Union hall, smoke shop killing arrests: Two brothers in custody in six 1996 slayings

Police say Scott D. Nordstrom, 29, and his brother, David M. Nordstrom, 27, shot and killed two people at the Moon Smoke Shop May 30.

Two weeks later, police say, Scott Nordstrom gunned down four people at the Tucson Firefighters Association Union Hall.

The brothers are longtime Tucsonans whose mother was a bartender at the union hall for more than a decade.

Ric Bell, son of union hall victims Judy and Arthur "Taco" Bell, said his father knew the brothers and was a good friend of their mother, Cynthia M. Wasserburger. Taco Bell, a mechanic, had worked on their cars, Ric Bell said.

An 88-CRIME tip and other information led police to the brothers, a source said.

Detectives also are looking into "possible drug use by the suspects," Tucson police Sgt. Eugene Mejia said.

Both brothers had been released from prison within months of the shootings, and one may have been wearing an electronic monitoring device as part of a home arrest program, records show. Both served time for theft convictions.

Police sources say robbery and a desire to leave no witnesses apparently led to the unprovoked shootings at the smoke shop, 120 W. Grant Road, and the union hall, 2264 E. Benson Highway.

In the smoke shop killing, two gunmen walked into the store and opened fire, leaving with $200 from cash registers. Two employees escaped, but employee Tom Lewis Hardman, 28, and customer Clarence Wilson Odell III, 47, were killed. A second employee was wounded in the face and arm.

A bartender and three patrons were shot in the head the night of June 13 at the union hall, just east of Kino Parkway. Killed were bartender Carol Lynn Noel, 50; patron Maribeth Munn, 53, Taco Bell, 54, and his wife Judy Bell, 46. Police said about $850 was taken from a bar cash register and reserve bank in a back office.

"We're confident we have the major people responsible for these crimes in custody. There may be others in the periphery," Tucson police Lt. Tom McNally announced at an afternoon press conference at police headquarters.

"It has really pumped up a lot of people, law enforcement included, to know that we have these people in custody," McNally said.

However, he stressed that the investigation was far from over.

"There is a lot more we have to do beyond this," he said.

Asked if there would be other arrests, he said, "There's always that possibility. That will depend on further detective work."

At his initial appearance yesterday in Justice Court, Scott Nordstrom was charged with six counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. Judge Deborah J.S. Ward set bond at $2 million.

David Nordstrom was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder in the smoke shop killings. He is being held in lieu of $2 million bond.

Ward set their preliminary hearing for 3:30 p.m. Jan. 27.

Arraignments in the jail are shown on courtroom video screens, but police asked that the brothers not be televised nor their pictures released because they may later go before witnesses in a lineup.

McNally said the now-familiar composite sketches of the suspects "had limited value."

But a close friend of the Bells disagreed.

"I'm not the only one who looked at those pictures and put a name on them," John Watson said yesterday. "We talked about it maybe being them a long time ago."

McNally said detectives exhausted thousands of leads before information from "several different sources" jelled. "Within the last couple of weeks we were able to narrow it down to the two particular suspects," he said.

A police source said investigators have seized a blue pickup truck. Witnesses saw a light-blue pickup with rust spots leaving the smoke shop after the shootings.

But investigators remained tight-lipped.

"I won't comment on any evidence that was found or not found," said McNally, who also would not say whether police recovered weapons when the department's SWAT team arrested both brothers Thursday.

David Nordstrom, of the 2300 block of South Calle Hohokam, was arrested about 3:30 p.m. at a trailer near South Kinney and West Bopp roads in the Tucson Mountains. Authorities found Scott Nordstrom, of the 2900 block of West Hermans Road, about 11:30 p.m. at a trailer on the southwest side.

Asked where any of the victims or the brothers had known each other, McNally said, "We're having to go back and look at prior background and histories."

Union hall manager Jim Peterson said the suspects' mother quit her bartending job about five years ago. Peterson said she refused to wait on patrons who weren't in her "clique."

"Cindy resigned because she was going to get fired," Peterson said.

"They (the brothers) were in here when she worked here," Peterson said. "I don't think they'd have come back here, but the rest of town ought to breathe a big sigh of relief."

In March 1996, Wasserburger sold the southwest-side trailer where the family had lived for many years and moved with her husband to New Mexico, according to several sources.

But she was back in town yesterday.

Wasserburger, appearing distraught, abruptly left a southside club yesterday afternoon when a television set in the bar carried the news of the arrests.

"It was really awful, actually. She came in and the news came on at about the same time," said a club employee who did not want her name used.

