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California woman posed as photographer to kidnap infant after stabbing his mother and throwing body in orchard

Bonnie Gamboa was found dead while her newborn was found in the possession of Mary Alice Wry, who was charged for murder and abduction
UPDATED SEP 4, 2020
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

MODESTO, CALIFORNIA: The Fall of 1980 started on a happy note for the Gamboa family as after trying for three years, Richard and Bonnie finally became parents. After welcoming their little son into their world, the couple was on cloud nine. However, their happiness did not last long as on September 25, 1980, Richard had to go back to work after several days off for the birth of the baby, Richard Anthony Gamboa.

After going to work, he called her. The 24-year-old mother told her husband that a photographer who was supposed to come at their home to take pictures of the baby had arrived and said she would call later. However, after failing to reach her for several hours, Richard went back home to check on his wife and the infant. Shockingly, when he arrived the mother along with the child was missing. He also found the backyard door open. “Richard saw Bonnie’s car was still there, her purse was there, but not the mother and her child,” Bonnie’s sister Barbara Allen said, adding she “became overwhelmed with anxiety” after knowing about their disappearance.

The Investigation

Soon Richard contacted the local police and reported his wife and baby missing. When investigators arrived at their home, they did not find anything unusual. All the things were in place, it did not look like someone had broken into the house. They also didnt find any indication that the mother and child had been killed. 

However, the open backyard door seemed weird to them too. When the detectives went outside into the backyard, they found water running through a hosepipe, which was not normal. It seemed someone had left it open to wash something. After some more detailed search, they found very crucial evidence of blood on the grass. The blood hinted towards something tragic, prompting detectives to speed up their process as everyone wanted both the mother and the child safe.

Unexpected Twist

As the investigators raced against time to save Bonnie and her newborn, they found a clue which was so unexpected, it blew their mind off. They interviewed numerous people including Bonnie’s relatives for a clue. They also interviewed Richard and came to know about the photographer who arrived at the family’s home the same day when the mother-son duo vanished. The photographer had promised free snaps of the baby.

Now, it became a challenge for the investigators to find the photographer who was clicking pictures of babies for free since Richard had no information about the person. The authorities contacted nearly every photographer in the largest city of Stanislaus County, California. They also published the details of the mother and her son in newspapers, hoping that would help them in search, but all those efforts did not help.

The course of the investigation suddenly changed when an anonymous tip came to the investigators stating that a woman who lived in a modern Modesto housing development had been seen with a newborn baby. The tip also alleged that the woman was pretending to be pregnant for some months.

Investigators soon went to the address of the suspicious woman, later identified as Mary Alice Wry - a 36-year-old black-haired, dark-skinned woman. Wry was a mother of three and used to live with her boyfriend Ron Shembarger. When asked if she had a baby, she denied; however, soon she was confronted as the detectives saw a milk bottle at her home. She then told them that she delivered a baby just a few days back. Detectives asked her to show them the baby and soon found that he was not her but Bonnie’s child. Though the investigators had released details about the missing duo in the newspapers, they chose not to give out a crucial piece of information about the baby - a webbing between his toes and a fold in his ear. 

Arrest and Tragic discovery

Since Bonnie was still missing, investigators searched Wry’s home and checked her car, and found blood in the car’s trunk. It made them believe that Wry killed Bonnie and took her body elsewhere to dump. They sent blood samples for a test and later it was confirmed that it was of the young mother. Meanwhile, a detective in Stanislaus County Sheriff's office received a call that a decomposed body has been found in a peach orchard in the rural area of the city. “I received the call that a body has been discovered buried in the backyard orchard,” Detective Edward Viohl, said, adding that this was the first time he had ever heard something like this. The body was of Bonnie. Later it was discovered that she died because of multiple stab wounds.

The Crime

As the investigation progressed, it was found that Wry, who had tubal ligation several years ago, desperately wanted to have a child with her boyfriend, Shembarger. It was also discovered that Shembarger had no idea that Wry could not bear another child. She lied to him at the beginning of 1980 that she was pregnant with his child. However, as her due date approached, she became restless and used birth announcements from The Modesto Bee and posed as a photographer offering free pictures to the new mothers. Before Gamboas’ home, she had tried to kidnap a baby at other homes but failed.

On the morning of September 25, when she arrived at Gamboas' place, she initially tried to flee with the baby. However, when Bonnie noticed that she was abducting her child, she followed her through her backyard door, where Wry stabbed her multiple times. Since the backyard was an enclosed area, no one saw what happened there. Wry then opened the water tab to clean bloodstains on the grass and left with the baby and Bonnie’s body. She first dumped the young mother’s body at the peach orchard and then left for her home. When her boyfriend asked her about the baby, Wry told him that she delivered him at her doctor’s office and since there were no complications, she got discharged. But her lies did not save her and eventually, she was found guilty of murder and two counts of kidnapping. She was awarded life sentence without the possibility of parole.

'Buried in the Backyard' Season 3 airs on Oxygen Thursday, September 3, at 8 pm ET/PT.

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