he and my grandmother lived outside of Moses Lake a few miles, about five miles. And he tried to keep busy with, he was kind of like the local handyman. He liked to go hunting and fishing and work on cars. And a lot of neighbors and, you know, family members would come and hang out in his garage. and they'd work on cars or tinker around with this or that. So he really kept busy that way, but technically he was a retired electrician.

Well, he didn't like to sit still. Or if he did, he was in his recliner doing crossword puzzles or watching the hunting channel. But yeah, he liked to stay busy. He was, like I said, a retired electrician. So he liked to work with his hands and he liked to problem solve. And, you know, if anybody had something that needed fixing, they would always come to him. So he liked to stay busy that way. It was in this garage that Bill loved to spend his time.

And it was in this garage that on the morning of Saturday, August 2nd, 2008, Bill's life came to a tragic and violent end. Bill began to tinker with a battery charger in his shop and he plugged it in. It was around this time between 8.30 and 9 a.m. that a couple walking their dog heard a loud blast, followed by a puff of smoke rising in the air. Another couple sleeping in an RV on the Walker property also heard the explosion. But despite the obvious signs that something had happened nearby, no one went to investigate.

Both couples later helped authorities piece together a timeline of events. That morning, Dorothy Walker was 80 miles away in Kashmir, Washington. When she couldn't reach Bill by cell phone, she grew up. concerned and contacted their grandson, 33-year-old Andy Otto, who lived about six miles away. Andy often spent Saturdays helping Bill in his shop, but on this Saturday, he wasn't there. At the time, I was living in California, but I have some other family members who were traveling and visiting Moses Lake to visit my grandparents, and they had arrived the night before, and on the morning of August 2nd, they decided to take a car trip to another part of

Washington to see some other family members, and they loaded up to car to do that. My grandfather just wanted to kind of hang out on his own and decided not to go. So pretty early in the morning, I think probably before 8 a.m., my aunt, Valerie, her daughter, Valerie, Ann, and her other son, Jamie and his wife and my grandmother and another aunt filled up the car, and they went to Eastern Washington and my grandpa stayed behind. And what they told me that the last image of him was standing at the gate of the property waving goodbye. So they headed off to Eastern Washington. And on their way, it's about 90 minutes or so from Moses Lake. So sometime during that trip, my grandmother called my grandfather for something and he didn't answer the phone, which to some

people might not immediately sound any alarm bells, but for her, I don't know, I guess they stayed in such close contact that she thought that was unusual. So she kept trying and a couple of other people in the car called a neighbor to see if they had seen my grandfather. So they kept trying. So I'm not sure exactly how much time had elapsed, but they could not get a hold of him and were concerned enough to turn around and come back to Moses Lake. And sometime on that return trip, I don't know if my grandmother or another family member in the car got a hold of someone in Moses Lake and asked them to go and check on my grandfather. And he did. And what he found was my grandfather in the garage. And it was a mess. And it was just a horrific accident. He

didn't know what had happened, but he knew something happened to my grandfather. So, unfortunately, it's a pretty stressful car ride home because they're trying to communicate by phone to see what happened to get many details, but there was just so little information and really a little understanding of what happened. There were neighbors that were home who lived pretty close that said they heard the sound. They heard something loud. They potentially called it a bomb. So there's people that heard this sound. But, Unfortunately, no one went to investigate. So my grandfather was dead on his garage floor for quite a while before anyone came to look for him.

Andy made the short drive to the walk of residence after receiving the call from his grandmother, arriving there at around 1.30 p.m. He fully expected his grandfather to be in the garage. And when he went in to look, he found Bill dead inside lying face down under debris. and he wasn't sure what happened to Bill. He called police who made their way to the scene. They quickly found evidence of an explosion. Bill died of severe head and chest injuries.

