After nearly four decades in a B.C. prison for the brutal murder of a young Victoria mother, Tommy Ross Jr. faces a first-degree murder charge in the death of a Port Angeles woman.
Ross, 58, an American citizen, was released on full parole and deported to the United States last week. He was promptly arrested at the border.
The Washington state woman was killed a few weeks before Ross arrived in Victoria in 1978 after being extradited from the U.S. to face charges in the death of Janice Aili Forbes, who was found dead in her Victoria apartment.
Canada Border Services Agency officers escorted Ross from the Pacific Institute correctional centre in Abbotsford to the Peace Arch crossing on Nov. 10. U.S. officials arrested Ross there in connection with the death of Janet Bowcutt and took him to jail in Clallam County, where he is being held on $1.5-million US bail and was assigned a public defender.
“We were notified of his parole board hearing so we pulled out the file and started to look at the investigation,” said John Troberg, deputy prosecuting attorney for Clallam County.
“It’s a pretty gruesome, really sadistic case.”
Investigators said the Canadian and U.S. murders are eerily similar.
On the afternoon of May 14, 1978, which happened to be Mother’s Day, Forbes was found strangled to death on the bedroom floor at her 1017 Queens St. apartment.
The 26-year-old former model was gagged and was bound from her neck to her ankles using a cord from her robe.
According to a report in the Victoria Times, Forbes was discovered by her son and daughter, and her younger sister, all under the age of 11, who were playing in the building parking lot.
They came home to find their door locked so they asked the landlord to let them in.
Ross was extradited from the U.S. and convicted of the murder, largely based on two eyewitnesses and a thumbprint on a teapot in Forbes’ home.
Around the same time, Ross was a suspect in a Port Angeles murder and in a Los Angeles murder, rape and attempted burglary. The killings all occurred between 1977 and 1978, according to the Clallam County court motion to arrest Ross on probable cause last week in the murder of Bowcutt.
On April 24, 1978, Bowcutt, 20, was found strangled to death in her Port Angeles apartment. Her mother called police when she arrived at the apartment to find it locked; she could hear Bowcutt’s six-month-old son crying inside but no one would answer the door.
“Concerned for the welfare of the infant [the officer] kicked the apartment door open,” reads the motion. “Bowcutt was found on her stomach, fully clothed, with her hands and feet bound together with cordage. A scarf was tightly wrapped around her head, securing a washrag stuffed in her mouth.”
The court document said Ross was identified by eyewitnesses and a fingerprint on a doorknob and a warrant was issued for his arrest in 1978.
Ross was arrested in Los Angeles later that year as a suspect in the murder of Bethel Woolridge, another woman found strangled and bound at home, as well as a rape and attempted burglary in the same apartment building.
Yet, on Jan. 11, 1979, Ross was turned over to Canadian authorities to face charges in Forbes’ death; he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
“Why would he go to Canada and not Port Angeles to face charges? I’m not sure what the thinking was in 1979,” Troberg said.
Ross served 37 years for the murder of Forbes. He was eligible for parole after 25 years, but was denied several times. He maintained his innocence for many years and no motive was ever determined for the murder.
Troberg said he travelled to Ross’s parole hearing at the Pacific Institute correctional centre in Abbotsford last week along with three detectives from Los Angeles.
“His own parole officer opposed the release,” he said.
Trolberg said the parole board considered releasing Ross to live with his brother on Vancouver Island but decided to deport him instead. His next appearance in Port Angeles court is on Dec. 2.
