Neighbor linked to Main Line murder investigation

Berwyn man identified as ‘person of interest’ in court document

It has been more than 18 months since a family member found the body of a 62-year-old woman inside her Upper Main Line home. There have been no arrests, a $35,000 reward for the conviction of whoever is responsible for her death is still outstanding, and police say they continue to investigate the murder mystery.

But earlier this month, a Berwyn man who lived on the same secluded, wooded street as the victim, was identified in a court document as a “person of interest” in connection with the homicide investigation by an attorney representing the Chester County Sheriff’s Office.

The man, David F. Bookstaber, appeared in Common Pleas Court in an attempt to have a judge order county Sheriff Carolyn “Bunny” Welsh to approve his application for a license to carry a firearm, after the office had rejected it in November. Bookstaber charged in a petition that he had been improperly denied the license because of two police reports filed in Tredyffrin.

But as the solicitor for the Sheriff’s Office, attorney Dawson R. Muth of the West Chester firm of Lamb McErlane, explained to Judge Patrick Carmody during the Jan. 2 hearing, the denial was made after Bookstaber was identified by the District Attorney’s Office as having an unspecified connection to the June 2016 death of widow Denise Barger, although Bookstaber faces no criminal charges in connection with the case.

In his response to Bookstaber’s petition, Muth wrote that, “it is denied that the sheriff relied solely on the content of two police reports in making her decision to deny (Bookstaber’s) application. (The office) is aware that (Bookstaber) is a person of interest in a homicide investigation in Chester County.” Deputy District Attorney Carlos Barraza had confirmed this fact, Muth wrote.

Muth later said that the homicide investigation he referenced was that surrounding Barger’s death. On Wednesday, he acknowledged telling Carmody of the “person of interest” designation during the brief proceeding in his courtroom while Bookstaber was present.

Indeed, in one of the police reports that Bookstaber submitted

with his petition to force the Sheriff’s Office to issue the license, Barger is identified as the person complaining to Tredyffrin police that she had heard a “loud explosion” coming from woods near her property, and that her husband, Thomas Barger, had heard what he thought were gunshots. “She reports the neighborhood is having an ongoing problem with her next door neighbor, David Bookstaber, who is repeatedly firing weapons on his property,” Officer Joseph Butler wrote in the report of the February 2015 incident.

The sheriff of a county can deny an application for a firearms license based on the “character and reputation” of the person filing it. “We feel that his conduct is such that he is likely to act in a manner that would be a danger to public safety,” Muth told the Daily Local News on Wednesday.

Carmody did not rule on Bookstaber’s petition, in which he was representing himself. The judge continued the case because Barraza could not be present, and to give Bookstaber a chance to get an attorney for the proceeding. If granted, the license would permit Bokstaber to carry a concealed weapon on his body or in his car.

On Wednesday, Barraza declined comment on the case or Muth’s description of his discussion about Bookstaber. In addition, Tredyffrin Detective Sgt. Todd Bereda, the district’s public information officer, also declined comment on the matter, except to say that police “investigators are still pursuing leads” in the Barger homicide.

Bookstaber, 41, of Berwyn has not been charged with any crime associated with Barger’s death. Repeated attempts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful. Messages left to telephone numbers included in his court filings were not returned.

According to one veteran criminal defense attorney, the phrase “person of interest” is more a term of art rather than a formal legal description. It is used by both state and federal law enforcement, said attorney Robert J. Donatoni of West Chester.

“A ‘person of interest’ is a term used frequently in state and federal court for a person for which law enforcement has an interest where there is some connection to the commission of a crime, but for whom there is not sufficient probable cause to make an arrest or form an accusation,” Donatoni said. It does not necessarily mean that the person is a suspect in a crime,

Donatoni noted that it is unusual for state prosecutors to publicly identify those persons “for obvious reasons,” although in federal court, suspects in criminal cases are sometime sent letters identifying them as “targets” of an investigation for which there is enough information available to issue an indictment. That is not the case with Bookstaber.

In June 2016, Tredyffrin police announced that they were investigating the “suspicious death” of Barger, whose body was found by a family member who had gone to her Heatherstone Drive home to check on her. She had lived alone, Thomas Barger having died in March 2015. Later, District Attorney Tom Hogan said the case was a homicide, and suggested that the perpetrator knew the victim.

“Every indication we have is that this was a targeted attack,” Hogan said at the time. “Given the location of where the victim lived, which is out of the way of well-traveled spots, this does not appear to be a random attack.” The cause of death was blunt force trauma.

In August of last year, the Citizen’s Crime Commission announced that it is offering a $35,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of her killer.

“They might not realize that it’s important information. They might think it’s innocuous or inconsequential. But it might be something that could be helpful to investigators in helping this case move forward to a resolution,” Barraza was quoted as saying. “We’re hoping that somebody will have information that will help bring justice to this victim and help bring some closure to the family.”

In the police report of Barger’s complaints about noise coming from the area of Bookstaber’s home on Feb. 2, 2015, officers said that they staked out the property, which sits at the top of a hill in the community. Around 2:50 a.m., the officers heard “a small caliber rifle report followed in several seconds by two more shots. The report sounded like a small .22 round and the bullets could be heard going into the woods.”

Bookstaber was contacted about the incident later that day. Told that there was a township ordinance prohibiting the discharge of firearms in the township, Bookstaber said that he was aware of the law but that no guns had been fired from his home. When Officer Robert Bostick told him that police had heard shots that day coming from his home, he again denied firing any weapons.

Police later learned that a PECO utility police transformer may have malfunctioned and exploded in the area at the time of the incident. No charges were filed and the report states that since Feb. 3, 2015 there have been no other reports of gunshots in the area.

Bookstaber was known to Tredyffrin police. In July 2014, he had been arrested and charged with another incident involving gunshots at his property. He was charged with recklessly endangering another person and disorderly conduct after complaints, although he told police at the time that the noises were fireworks and not gunshots. Those charges were later withdrawn and records of the arrest expunged, according to Bookstaber’s petition.

Bookstaber has an impressive resume.

A graduate of Yale, he has considerable experience in both the financial and engineering fields, and is currently listed as the owner of a consulting firm, Boniface LLC, which he runs from his Berwyn home.

He was once a member of the former Tredyffrin Budget Advisory Working Group that advised elected supervisors on financial issues concerning the township budget in the wake of the Great Recession in 2008. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, and is said to be an accomplished marksman.

His wife, Deborah Bookstaber, is a former member of the Tredyffrin-Easttown School Board.