The Hal and Connie Bynum Murder/Suicide - or was it? Part 4

WARNING - some of this is extremely graphic and bloody. Not for the feint of heart. 

If the timeline from the official records are accurate the investigators were working on a schedule that would make the writers and actors of CSI proud. Bynum called the sheriff’s office dispatcher at 4:50 a.m. on Saturday morning, May 28, 1994 to report finding his wife Connie dead in their yard at the Junction airport. The autopsy was performed at the Bexar County Forensic Science Center in San Antonio at 11:00 a.m. the same morning – about seven hours later. 

Jan C. Garavaglia, the medical examiner who did he autopsy, noted “the body is that of a well developed, well nourished white female, measuring 63 ½ inches in length, weighing 137 pounds and whose appearance is consistent with the given age of 43 years.” There were apparent ligature marks on her wrists and bruises on her legs from her ankles to her groin and a bite mark on one breast. The cause of death was two penetrating horizontally oriented stab wounds to the dome (upper region) of the vaginal vault, one extending through the pelvic wall into the abdominal cavity for approximately three inches. In plain English, Connie Bynum probably suffered the indignity of being tied up naked and being stabbed in the vagina. 

When the Rangers told Garavaglia that the sheriff claimed his wife died of a heart attack, she said “sticking a knife up her vagina and she has a heart attack to me that still is a homicide.” 

As previously discussed in an earlier installment of this horrifying story, the three Rangers investigating the case interviewed Hal Bynum later that day – staring at about 8:30 p.m. – and told him they thought he killed her. When they asked him how she got the internal stab wounds he bizarrely claimed she was probably having sex with the Rottweiler and he did it. They told him they were going to have the examiner inspect the body again the next morning and let him go. 

The following morning, Sunday May 29, Ranger Buckalew went to the M.E.’s office in San Antonio for part two of the autopsy. They saw more signs of trauma, including marks at the base of the neck, more bruising on the legs, and the bite mark on the breast was more visible. The M.E. thought the bruises on the legs were consistent with rape. Buckalew called Ranger Cummings, who informed him that Sheriff Bynum had contacted the Kimble County Shieriff’s Office at approximately 9:00 a.m. and requested that Deputies Chapman and John Cary meet him at a remote airstrip on Strube Place Ranch about 17 miles out of town. 

When the deputies arrived they found Sheriff Bynum’s dead with a self inflicted shotgun wound to the chest. Bynum was lying on his back. A department issued twelve gauge pump shotgun was laying on his chest/stomach area. The end of the barrel was still inside a circular hole in the shirt in the mid-chest, slightly offset to the left. A green, expended shotshell was half ejected from the barrel, but still fully in the loading chamber. The expended shotshell appears to be triple 0 buck. 

Maybe someone with more knowledge of firearms than I have can explain how a shotgun shell was half ejected from a pump shotgun if its operator was dead.

Coming up – the suicide notes, and more questions about Hal and Connie Bynum’s past. 

Part 3 of The Strange Deaths of Hal and Connie Bynum in Junction, TX

Warning - graphic content that may be disturbing

Recap of Prior Installments

Hal Bynum, the sheriff of Kimble County, Texas called 9-1-1 at 4:50 a.m. on Saturday, May 28, 1994 and reported he found his wife Connie naked and dead outside their home. He claimed she died from a heart attack, but there were signs of trauma including bruising, ligature marks and an apparent bite mark on her breast. The Texas Rangers were called in to investigate. Even though they suspected foul play, the scene was not secured and Bynum was not detained. 

                                      Hal Bynum and Mike Chapman in happier days.

Rangers to Junction

Texas Rangers Clete Buckalew, Fred Cummings and Jim Denman went to Junction and were briefed on what the locals knew at that point. DA Ron Sutton told them that Bynum and his wife had been having trouble over an affair she’d had three years earlier with a pilot named Joe Burkholder. Bynum had become obsessed with Burkholder and wanted to get something on him so he could arrest him. Mike Chapman, Bynum’s chief deputy, related how when he arrived at the scene Bynum told him that he and Connie had been arguing, that she went outside naked except for a necklace, some rings and her house shoes, then Bynum found her dead body by the kennel where they kept a Rottweiler. 

Meanwhile, the medical examiner told the Rangers that there were two knife wounds deep inside Connie’s vagina that caused or contributed to causing her death. Still no effort was made to secure the crime scene or restrict Bynum’s movements. 

