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Billy Becker.....What's up with Tom Stump? Nice catch Billy
Bill Becker and Bernie pictured above Tom Stump of Big Pine Key Disappears mysteriously Something stinks!!!!! Story sent to this guy 04/28/07 Maybe we can find the killer/killers.....
In 2002, when I originally posted Tom's story on this web site, I had
no preconceived idea about what happened to my son.
I just knew that the circumstances of Tom's disappearance were
suspicious and there were many questions that needed answers.
Since then, however, I've received information that Tom may have
become a threat to a major drug operation that links the Tom Stump pictured to the left I talked with Tom by phone the day before he vanished. He had just
rented a van to take his
wife, Bernie, and two daughters, Bonnie, 12, and Sally, 8, on a
vacation trip. He said he would call me as soon as they got back from
their trip. That evening, Tom and Bernie took the girls and two of their friends
out to dinner to celebrate Sally's eighth birthday. The next morning, Tom
put gas in the van and went to the bank and to the post office in
preparation for the trip. About At My youngest son, A search had been organized, and 26 of Tom's friends and neighbors were
combing the woods. One of Bernie's ex-husbands, an ex-con by the name of
Mark Ripin, whom Bernie still considered her "very dear friend,"
was also involved in the search. When interviewed by police, the children
gave different stories. Bonnie continued to maintain that her father
"walked into the woods," but Sally said he "drove
off in a car," although neither of their cars was missing.
The dog that detectives used to track Tom's scene did not go into
the woods. Instead, it went
directly to the road. Bernie stated that, during the early morning hours, Sally walked into
their bedroom and found Tom cleaning his guns. Tom was a gun collector and
owned six guns; according to Bernie, one of those guns, a Glock, was
missing. (According to Scott Haskell, Bernie also owned a .380 caliber
pistol.) Bernie told a detective that Tom had told her that he had hidden
one or more guns in the woods, but hadn't told her where they were. That detective told me privately that something didn't seem right, and
I agreed. Bernie would not allow me to talk to the children and was not
happy when I was interviewed by Detective Penley. After taping interviews
with Bernie, the girls, and me, Penley stated in her report, "The
complainant followed me out to the car and seemed extremely nervous about
my conversation with the victim's mother." Detective Penley also
stated, "Complainant's demeanor was very upbeat and she spoke of
getting on with her life." A
few days after Tom disappeared, his business partner and an employee went
to Tom's house to get tools from the company truck.
As they were leaving, they noticed that the recycle bin contained
champagne bottles and the trash bin held black gift wrap paper and black
bows. "Somebody was celebrating
something," Tom's partner observed. This information
appears in Detective Penley's A man who worked at the Cudjo Key landfill contacted police to report
a strange occurrence in which a woman arrived at the landfill with a
pickup truck that matched the description of Tom's pickup. The man said he
helped the woman empty the truck and was struck by the unusual nature of
the items she was getting rid of - a marriage license, photo albums
containing wedding pictures, and personal items that obviously belonged to
a man. The woman didn't give her name, paid with cash so there was no
receipt, and all the items were bulldozed into the transfer truck. Six days after Tom's disappearance, Bernie left on vacation with the
children. She returned home by herself, and the girls went to My husband and I hired a private investigator. He is the one who found
out about Tom's preparations for a trip with his family on the day he
became missing -- that he filled his pickup with gas, went to the bank,
and stopped the mail. The sheriff's department supplied me with copies of
their interviews with no problem, but when I requested the May-August
calls to and from Tom and Bernie's home, which Detective Penley had
subpoenaed, there was no information about any calls beyond the beginning
of July. When I questioned the sheriff about this, he
stated in a letter, "I have been assured that if they are not
included they do not exist." That makes no sense at all, in light of
all the calls that I know were made to and from that house in the days
surrounding Tom's disappearance. In March, 1997, I
placed an ad in two newspapers that service the In 2000, Tom was declared legally dead, and Bill Becker and Bernie were
married. In February, 2002, Detective J. Norman gave Bernie and Bill lie
detector tests. Reportedly they passed. Detective Who benefited from Tom's death? His wife received $150,000 in insurance
money, plus the house, savings, etc. His partner, Scott Haskell,
received the stocks and bonds that were in his and Tom's name and also
several acres of land. It's impossible for me to believe that Tom committed suicide and hid
his own body. It is equally hard to believe that he deserted his family.
