Case open 1 year later
ADAMS TWP — One year after the killing of Tara Sherri Bouie, the case remains open.
Bouie, 42, was killed Oct. 29, 2014, in the house she was renting at 110 Tenacity Trail with a gunshot wound to her head.
Her 5-month-old daughter was in a child seat next to her, but was unharmed.
“Right now there isn’t any specific person he (investigator) can really release or confirm,” said Dan Kesten of the state police in Butler about a suspect. “We’re still following up on all the leads.”
“It was shocking,” said Adams Township Police Chief Bill Westerman, who has been with the township since 1982. “That’s the first one (murder) I’ve seen.”
He said the state police are handling the investigation, and he has not heard anything from them regarding the case.
Bouie had moved from Pittsburgh into the house several months before her death.
A neighbor who didn’t want his name identified described her as being “a nice girl” despite not personally knowing her.
“It was horrible,” the neighbor said of her death. “Nothing like that happened before. We were driving back and a SWAT team was around the house.”
Other neighbors did not want to comment on the case.
Bouie did not have any other injuries indicating she put up a fight. The house was not ransacked and no guns or evidence was found.
“It makes it more difficult,” Kesten said about that lack of evidence.
It was learned that the house on Tenacity Trail was the same location where a man suspected of shooting several members of a motorcycle club was arrested.
The man, Kenneth Harrison, is the child’s father and has been in the Allegheny County Jail since Sept. 17, 2014, when he was arrested.
He was charged with homicide, five counts of attempted homicide and aggravated assault by the Allegheny County Sheriff.
Police said Harrison argued with members of the Pittsburgh Gentlemen Motorcycle Club in Pittsburgh’s Strip District over the noise their motorcycles were making.
He was one of two suspects in the subsequent shooting that killed 40-year old Tyrone Tomman, a club member.
Harrison’s sentence is “lengthy,” Kesten said.
Investigators have been looking to see if there is a link between that deadly shooting in Pittsburgh and Bouie’s death in Adans Township. They wonder if her death was a revenge killing.
Kesten said that is still a possibility, but said no “concrete” evidence indicates that.
He said if all leads are exhausted, the police will get a cold case investigator to continue looking into the case.
“We’re actively trying to create those leads out there,” Kesten said. “Our investigators are working hard to uncover whatever they can.”
Kesten said the investigation hasn’t seen any breaks.
He noted that a case like this is not common in Butler County.
“This one unfortunately is just one of those rare ones where you have a deceased person, and you’re not really able to confirm the person who did it,” Kesten said.
“We do request that anybody in that case to contact us here at the state police in Butler,” he added.
Kesten also said there is a possibility of a cash reward.
Anyone with information can contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-4-PA-TIPS.
The house where the killing occurred has since been rented.