Police initially attributed the explosion to some kind of carelessness on Bill's part. The initial lack of consideration of the explosion being bomb-related caused first responders to perhaps overlook or disturb clues or evidence. And that doesn't sit well with a Victoria. It was in his garage behind the hospital. home, obviously very messy. And I think the police officers at that time jumped to some conclusions

based on what they saw with their eyes and thought that my grandfather had had an accident on his own. And there was an explosion that he caused. So initially, the initial belief was that he did something to cause it. I think they just jumped to the conclusion that there's this old guy out in his garage who did this to himself. I mean, I'm speaking bluntly to you because 10 years have gone by, and that's exactly what happened. You know, unfortunately, from my grandfather's case, it wasn't until many hours later, and sadly, another man in Moses Lake was killed by a bomb. And this was literally within, I think, about 12 hours. So lucky for us that it happened soon after, but it wasn't until they responded to that man's scene and started looking around and saw some similarities

or saw enough information to have them think that the cases were connected. They left there and did not declare it a crime scene. And then the 12, 10, 12 hours before they came back, a lot of people were in the garage and a lot of well-meaning people swept up the garage and tried to clean it up so my grandmother wouldn't have to see it. And unfortunately, in doing that, what do you think happened? Every bit of forensic evidence, pristine, clean, untouched forensic evidence was mishandled and thrown away in a dustbin. And that makes me really frustrated.

Would it have solved it? I don't know. But I would have liked the FBI to get authentic forensic evidence that was laying there on the floor and collected by medical or forensic professionals. And it wasn't. So unfortunately, I think that set the case back a bit too. While police may not have considered a bomb being responsible for Bill's death, a second bombing less than 24 hours later, just down the road that Victoria just mentioned, would cause them to reevaluate their thinking.

53-year-old Javier Martinez-Adami lived on North Stratford Road in Moses Lake, a dead-end lane about a five-minute drive from Bill Walker's residence. Born on March 3rd, 1955, Javier was the fourth of nine children. He was unemployed and had a 30-year-old girlfriend named Heather Hurley Smith, as well as adult children and grandchildren. After a car accident years before, Javier couldn't work long shifts and earn money doing odd jobs here and there. Like Bill Walker, Javier loved to work on things, especially wood projects and cars. He was considered to be an excellent mechanic. but local police suspected he was also earning money by dealing drugs.

Javier had been convicted of cocaine possession in 1998 and cited for possessing drug paraphernalia the following year. Later on August 2nd, the same day Bill was killed, Javier's girlfriend, Heather, found a police scanner in a paper grocery bag sitting in the Holmes driveway and she placed it on the front porch. Just after midnight on the morning of August 3rd, Javier brought the scanner into the kitchen and plugged it in. He muttered a cuss word right before a pipe bomb inside the scanner, exploded and killed him instantly.

Heather frantically called police when they arrived at the scene. It quickly became evident to them that this explosion might be related to the earlier one that killed Bill. Grand County Sheriff's deputies found Adami dead on the kitchen floor with severe wounds to his chest and stomach. They could smell sulfur and found evidence of pipe bomb contents nearby. They used a nitrate sniffing dog from Hanford Patrol to help find evidence. Authorities search Javier's home for more than 14 hours and found methamphetamine in addition to the bomb debris. Local authorities felt overwhelmed with a case that they were not used to dealing with and had to turn to the ATF for help. It also seemed to them that it was very likely that one person was responsible for both bombings.

was only at that time that law enforcement came back to my grandfather's garage and then declared it a crime scene. The ATF looked into the first bombing that killed Bill Walker and they determined that a pipe bomb hidden inside the battery charger had exploded killing Bill and ripping a hole in the shop wall. This news was shocking to investigators and to Bill's family. Bill didn't have any known enemies and police were stumped as to why someone might target him. Then the ATF examined the second bombing and they found that in both the Walker and Adami cases, ATF technicians determined the bombs that killed the men were nearly identical, well built, and likely made by the same person.

Whoever built a pipe bombs had experience. The bombs were definitely not the work of an amateur bomb maker. According to Kyle Foreman, spokesman for Grant County emergency management, the killer had hidden the bombs in items that would seem attractive yet harmless to the victims. It never happens at a good time. The pipe bursts at midnight. The heater quits on the coldest night. Suddenly, you're overwhelmed.