Many of about 15 patrons in the bar watched the news intently because they had known one or more of those slain at the union hall and had "been really touched by what had happened there."

"And we turn around and the mom was standing there. Everybody started whispering. She seemed real uncomfortable. She looked upset and she left."

Department of Corrections spokesman Michael Arra said the Nordstrom brothers had served prison time on theft convictions out of Pima County.

Scott Nordstrom was arrested in 1987 and again in 1990 for driving under the influence.

He was charged with DUI and assaulting a police officer on Feb. 2, 1991. In a June 1991 plea agreement, he entered a no contest plea to aggravated driving under the influence with a suspended license.

In 1994, a Pima County jury convicted him of aggravated robbery charges after he and a friend snatched a woman's purse.

Scott Nordstrom spent March 1995 through April 24, 1996, at a medium-security complex in Florence. He got a provisional release and was to be supervised by a parole officer until Sunday, Arra said.

According to a 1991 Department of Public Safety report, Scott Nordstrom was arrested at least five times for assault and theft charges between 1984 and 1988. All of the charges were dismissed.

Scott Nordstrom was born in Illinois and lived in Tucson most of his life, court records state. He worked as a drywall finisher and did not complete high school, records state.

David Nordstrom was arrested in May 1992 for helping steal four Datsun pickup trucks. He received four years' probation. He violated his probation in 1992, and was sentenced to three months in jail for failing to contact his probation officer, records state.

David Nordstrom, who already was on probation in Texas when the arrest occurred, admitted to being a cocaine and alcohol abuser, court records state.

David Nordstrom was at the state prison in Douglas from April 30, 1993, until Jan. 25, 1996, when he was released to the home arrest program. He was supposed to wear an electronic monitoring device until Aug. 24, 1996, Arra said.

David Nordstrom was born in Tucson and worked in construction.

Scott Nordstrom first enrolled in Tucson Unified School District in 1977. He later attended Senior High Accommodation from November 1982 to March 1983 and then transferred to Project MORE. He flunked out of school in November 1983 because he failed to show up for class, said Robert Mackay, the school's director.

David Nordstrom started in TUSD in 1981 at Lawrence Elementary School. No other records about his school history were available yesterday.

Dennis Lickliter, a neighbor of David Nordstrom, said he never met him, but he casually knew Arthur "Taco" Bell from the car racetrack.

Arizona Daily Star reporters Tim Steller, Sarah Tully Tapia and Joe Burchell contributed to this story.

MURDER CHRONOLOGY

Key dates in the investigation:

May 30, 1996 - Tom Lewis Hardman, 28, and Clarence Wilson Odell III, 47, are killed shortly after 6 p.m. during a robbery at the Moon Smoke Shop, 120 W. Grant Road, in the Grantstone Shopping Center. Another man is shot in the face and arm. Tucson Police release descriptions of two suspects.

June 13, 1996 - Four people are shot to death at the Tucson Firefighters Association Union Hall, 2264 E. Benson Highway. The victims are customers Arthur "Taco" Bell, 54; his wife, Judy, 46; Maribeth Munn, 53; and bartender Lynn Noel, 50. The victims, all shot in the head, were found shortly after 9:30 p.m. by Munn's companion, Ned Alicata.

June 14, 1996 - Detectives say robbery was the motive for the union hall killings. About $850 was missing from a bar cash register and a reserve bank in the back. A few days later, detectives say the union hall and smoke shop killings are related.

June 20, 1996 - A memorial service is held for the four union hall victims at the union hall. Sources say the victims were all shot in the head. Tucson Police Chief Douglas Smith and Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik announce a $28,500 reward to find the killers and release a more detailed description of the suspects.

June 24, 1996 - Police release sketches of the two suspects, drawn by nationally acclaimed artist Jeanne Boylan. Boylan worked with the FBI in the Unabomber and Oklahoma City bombing cases.

June 28, 1996 - Tucson detectives go to Phoenix to interview two bank robbery suspects, but decide they were not involved in the killings.

July 16, 1996 - Investigators check to see if the killings are related to the slaying of three people at a Mississippi furniture store.

Oct. 3, 1996 - Indiana authorities ask Tucson police whether two escaped Alabama prisoners match the suspects' descriptions. A Tucson police spokesman calls them "an investigative lead, one of 700 at this point."

Dec. 14, 1996 - Relatives of the union hall victims hold a press conference to mark the six months since the slaying and ask again for help in finding the killers.

Jan. 16, 1997 - Tucson brothers Scott and David Nordstrom are arrested. Scott, 29, is charged in both cases and David, 27, is charged in the smoke shop killings.