Two teams from the Police Department’s Major Crime Unit are tonight investigating the execution style murder of well-known businessman and owner of Baymen Cable Network Richard Hoare. The 34 year old was found dead in his late model SUV in the King’s Park area last night. It’s a shocking murder and the search for a motive is even more puzzling. 7NEWS has been following the story since ten last night and that’s where our story begins.
Keith Swift Reporting,
At 9:30 last night, this is where Richard Hoare’s Toyota Prado was found, crashed into this fence at 5714 Vasquez Avenue. The luxury SUV had first slammed into this pickup truck which was parked in front of the Bradley residence. The impact was so great it launched the small pickup truck forward and spun it around 90 degrees. James Bradley is the owner of the pickup and the fence that Hoare crashed into. He was inside watching TV when he heard a big bang:
James Bradley, SUV Ran Into His Fence
“I was inside sometime after nine watching television and I heard a loud noise out here. When I looked through the window I saw a grey SUV wrapped up in my fence and when I came outside I saw that it had my pickup wrapped up as well.”
Because of the crash, when police first got the report, they thought they were responding to a traffic accident.
Supt. Aaron Guzman, Commander - CIB
“About 9:40 police got a call via 911about an accident on Vasquez Avenue. Initially our 911 was informed that it was a traffic accident and they may have been someone injured in the accident.”
But it was no accident, Hoare was dead inside his Prado, slumped over the steering wheel, with a bullet wound to the back of his head.
Supt. Aaron Guzman,
“Mr. Hoare was driving his SUV, a Prado, on Vasquez Avenue and he was heading east to west. Apparently some person or persons were inside the vehicle with him and one of the persons that was inside the vehicle with him shot him in the head and he then crashed into a parked vehicle and into the resident of Vasquez Avenue, into the portion of the garage entrance.”
And so this traffic accident turned murder – forced the police into a crime scene investigation. Police blocked off the street in this quiet residential
area as a friend went to the vehicle to identify him. The Scenes of Crime Team scoured the area for expended shells but found none. They also looked inside the Prado for clues or anything that could provide a lead.
And after about an hour and a half, the Crime Scene Team tried to move his body from the drivers’ seat but because the Prado was wedged against the Bradley fence, they first had to push the SUV into the road so that they could get to the drivers’ side. That’s when Hoare who was dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, was carted away into a waiting crime scene pickup and transported to the morgue.
Still no one knows what he was doing on this street on this irregular route – on what seemed to everyone to be a regular night. Richard Hoare was killed roughly about 20 minutes after he left his home here on Baymen Avenue. This is also the office for Baymen Cable Network – the company he inherited from his father who died three years ago.
Hoare was enroute to Ladyville to visit his girlfriend. Police can’t say why he was on Vasquez Avenue. Even more puzzling is how the two men got into his vehicle, since eyewitnesses say that when he left Baymen Avenue he had no passengers.
Keith Swift,
Did Mr. Hoare leave here with anyone in the vehicle or when did the two men get into the vehicle?
Supt. Aaron Guzman,
“That is still open right now Mr. Swift. As I told you, we have two teams on the ground that are doing the investigation so I will not comment on that to say when the persons got in the vehicle.”
James Bradley who was the first person to see the body says that after he heard the crash – he saw two men running from the SUV and into this alley.
James Bradley,
“I saw two persons run and head through that alley but I couldn’t make out any thing much about them because everything happened so fast. I wasn’t looking to see anybody. I saw, I definitely saw two persons running and went through the alley.”
Keith Swift,
Did you hear the gunshot?
James Bradley,
“No, I can’t say I heard the gunshot. I just heard a lot of noise but I can’t say I heard a gunshot.”
The identity of those two men is still unknown but police do know that the motive for Hoare’s murder doesn’t appear to be robbery. That is because his wallet and jewelry were found on him.
Supt. Aaron Guzman,
“I will not comment about the amount of money he had on him but I will tell you that his watch was on his hand and his pockets were not turned out so obviously that would lead us to believe that he was not robbed of any items there in the vehicle.”
Keith Swift,
So then what could have been the motive?
Supt. Aaron Guzman,
“Well Mr. Swift that is where we are at right now, we are trying to find out what was the motive.”
And one man who wants to know the motive is Pastor Ashley Rocke. He grew up with Richard and says the Richard he knew had no enemies.
Pastor Ashley Rock, Friend of Deceased
“He had a philanthropist heart and he always believed in giving people second chances and I don’t know if that was to his advantage or to his disadvantage. I don’t know that Richard has enemies but you never know; when you are business there are people who may like what you do and there are those who may not like what you do and for some reason or the other they may feel that they have the authority to do you what they want. But as far as I know, Richard, I don’t know him as having any enemy.
I remember times when he told me that he got robbed here at the business and he told me of times when he had problems with some people but other than that, I don’t know why anybody would want to get into his vehicle and shoot him in the back of his head. I don’t know.”
It’s a question which police investigators will have to answer as they piece together the clues of this puzzling murder. But those investigators will have to look in many places – because this 34 year old had many and varied investment interests. Seen here in footage for a documentary for his tour company Tropical Dreams, Richard Hoare - apart from owning one of the largest cable companies in the country - also owned major tourist ventures, and had invested heavily in horse racing. An ambitious, some say overly so ambitious young man, his life snuffed out in this mysterious and puzzling end.
Police say they are still processing his SUV. We note that up until when we spoke to CIB Chief Superintendent Aaron Guzman, no expended casings had been recovered. He noted though that the murder weapon was a handgun of unknown caliber.
Police don’t know if it is related but earlier this week, Hoare finalized the sale of one of his cable companies, Continental Cable Television in Ladyville. Reports are that he had recently received a down payment of $200,000. Police investigators say it’s highly unlikely any of that money would have been on him.
Hoare was a father of two. He has a 16-year-old daughter and his youngest child turns one year old on Monday. His common-law wife is also expecting the couple’s second child.