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Subscribe now to Moms and Mysteries wherever you get your podcast. Now, while the cases appeared to be related, police found no connection between the two victims and both had completely different backgrounds. The only thing the two men had in common was a passion for working on objects and cars. You know, at the time, the families weren't familiar with each other. And when it became known who he was, you know, a lot of us were talking like, do you know them? Do you know this family? And the family could never see any connection.

And I can tell you from the conversations I've had with law enforcement throughout this last 10 years of investigation, they have since found no connection between my grandfather and Javier Adami. authorities suspected that Javier was the intended target due to possible drug activity, but Bill Walker did not fit anywhere in the puzzle. But it turned out that Bill's grandson Andy Otto did. Police briefly thought he might have been the target. In 2004, police arrested Andy after they found 186 marijuana plants and a travel trailer he was using. but Andy said that he had put all of his struggles behind him by the time of the explosion and wasn't

involved in any drug activity. The whole thought of Bill being involved in the drug trade and that drugs led to his murder is not even something that Victoria considers to be a possibility. I'm certain the police followed any lead or theory that they could find. And I'm glad they did and I hope they do. for the family, it was very shocking to even consider a drug connection because, again, my grandfather wasn't known for that. And we had no reason to believe there was a connection with my grandfather himself. I do have some cousins and other, those family members that had

a history of drug violations. I don't know how serious they were. But that was the only connection with drugs per se, but my grandfather himself was certainly never a part of it. And the police have been investigating this, they still haven't found any link between my grandfather and any kind of drug culture in Moses Lake. And I can tell you now, I stay in touch with the detective. And again, he recently reminded me that at this time, they do not believe my grandfather was the target of that bomb. Police also zeroed in on neighbor of bills, who was a neighbor of bills, who was a a known drug dealer. The man lived on the other side of Bill. DEA agents had raided his home five months before the explosions as part of a cocaine investigation. Authorities said that a drug cartel

might have meant the rigged battery charger for him. Police also learned that Bill had a bit of an ongoing feud with the owner of the RV park directly behind his home. The neighbor was always complaining about Bill's kids causing trouble, stealing things, and breaking items on the RV side the property. It just so happened that the owner had previous experience in the army as a munitions expert. Another of Bill's granddaughter, whose Victoria's cousin, Valerie, was a guest on the YouTube channel, Brain Scratch, hosted by John Lorden. John reported on his show that Bill's drug dealer neighbor still resided next to Bill's residence as of August 2018, and he was arrested about a week before Bill's murder.

There was a rumor floating around town that this neighbor might have thought Bill called the police on him, or Bill had in some way been responsible for the man's arrest. Valerie mentioned to John a couple of strange things regarding her grandfather's killing. Bill had cataracts and always turned on the light upon entering the garage after the explosion. It was noted that the light switch in the garage was in the off position, which didn't make sense because he had planned on working on the battery and he would have needed the light to see clearly. Another weird occurrence surrounds Bill's cell phone. It was not with him. At the time of the explosion, it was somewhere inside the home. He often used his cell phone and always answered

when someone called. So Dorothy and Valerie consider it strange that the phone was not on Bill when his shop exploded. There had been some confusion floating around about the type of battery charger that was used in the bombing that killed Bill. Some reports say it was a car battery charger, but Valerie confirmed it was a marine battery charger used for boats.

A relative of Bill's who we won't name had borrowed a charger from Bill, but it was a car charger used to start his truck, and apparently not a marine battery charger. But Victoria's account is in contrast to Valerie's. Victoria is pretty sure that the battery charger led out by Bill to this family member is the same one used to bomb Bill with. And if it is, it's unclear how Bill got it back in his possession. The battery charger that they used was an item that belonged to my grandfather.