He was not that kind of person. Tom was co-owner of a successful
construction business and was proud of all that he and his partner had
accomplished. He was a very hard worker, but above all, a dedicated
father. He went in to work early each morning so that he could be there
when his daughters came home from school. He was devoted to those little
girls -- helped them with their homework, prepared their dinners, and made
sure that they did their chores. Even if his marriage to Bernie was rocky,
he still had those children to live for. To walk out on his family or,
worse, commit suicide on his youngest daughter's birthday - there's no way
in the world that he would have done that. My daughter-in-law and I had always gotten along. Since Tom's
disappearance, neither Bernie nor my granddaughters will speak to me. Not
only have I lost a son, I have lost an entire a family. But, whether
Bernie and her new husband like it or not, I am and always will be Tom
Stump's mother, and I will continue to search and dig until I find out
what happened to my son. Update, April 2004: In March 2004, I
was contacted by a woman named Christine Hill, whose mother, Diana Harris,
disappeared from Big Pine Key, Rose Stump, Tom's mother P.S. In a town near us they are putting down bricks around the downtown with family names on them. We had one with Tom's name. I guess this will be the closest to a tomb stone we can give him. This memory stone to honor Tom's life on earth has the symbol of a buckeye leaf to signify Tom's closeness to his Ohio Roots. May Tom rest in peace. More Data http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=70566698 http://www.realcrimes.com
tom stump 1995 missing– Diana harris 1981 missing
My mother, Diana Lynn Harris(Kuipers), 27, disappeared from Big
Pine Key,
When I turned 17, I returned to
I recently ran names connected to Mom’s disappearance through a
search engine. When I ran the name “Mark Ripin” – an ex-convict, who
was questioned in regard to my mom’s case -- I landed on the Real Crimes
web site. My heart dropped into my shoes when I discovered that Mark Ripin
was also questioned as a possible suspect in the “Tom Stump Missing
Persons Case,” and that several other individuals linked to my
mother’s case are also linked to Tom Stump’s case.
On the web site I learned that Tom Stump disappeared from Sugarloaf
Key,
I recognized some of the names on the web site and on the message
board as people my mom knew back in 1981. Mark Ripin, the ex-con; Mark’s
then-wife Bernie; and their attorney friend, Mitchell Denker, were part of
a tight knit group of friends who partied together -- and some of whom
actually lived together -- during that time period. My mom was introduced
to that group by a new boyfriend, Gary Vincente Argenzio, who, I’ve now
found out, was another ex-convict and a close friend of Mark Ripin. Mark
Ripin was then, and still is, a close friend of Bernie’s fourth and
current husband, Bill Becker, who was Bernie’s live-in boyfriend in 1980
and again began living with her after Tom Stump vanished in 1995. In
October 1981, Mom phoned a friend in My
grandmother filed missing person’s reports in both
One week after Mom vanished, Gary Argenzio stole a boat that
belonged to a man named Robert Thompson. Mitchell Denker told me that
Another vehicle that was missing was a car that belonged to Mom’s
friend Donna. Donna thought it was taken by a man named “Mark” who
lived on No Name Key, which is where Mark Ripin and his wife Bernie lived
at that time. However, she also added that she believed that man was
Mitchell Denker’s cousin, who worked at Denker’s law office. It’s
possible she may have confused Mark Ripin with Mitchell Denker’s cousin,
Michael Gilbert, who died of a drug overdose in the ‘80s. Which one was
it?
After Argenzio ran off to
Detective Richard Conrady and Detective Lynn McNeil of the Monroe
County Sheriff’s Department were originally the lead detectives in
Mom’s case. In June 1995, when Mom’s case was being re-investigated as
a possible homicide, Detective Phil Harrold questioned Mitchell Denker.
Denker told Detective Harrold that Mom was murdered and suggested that she
speak with Argenzio’s friend Mark Ripin. Ripin told him he believed
Argenzio killed Mom and dumped her body in the ocean.
In July 1982, Gary Argenzio was arrested in
In May 1990, I contacted Mitchell Denker by phone, and he informed
me that he’d sold the party house in 1984. He said he was going to
In 1992, Gary Argenzio was convicted of another felony. Five days
later, he died in his But
I wasn’t going to give up. Approximately January 1995, I again contacted
Mitchell Denker. This time he told me that he thought Gary Argenzio might
have buried my mother in Denker’s back yard. As a result of Denker’s
new statement, I was able to convince the Sheriff’s Department to
reactivate my mother’s case. When questioned in June 1995 by Detective
Harrald, Denker said it would have been impossible to bury a body in his
yard because of the guard dogs and the coral. Detective Harrald told me
the yard had been cemented over so it could not be searched or dug up. Mitchell
Denker asked Harrold if his original statement from 1981 still existed.
