Officials say woman stole from slain guard’s body

BOISE, Idaho — A 54-year-old Idaho woman was jailed after police say she stole from the body of a security guard killed during a Boise mall shooting.

Mary Alyce Scarbrough, of Boise, is charged with felony counts of alteration of evidence, malicious injury to property and grand theft, The Idaho Statesman reported Wednesday. She is being held without bail on accusations of violating her parole and on a $250,000 bond on the other charges.

“The court’s very concerned about the alleged conduct in this case,” said Magistrate Judge David Manweiler during a court hearing last week.

Security guard Jo Acker, 26, died in the Oct. 25 shooting at the Boise Towne Square mall. Roberto Padilla Arguelles, a 49-year-old Rupert man, was also killed.

Police say that minutes later they exchanged gunfire with 27-year-old suspect Jacob Bergquist, who died the next day.

Prosecutors said Scarbrough was inside the mall when the shooting began.

“The defendant approached the dying security guard at the mall,” a prosecutor said during Scarbrough’s court appearance. The complaint said that Scarbrough took rings, a gun belt, clothing and other property from Acker’s body.

“A woman experiencing a mental health crisis significantly altered the crime scene by removing and displacing evidence throughout the mall,” Boise Police Department spokeswoman Haley Williams said in an email to the newspaper.

According to court records, Scarbrough also went into an arcade and tore off sheets of metal.

Scarbrough, who is on probation from a felony drug case, was booked into the Ada County Jail on the day of the shooting on a misdemeanor disturbing the peace charge and was in custody when charged with the felony counts.