What we don't know is how it got the bomb attached to it. This item was loaned out to a family member for some time, probably weeks. to months, and that is something that the family does not know, is how that item got back into my grandfather's possession or when, if it was somehow placed in the garage or it was delivered that morning or sitting on the steps that morning or sitting in the driveway that morning. That's the part we do not know. But the item did belong to my grandfather. Bill's grandson, Andy, worked third shift at the time of the explosion. He was supposed to work with Bill that morning on a new project, possibly a car, but Andy did not get to Bill's home

until later in the afternoon after he was called to check on Bill. Andy's delay in getting to bills that day led authorities to briefly look at him as a suspect. But if Andy wasn't involved, being late, most likely spared his life. Another interesting bit of information that John Lorden mentioned in his YouTube episode involved one of Bill's sons who lived in the other house on Bill's property. Before Bill's death, the son had asked Bill if his girlfriend could move in there, but Bill didn't want that to happen. And he put a stop to it. The day after Bill was killed, the girlfriend moved in. It's unclear if the police ever questioned the son and girlfriend regarding Bill's killing. News of the two bombings and most of the two bombings and most of the

Lake spread through the community, and people were in shock. They didn't think that something like two different bombings could happen there. Authorities remained stumped, and in December 2008, the case took another turn. That's when police found the naked body of Heather Smith, Javier Adami's girlfriend, in the same house where Javier was killed four months earlier. The power to the home had been turned off the day before. Investigators initially treated the death as a homicide, but an autopsy showed no signs of trauma on Heather's body. A few months later in March 2009, the Grant County Corners Office ruled her death as natural causes, resulting from a diabetic problem. Apparently the timing of Heather's death was just a coincidence. But the sum,

it seemed suspicious. The two bombings in Moses Lake were not the only explosions to occur in that County, Grant County around that time, two weeks before Bill Walker's death, a pipe bomb destroyed a pickup truck near Soap Lake, about 25 miles north of Moses Lake. This occurred on July 23, 2008. A fourth explosion occurred in Warden, Washington after Bill and Javier's deaths. Warden is only 20 miles southeast of Moses Lake. But investigators do not believe the Soap Lake and Warden bombings are related to the Moses Lake explosions. I think the problem that we have morph is that we couldn't find any information. It doesn't seem to be known.

What has led authorities to that conclusion? It turns out that pipe bomb explosions are not rare in Washington. And a few have taken place in and around Moses Lake over the years. In March 1983, 26-year-old Rodney A. Goodwin was arrested in connection with an early morning bomb explosion that occurred in a restroom, shared by Lake Bull and Kebo's restaurant and lounge. This was located at North Stratford Road and Highway 17. Goodwin had placed a pipe bomb in one of the restroom's toilets. The explosion shattered the toilet, blew a hole in one wall, and knocked tile off another wall. Thankfully, nobody was

in the restroom at the time and there were no injuries. On Sunday, April 3rd, 2011, a suspected pipe bomb blew up a residential mailbox on a rural road two miles east of Moses Lake. Grant County deputies were called to the scene at 1 p.m. when the resident reported her mailbox had been destroyed, possibly overnight Saturday. Richland Police Department's bomb squad technicians were called and checked other mailboxes in the area. No other devices were found. and no additional related reports had come in. It appeared to be a random act. Police have not given out a lot of information about this explosion.

In December 2011, 16-year-old James Glencoe was critically injured at his residence on Fairway Drive when a homemade bomb blew up in his hands. Authorities found a small number of hazardous materials and another pipe bomb in the home. James lost one of his hands in the explosion. Another person in the house was injured and treated the scene. James had a massive interest in science and bomb making. He first began making pressure explosives with dry ice. According to experts, and this should scare the you know what out of everyone,

pipe bombs are easy to build and can be as dangerous as military hand grenades. You can find basic components in any hardware store, and the directions to making some of these bombs can be found by doing a quick Google or YouTube search. Andrea Rivera and Alan Gustafson, reporters for Salem, Oregon's newspaper, The Statesman Journal, wrote in an August 2006 article, how the homemade bombs are constructed. They wrote the following. Pipe bombs are generally made of iron or plastic and packed with common exploits. materials. The ends are capped and a fuse similar to the type used to detonate a firecracker

is attached to one end. When the fuse lights the explosive, it shatters the pipe, blasting shards of metal out at a high speed. A wick or a computerized timer can ignite a pipe bomb. It can also be designed to explode when dropped or rattle. As we mentioned in the 2008 Moses Lake bombings. The bombs were intended to explode once the victims plugged the devices into an outlet. In July 2011, Seattle Times investigative reporter Claudia Rowe published an expose titled Gangs in Small Town, Central Washington. Rowe reported that during the summer of 2009, 40 gang members were locked up in the Grant County Jail. Local law enforcement had described the area as a place where drive-by shootings occurred weekly.