When Det. Harrold assured him it did not, Denker and Mark Ripin informed
him that Argenzio had admitted to smashing Mom’s head into the wall of
Denker’s house. Both men stated that they saw the hole in the wall with
blood spatters, but Denker described the hole as being in his bedroom and
Ripin described it as being by the back door. Detective Lynn McNeil, who
investigated the case in 1981, recalled no such damage. She also told me
that she and Det. Conrady had checked the woods in the yard for any
evidence and had found none. How could the back yard have had woods on it,
when Denker said it was solid coral? In
July 1995 – at approximately the same time my mother’s case was
reactivated – Tom Stump disappeared from his home on Sugarloaf Key. The
Monroe County Sheriff’s Department was investigating both the Stump case
and Mom’s case simultaneously and was interrogating Mark Ripin in regard
to both missing persons cases. Yet apparently nobody found anything the
slightest bit suspicious about the fact that the same man was linked to
both cases. In
the summer of 2003, Mitchell Denker was convicted of two felonies --
Transporting Monetary Instruments and perjury. He was sentenced to five
months in prison and disbarred in the state of I
contacted Sheriff Richard Roth to ask him about Mom’s files. Sheriff
Roth told me that, in 1981, he was a detective and remembers this
incident. He said it wasn’t an uncommon thing back then for the Sheriff
to get rid of old case files. However, when Mom’s files were destroyed
they were not old at all! My Grandma was still communicating with
detectives about the case. But
I did receive the reports from the 1995 investigation, which is how I got
the names to run through the search engine. When Mark Ripin’s name took
me to the Tom Stump case, I posted a question on the message board, asking
if anyone had heard of “Mitchell Denker.” Someone
responded by quoting a post by Mark Ripin in which he cryptically asked:
"What’s the connection? Manny the shark hunter, Mitchell Denker,
the lawyer?" (I’ve since found out that Manilito “Manny” Pluig,
a shark hunter who swims with the sharks, was hired by Bernie Ripin/Stump/Becker
to aid in the search for Tom. The answer to Ripin’s question could well
be: “Both men swim with the sharks,” one literally, one figuratively.) Someone
else posted a quote from Bernie’s deposition in which she admitted to
living in Mitchell Denker’s house. Since Bernie was married to Mark
Ripin at that time, that would seem to suggest that they both were on the
premises when Mom vanished. Bernie has since told me she knew my mom and
my mom showed her photos of my brother and me. Yet, Bernie didn't bother
to report Mom missing, even though Bernie's own husband said he saw a hole
in the wall that was made by Mom's head. Another
thing I find bewildering is that, when requestioned by police in 1995,
Mitchell Denker -- a practicing attorney who should know the law -- stated
that in his opinion there was more than enough evidence to indict Gary
Argenzio for my mom's murder, but the Sheriff’s Department hadn’t
seemed interested in pursuing it. He specifically cited Mom's
disappearance and missing body and Argenzio's flight with Robert
Thompson’s boat. Yet, back in 1982, when Argenzio was tried for stealing
that boat, Mitchell Denker’s cousin, a member of his own law firm,
defended Argenzio for free, and nobody even mentioned my missing mother.
In fact, Mark Ripin testified in Argenzio's behalf. My
mom was a wonderful mother, and I loved her dearly, but she led a
difficult life. After an abusive marriage that ended in divorced, she
witnessed her brother shoot himself in the mouth. She attempted to
self-medicate by smoking marijuana, but that did little to erase the
gristly vision. She relocated to I
had my mother for only ten years, but I thank God for every one of them. I
have beautiful memories of my life with her. She worked hard, cooked
wonderful food, and was never too busy to play with my brother and me. She
was a very affectionate mother and, no matter how tired she was or how
weighed down by worries, she gave us unstinting love and attention. My
mom was my world. For 25 years I’ve been trying to find out what
happened to her, and I will not stop until I get an answer that makes
sense. Christine
Hill (Diana Harris’s daughter) You
can read both my Mom's and Tom Stump's Stories at the Real Crimes Site at
http://www.realcrimes.com, where you'll also see the first 3 chapters of
"Two Gone Missing". Please also take time to read some of the
other stories on this site, all very sad & shocking cases!!! I
also want to thank all the Good Police Officers who work so very hard on
solving each and every missing person & homicide case. Thank You for
trying so hard to bring the missing home and for putting so much effort
into bringing the familes closure!!
Other
Juicy stuff on Bernie and Becker Tom vanished while preparing to go on vacation with his
family. The case detective concluded that Tom: "Committed suicide,
relocated to an unknown area or died as a result of accident, negligence
or homicide." What does the evidence indicate?
Updates:
Timeline of
activities at time of Tom's disappearance; Jan. 31, 2002, Key
West the Newspaper featured Tom's case along with two
letters. July 03, Det.
Norman refuses to comply with State Attorney request to subpoena Stump
phone records. New
Input. Excerpt
from upcoming book, Two
Gone Missing |
My
oldest son, Tom Stump, 41 disappeared from his home on 