Finally, at 8:30 p.m. Saturday night, 12 hours after Bynum made his 9-1-1 call, Bynum came into Ron Sutton’s office to talk to the Rangers. In their official report they stated:

Perhaps one of the most notable aspects to the Bynum interview concerned his dress and actions. When he arrived at Sutton’s office he was not wearing his usual straw cowboy hat, had no badge of office and no weapon. He appeared to be in full submission, offering no appearance either physically or verbally of anything but “caught in the act.” One could surmise Bynum believed he was going to be arrested on the spot for the murder of his wife. This attitude continued throughout the interview  statement process. 

One can picture the scene – three big Texas Rangers with their hats, pistols, big belt buckles and badges, surrounding the pathetic Hal Bynum. Even at his most robust he was not anyone’s idea of a manly man. He was average height, weighed about 145, wore thick glasses and a full set of dentures, chain smoked and had diabetes. 

Bynum chain smoked and guzzled black coffee and told a very strange story of the events of the previous night. He and Connie had been drinking and arguing about her affair. She tried to make up by trying to make love but he couldn’t do that in the best of circumstances because of his diabetes. She got mad and left the bedroom, still naked except for some jewelry and her house shoes. He dozed off. 

A little while later he woke up and couldn’t find her inside the house. He put on some tennis shoes and an old bathrobe and went outside where he found her lying in front of the open gate to the kennel. Their male Rottweiler was sitting just inside. Bynum tried to wake her up by slapping her then realized she was dead. He didn’t want emergency personnel to see her lying naked by the dog pen so he tried to drag her into the house but was took weak. He got a sheet and tied it around her upper torso and dragged her. That took quite a while and her head bounced on the steps a couple of times. He finally got her inside, placed her on a couch and covered her. Only then did he call 9-1-1. 

The Rangers were incredulous and ratcheted up the pressure. TRIGGER WARNING - They told him that the M.E. found stab wounds in her vagina and asked how he explained that. He had an answer – she liked to have sex with the Rottweiler and maybe he got a little tough rough. The interview ended when they told him that he had admitted he had admitted that he and his wife were there alone so he had to be the one who killed her. Bynum said “I’ve already said too much.” Even though they had just told him they believed he was a murderer they let him leave. 

Coming up – the second autopsy

Why Did a Texas Sheriff murder his wife - or did he? Part 2

Estimated Time Line for Sat. & Sun. 05/28-29/1994

From the time that Kimble County Sheriff Hal Bynum called 9-1-1 to report finding his wife dead from what he claimed was a heart attack, to her autopsy the same day, to Bynum being questioned by Texas Rangers, then allegedly shooting himself the next day - just over 24 hours elapsed. 

Saturday 05/28/95

4:50 a.m. - Hal Bynum calls 9-1-1 and tells sheriff dispatcher

        wife Connie had heart attack; 

-        Dispatcher calls Chief Deputy Mike Chapman

-       Chapman arrives at Bynums’ home at airport -

      Bynum claims found wife naked and dead by dog pens,

      dragged her inside and put on couch.

-       body removed; Bynum resists calling Texas Rangers

      to investigate, finally consents

11:00 a.m. Autopsy by Bexar Co. Medical Examiners

       conclude homicide by two stab wounds deep inside vagina

12:20 p.m. -      Ranger Clete Buckalew dispatched to meet Rangers Fred                                     

                                       Cummings and Jim Denman in Junction

4:00 p.m. -      Rangers arrive at DA Ron Sutton’s office; Sutton says Bynum and wife

                                       lived in trailer house at airport which they also oversaw; Bynum obsessed over 

                                       affair she had 3 years earlier with a pilot named Joe Burkholder                                         

4:30 p.m. - Deputy Chapman arrives at Sutton’s - repeats Sutton’s story, adds that 

                                       Bynum told him he and Connie argued, she went outside naked, he found

                                       her dead by dog pens

5:10 p.m. - Rangers and JP Ragsdale view Connie’s body at local funeral home. 

                                       Observe multiple injuries including possible ligature markings on wrists, bite

                                       on one breast 

                                              

8:30 p.m. Bynum comes to DA Sutton's office voluntarily; answers questions, signs statement

                                       Rangers tell him they think he murdered wife, but don’t arrest him; Tell Bynum the M.E.                would reexamine body following morning at 9:00 a.m.

Sunday 05/29/94

09:00 a.m.        Ranger Dedman observes Med. Examiner do second exam of body; ME finds more

                                      signs of trauma; concludes death was homicide caused by two deep stab wounds inside

                                     vagina

       09:00 a.m.             While second exam being conducted by M.E., Bynum calls Sheriff’s Office 

                                     and asks tha Deputies Chapman and John Cary meet him at remote airstrip on a ranch. 