and bodies are dumped with little more than tattoos as identifiers. Roe further wrote that during the following summer of 2010, U.S. Marshals rounded up 50 suspected gang members in Moses Lake, many of them with alleged ties to the Mexican mafia. That year alone, 2011, when Roe wrote that article, there were 100 robberies and shootings in Grant County, mostly all gang-related. One shooting involved a 10-year-old boy who was shot in the head when gang members shot up his parents' trailer.

In another incident, a 13-year-old girl was injured in a drive-by shooting while she sat in her living room. Rowe interviewed a few young gang members in Grant County. One of these gang members was called Creeper. He was 20 years old, and he said to her, people think this is a big, safe community. but it's all under the surface. Believe it, we've got PL, LVL, Florentia, Marijuanaos, Nortenos. You got everything out here in Moses Lake you can think of. Creeper was a high school dropout who called himself a sometime member of the Marijuana's 13 set. But Moses Lake officials disputed Creeper's statements to Roe, insisting that such comments were nothing. more than bravado and ruthless intimidation. Moses Lake City manager Joseph Kovinsky told Claudia Roe, that's not to say there isn't

criminal activity that occurs here, but it may be overstating to call it gang crime. Gangs are formed for a criminal purpose. They have territory and they have organization. I'm not sure that's what we have in the city of Moses Lake. Over 30 days in spring 2011, Moses Lake had two homes. invasions, four shootings, and a murder connected to a single Moses Lake crew. Rowe wrote in her expose that the Sheriff Department had identified a dozen organized groups comprising more than 500 known gang members countywide. Deputy Joe Harris was shocked at the number

of young people he saw flaunting their gang colors at the 2011 Moses Lake Spring Festival. He told Rowe, for a city that doesn't have a gang problem, there sure were a lot of gang members walking around. Just these packs of eight to ten of them. It was eye-opening. In 2013, veteran investigative journalist Les Zaitz wrote a five-part series for the Oregonian titled Under the Curse of Cartels, Violence in the Northwest. In his series, he exposed Mexican drug gangs in the Northwest and discussed how they used bombings and shootings in retaliation against their enemies. In the first part of his series titled They Are Here, Zates wrote about the December 2011 pipe bombing in Camby, Oregon that killed 31-year-old Ivan Velasco Rodriguez and noted that the

bombing was similar to the Moses Lake explosions. Rodriguez, a landscaper, arrived at the home of a friend just after sunset. He was holding a mysterious toolbox and poked it with a wooden rake handle. The toolbox exploded killing him instantly. Inside the toolbox was a pipe bomb. Zates wrote that federal agents suspected a Mexican drug cartel, most likely commissioned the bomb to kill a witness who once listed the address as his own. Their suspicions intensified when they discovered the bombing was eerily similar to the Moses Lake explosions. Well, there's no evidence that can be explosion is related to the Moses Lake bombings. Drug activity was tied to Javier Adami, and his death could have been retaliation by drug gangs. So, Morif I know we talked a lot about

gangs, drug gangs, gang violence, and there's good reason for that, which we'll get into. But to me, I think the main question is how likely are these type of gangs to you, use pipe bombs. It's not something that I've heard a lot about. Most of the time when I think of gang violence, I think drive-by shootings, other type of shootings. It's mostly reported as some type of gun violence. But you have investigative journalists doing whole series about at least in the Northwest, gangs using bombings as a form of retaliation. I think we know that gangs will use a variety of methods to kill people that they see as rivals or enemies or what have you.

But you hit the nail on the head with a lot of times it's with guns because that way you make sure that you're the target you're going for you can get versus these bombs seem pretty random that anyone could have gotten them and plugged them in. Yeah, I think that's a perfect observation. Also, I think you have to make the point that it's a lot more work, right? I mean, you're taking chances that if there was someone that a gang really wanted to kill, okay, not too hard to follow that person or wait till they walk outside of their house, drive by and shoot them. I don't advocate it, obviously. I think it's horrible.

