Bella ELMORE
Bella ELMORE
BACKGROUND
Boatswain’s Mate Third Class (BM3) Elmore was a member of the station boat crew at Naval Station Harold E. Holt, when he was convicted of murdering his wife, Bella, a Filipino, at Exmouth, Australia, during the early morning hours of 17 March 1988. Appellant and Bella had lived together for 3 years and had been married for 6 months in March 1988. At trial the evidence revealed that the appellant and his wife had constant arguments over money and a history of relatively minor mutual spousal abuse. The testimony included statements Bella made to her friends concerning her dissatisfaction with the marriage, maltreatment by appellant, threats by him to harm her, and fears for her personal safety comprising those hearsay statements objected to by the defense in assignments of error III and IV. The testimony also included statements appellant had expressed to Michael and Stephanie Parsons, his best friends, that he wanted to divorce Bella, and that his marriage to her was a mistake. While drunk, he had “jokingly” stated to Michael Parsons, on several different occasions, that he “wanted to cut Bella up and use her for shark bait.” The Parsons testified about a specific instance where appellant struck Bella, which caused a lump to raise on her head and blood to come from her mouth. Further, appellant and Bella had had a particularly vocal, crude, and public argument at the enlisted club on 4 March. Finally, a Chief Tope, who drove appellant home the night of the 4 March argument, testified that appellant was upset, cried, and stated that his marriage was over because Bella was off “f ... someone else.”
On the evening of 16 March, appellant and his wife, with their friends, bowled and *682then went to the enlisted club for drinks. After drinking heavily, appellant and Bella were seen to leave the club together. Appellant later told the police authorities that he and Bella had returned home around 2300. Appellant has told no less than four different stories as to what happened later that night. In version 1, which appellant told over the next two days to the Parsons, his division officer LT Sullivan, Petty Officer Smith, and Australian police authorities, he stated that he went to bed upon returning home and that Bella was gone when he awakened at 0530 the next morning, 17 March 1988. In version 2 appellant stated that he and his wife returned home that evening, argued heatedly over money, and decided to go for a drive to help resolve their differences. After stopping the car (the only white hatchback Ford Mustang in Western Australia) off-base, Bella got out of the car to walk. Appellant drove off leaving his wife but later picked her up. They then drove to the Navy pier, 10 miles from their house. Appellant stated that upon arriving at the pier between 0100 and 0130 they continued to argue. Appellant, agitated, left Bella at the pier and returned home. Appellant stated that he next saw Bella later that morning while he and Parsons were driving to work, though he neither told Parsons of leaving Bella at the pier nor did he stop to pick her up. When Detective Sergeant Balchin questioned appellant concerning this version, appellant recanted and told version 3, that is, he and Bella entered the boathouse near the pier to get something to drink, continued to argue, whereupon appellant told her to take her belongings and leave their house. Bella then walked the nearly one-fourth of a mile length of the pier, headed to the northwest corner of the pier to a point where there was a gap in the rail. Appellant followed her and as he approached her, called to her and she either tripped or stumbled, and fell off or over the pier railing into the Gulf of Exmouth, where tides were running at 5-6 knots heading out toward the Indian Ocean and the water is 45 feet deep. He went home, went to bed, got up the next morning and went to PT formation. The 4th version is appellant’s trial testimony, which embellishes the 3rd version. Appellant testified that after arriving at the boathouse, he and Bella returned to his car and drove several miles to the lighthouse, where they talked for 2 hours, then returned to the pier. He testified that after Bella fell into the water, he spent between 30 to 45 minutes searching the area around the pier and the catwalks beneath it. He also testified that the pier was well lighted at night, he never used the emergency phone on the end of the pier to call for assistance, admitted to never throwing a life buoy to assist her (because he states he never saw her), and not finding her, returned home, went to bed, awakened the next morning and went to work. He stated to Detective Sergeant Balchin, and testified, that he thought Bella could swim to shore and walk barefooted the 10 miles back to their house.
It was not until the following afternoon that appellant began to search for Bella, going first to the Parsons’ home, and then to several other of Bella’s friends’ houses, asking if they had seen her because when he had wakened that morning he found she was gone. (Appellant explained that he made inquiries about her disappearance with her friends because Bella had previously spent the night at the houses of friends when she and appellant were not getting along.) From 18-27 March, appellant denied knowledge of Bella’s whereabouts, and participated in searches for her in the area surrounding his house. On 19 March, while various people were searching the areas immediately adjacent to his house, he borrowed the 4-wheel drive vehicle of UT2 Kanachki and drove to the beach area, looking for Bella. He took no one with him and told no one what he was going to do. It was not until questioned by Detective Sergeant Balchin on 27 March that he recanted his original story (version 1) concerning Bella’s disappearance.
The evidence of record reveals that as of the date of trial Bella Elmore had not been seen by appellant or their friends since the evening of 16 March 1988. No body or traces thereof had been found. Also proven was the fact that Bella had not been *683listed as a passenger on the passenger manifests of the Austrialian bus company or airlines, nor at the Military Airlift Command terminal. Although an identification card is not required for domestic transportation, employees of the bus and airline terminals testified they did not remember seeing her or anyone resembling her after 16 March. Finally, the victim’s military dependent identification card and resident alien card were found in the Elmore home and appellant gave the police her passport.
EXMOUTH, Australia, -- A defense witness in the military trial of a U.S. Navy petty officer charged with murdering his wife testified Wednesday that he saw the woman alive a week after the alleged killing.
Sarkis Yazmadjian, 73, a retired portrait photographer, said he saw Bella Elmore for about an hour at the East Perth bus terminal on March 23.
Yazmadjian was testifying Wednesday at the court martial trial of Petty Officer Charles Wayne Elmore, 26, of Texas, charged with the premeditated murder of his Filipina wife March 16.
Elmore, based at the Exmouth Naval Base, 750 miles north of Perth, allegedly stabbed his wife at their home at Exmouth and tossed her body from the naval pier into the Indian Ocean.
He has pleaded innocent and told Exmouth police that his wife accidently slipped on the pier and fell into the water. Her body was never found.
Yazmadjian said when he boarded his bus for Northam, about 100 miles east of Perth where he lived, he read a newspaper article about her mysterious disappearance.
'There it was ... she was staring at me from the newspaper,' he said, 'it is her, the missing person.'
Defense lawyer, Brian Singleton, showed Yazmadjian a picture of Elmore's wife and asked him if he could identify her.
'Oh yes,' Yazmadjian said, 'that is exactly the person.'
Marine Lt. Col. Michael Cummings, the military judge for the trial, rejected a defense submission that the case be dismissed due to insufficient evidence to prove 'a death and an element of premeditation.'