                                     On arrival they discover Bynum’s body, apparently killed with self inflicted shotgun blast

Why did a Texas sheriff murder his wife - or did he?

A lot of people in Junction in Kimble County, Texas still don't believe that Sheriff Hal Bynum brutally murdered his wife Connie then killed himself the following morning. The investigation was closed almost as quickly as it was opened and a lot of unanswered questions were left hanging. 

According to the official report of the Texas Rangers, on Saturday, May 28, 1994 at four-fifty in the morning a call came into the Kimble County Sheriff’s Office by a distraught husband reporting that he had found his wife dead from a heart attack. What was most unusual was that the caller was Hal Bynum, the sheriff himself. The dispatcher called Chief Deputy Mike Chapman at home. 

When Chapman arrived and asked his boss what had happened he got a rambling non-responsive answer. The sheriff explained, “We were having a good night. We had a few beers, we went walking, we had been arguing about Burkholder.” Burkholder was a pilot the sheriff thought his wife was having an affair with.

He continued, “I may have passed out in the bed. When i woke up she was gone and I found her at the dog pens.” The Bynums had Rottweilers. The sheriff added that Connie was naked and he thought that was degrading so he “drug her inside, placed her on the couch,” so first responders wouldn’t see that way. He added, “I knew she was dead, but I didn’t want to accept it, Mike.” 

The justice of the peace, Peggy Ragsdale, arrived and pronounced Connie Bynum  dead. Her body was taken to the local funeral home. There were already doubts that the  cause of death of the forty-three year old woman was a heart attack. Chapman knew that the couple had been having problems, and the sheriff had told him that they were arguing the night of their death. He also believed that as Bynum’s subordinate he was too close to the situation to investigate it. But when he told Bynum that and that he thought the Texas Rangers should be called in Bynum didn’t like that idea at all. Bynum finally acceded at the persuasion of a state trooper with the Highway Patrol, Delbert Roberts. 

                                                       Texas Ranger Clete Buckalew

Texas Rangers Clete Buckalew, Fred Cummings and Jim Denman responded to the call for assistance in the investigation. They arrived at the residence of the Kimble County District Attorney Ron Sutton at about 4:00 p.m. Sutton briefed them on what was known so far. He told them that Sheriff Bynum and his wife Connie lived in a trailer house located at the airport, which they oversaw or managed. During the last week of May Sheriff Bynum had become obsessed with an individual named Joe Burkholder, who was a pilot and had an affair with Connie three years earlier. Bynum had admitted to Sutton that he and Connie had argued briefly over the Burkholder affair prior to his finding his wife dead in the backyard next to the dog pens. Sutton further advised that Bynum stated that, not able to let medical and law enforcement personnel view his wife’s dead and naked body out in the open, had dragged her into the trailer house and laid her on the couch. This was done prior to law enforcement and medical personnel being contacted. 

About 4:30, Trooper Roberts and Mike Chapman arrived at Sutton’s, and Chapman related what Bynum had told him about finding his wife naked and dead at the dog pens and dragging her body into the house. Buckalew’s report doesn’t say if anyone asked Bynum why he didn’t just cover her with a sheet. 

Around 5:10 p.m. the three Rangers met justice of the peace Peggy Ragsdale at the funeral home in Junction to view Connie’s body on which they noted numerous injuries. “The following were noted, but in themselves are not the complete list of notable injuries: 

1. What appeared to be a recent bite mark on Connie Bynum’s left breast across the area of the nipple. 
2. Red markings on both wrists which were consistent with some type of ligature restraint possibly.
3. Bruising ... that extended from the ankle area all the way up to the vaginal area.
4. what appeared to be a carpet burn in the middle of her back....

Buckalew noted that they were also aware that Medical Examiner Jan Garavaglia of the Bexar County Forensic Science Center had located a stab wound in the upper wall of the vagina that proceeded into the intestine. According to Garavaglia, this stab wound covered a total of approximately five inches with as much as three inches protruding into the intestine. 

The records are not clear as to how the body was transported to the medical examiner in San Antonio, autopsied and returned to Junction all in less than a day. In any event, it was plain to see that Connie Bynum had not died of natural causes. The Rangers reported their observations of injuires and trauma to Garavaglia, who had somehow missed seeing them. She requested the body be returned to her for further inspection. 

Coming up in Part 2 - Sheriff Bynum’s Interrogation