It just seems like that would be such an easier way to retaliate against someone than to hope that they're the person that picks up whatever the pipe bomb is in and plugs it in. I go back to what the ATF said too that we mentioned that they felt the person that created these bombs was an expert. It wasn't some casual start from scratch bomb maker that was getting instructions on the internet. So I don't know that the cartel has someone like that they would employ. But it definitely seems like whoever created these knew what they were doing. That's a good point because we did talk about, you know, some articles that said how easy it is to make a pipe bomb. But according to like you said, the ATF, that's not really the picture that I got.

from the two pipe bombs specifically in Moses Lake. Those seem to be more professional, in their eyes, not made by an amateur. Victoria discussed with us how losing her grandfather affected the family, as well as some of the things they did in the aftermath, of Bill's tragic death. You know, each person has their own way and their own coping skills. For the family members that I've been closest to, like I said, I was living in California at the time. And my aunt, who was present the morning this happened, she lives in another state also. And she really found a voice through advocacy and reaching out to other organizations,

victim, advocate programs, and other nonprofits to try to navigate through this and see what should we do, how should we do it. She was a real champion for raising the $10,000 for information that we have right now through crime stoppers. So my aunt and some cousins back east put a lot of their efforts into fundraising because so many organizations said, you know, you've got to get a reward, raise as much money as you can. And my aunt, Valerie, was a real champion for that. So that took a while to figure out how to do that. It's not easy to raise money in different states. We learned have different laws about this. And so we were on this path and wanted to do what we could. And raising money was really

the only obvious way we thought to do that. We're not trained investigators. Everybody these days is kind of an armchair detective, but we really, that's all we could do is try to reach out to other organizations and find ways to get involved and advocate, but ultimately raising money and working with crime stoppers to put out that reward was really the best way to do what we could and champion for finding out what happened. And ultimately, leading to an arrest would be great. Bill's family also started a Facebook page called William Arley Walker Unsold Murder to try and keep the case out there in the public eye.

The Facebook page is something that my aunt and cousin did, just as a way, as a reminder to people in the community specifically that the case remains unsolved, because when we do speak to people around Moses Lake, they're shocked to learn it hasn't been solved. And that surprises me because this is their community and, again, a small community. community. So it was a way to remind people build awareness of this event and this very violent ending to my grandfather's life. So building awareness and reminding people that is unsolved in any time they can, you know, post any information, any tip, any ideas. We welcome that. Of course, anything that would bring justice to not only my grandfather's case, but Mr. Adami's case,

that's really our ultimate goal is to find out what happened and bring those people, person, people to justice. Victoria told us that despite this being a cold case, investigators are not giving up on working it. I'm happy to tell you that they are. It's still considered a cold case, but there is a new detective on the case. I spoke to him very recently and introduced myself. With law enforcement, I stayed in touch with the previous detective.

They don't send updates per se, but they're very receptive if we reach out to them. So I met the new detective over the phone. And he is very enthusiastic. He said that despite it being a cold case, that they're actively working the case and they're working to eliminate possibilities. He still does not believe that my grandfather was the target of this bomb and that they're going in the right direction. For 10 years after his death, Bill Walker's house did not sell. Finally, his grandson, Andy Otto, purchased the home as a rental property to keep the home within the family. Over the years, as part of the ongoing investigation, the relatives of Bill Walker and Javier Adami all submitted to DNA testing. It's possible that investigators recover DNA

from the bomb remnants, but they've been very tight-lipped about what they have and what they have. And what don't have. What we do know is that 12 years after their horrible deaths, Bill Walker and Javier Adami's cases remain unsolved. There's currently a $10,000 reward being offered in the case. If you have any information on the murders of Bill Walker or Javier Adami, please call 1-800-22-22-8477 to provide your tip. So more for me, this is a very different type of case, a bombing case, not something that you and I delve into a lot, but because of that and the particulars of what happened, to me, there are a lot of questions. You know, I think one of the first things that really jumps out at me about this case is the contrasts between the two victims, Bill Walker.

Nobody had a bad thing to say about him. Didn't seem as though he had, you know, a record or really any ties to anything that would have put him on the wrong side of a gang or really anyone for that matter. Now, Javier Adami was a little different. We mentioned it. He had some arrests for drugs, drug paraphernalia. obviously it points in his life and I don't know for sure if that was up until the time he was murdered he was involved in drugs to some degree there's no doubt about that you have to be honest about that you could see where he could maybe get on the wrong side of some very bad

people right you owe people money for drugs you can't pay they want that money and Sometimes they're willing to do really bad things to you, including murder. But I think it's the contrast between the two victims. You know, how can these two be related? And that's a big deal because authorities believe they are in some way. Obviously, if they believe that the two pipe bombs were made by the same person, well, how can they not be related? And I think investigators really have an uphill battle since they haven't been able to figure

out what links those cases why these two different seemingly different men were targeted by this same person. And I think for police, if they can find the motive, they can usually go down the right path and figure out who has that motive. But here you've got, possibly you could use the drug thing as a motive for Javier, but Bill's not connected to that in any way, seemingly that we know. So it seems as much as worst, I can only imagine what investigators are trying to do on their end to try and piece everything together. Now, we did mention his grandson,

had a possible connection to drugs at some point in his life. He makes the claims that, you know, by the time this happened, those were long over. But, you know, I, again, I think you're correct when you talk about, okay, what's the motive? to me finding the connection between these two people, if there is one, is the key to solving this. And I'm sure that's what police have been working on for 12 years. Here's the rub.

What if there is no connection because one of the bombs was not meant for the person who plugged the device in? And specifically, I'm talking about Bill Walker. let's say that that bomb was meant for someone else. Well, then that would be why there's no connection. And I'm sure the police have checked on connections between a lot of people. But to date, they just haven't been able to figure it out. Something you said just made me think of a totally different situation. What if both of these bombs that were made were just placed randomly in a stranger's yard for them to find?

and it just happened to be these two men. And there's no connection to organize crime, to gangs. It just is a random bomber out there someplace that targeted two random people. And it just happened to be these two men. Oh, I think it's a, it's a very smart statement because, you know, we all want to think that, okay, there's reasons for everything. But sometimes there's not a reason. You know, think about kids running around putting in,

M80s into random people's mailboxes. Why are they doing that? Well, first of all, their kids are making bad choices, but a lot of times those are not directed at a specific person or a specific house. What if you just have a killer, someone that wants to take a life and they make a pipe bomb, they make it very well, doesn't seem to be amateurish in the way that it's made. And they make a pipe bomb. they put it inside something and they select two random people and those two people die. I don't think you can discount that at all. I think that has to be on the table. If you look at the Tylenol murders, if you look at Centennial Park bombings,

some of those ones that are just meant to kill, meant to hurt people, but it doesn't matter who it is. It's just whoever happens to be in the line of fire, unfortunately. Yeah. And again, those are really scary. because you could be the best person in the world. You have no beefs with anyone. You haven't done anything wrong to anyone.

And the next thing you know, you're killed. But I don't know. I mean, I think it's part of what makes cases like this interesting to the amateur detective. Right? There's a lot to unpack here. There's a lot of what ifs. There's a lot of roads to go down and clues to analyze.

Special thanks goes out to Victoria Otto for joining us in this episode. Thanks also goes out to Debbie Buck at TruecrimeDiva.com for writing and research assistants in this episode. As always, if you love this show, but you haven't done so yet. Take a minute. Go out and give us a five-star rating. That means a lot for folks that are looking for True Crime podcast to listen to. It also helps if you continue to tell your friends about the criminal. Podcast, that word of mouth goes a long way. If you want to find us on social media, we're on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod.

You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Criminology Podcast or by joining our Facebook discussion group, which is Criminology Podcasts discussion and fans. All right, Morf, that is it for the case of the Moses Lake bombings. But you and I will be back with everyone next Saturday night with an all new episode of criminology. So until then, for Mike, and Morph. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.