In the year since Robin Bell’s body was discovered at the Dollar General store in north Bonner Springs, her family members have tried to move on with their lives. It’s been difficult, they say.

Don Bell, her husband, moved away from the home the couple shared in Tonganoxie to new quarters in Edwardsville. “It’s easier not to live there,” he says.

Melissa Mathia, her daughter, of Basehor, who gave birth to Bell’s first grandchild this year, thinks of her mother often – “every time I have something to tell her.”

This weekend, two events will mark the one-year anniversary of Robin Bell’s murder. Bonner Springs police found the body of the 44-year-old Tonganoxie resident and manager of Dollar General, 612 S. 130th St., Bonner Springs, in the store the morning of Nov. 12, 2005. She had suffered “severe head trauma.”

A prayer vigil is planned for today at her grave at Maple Grove Cemetery in Tonganoxie, and a fundraiser Sunday to increase the reward for information leading to the arrest of her killer or killers.

The events were organized by her husband.

“We’re going to do a fundraiser every six months so we don’t have to do this anymore,” Bell said.

The murder

On the night of Nov. 11, 2005, Bell called police after realizing his wife hadn’t come home by 2:30 a.m., after closing the store at 8 p.m.

Police forced an entry into the store and found a scene they later described as “gruesome.”

A “Metro Squad” of 14 detectives from throughout the Kansas City area investigated some 150 leads in the following week, then disbanded.

Bonner Springs Lt. Rick Schubert said the metro squad typically disbands after three to seven days.

A year later, Bell’s murder remains unsolved, and the reward for information leading to an arrest stands at $15,000. Of that, $10,000 came from Dollar General, and $1,000 came from Ameristar Casino, which employs Don Bell. Another $4,000 was raised by friends and family. Bell hopes to raise another $5,000 this weekend with a fundraiser at noon at Muddy Waters restaurant in Kansas City, Kan.

Schubert said the department is “still actively pursuing leads,” but there have been no breakthroughs.

Police work every day

Detective Vickie Fogarty is assigned to the case.

Fogarty admitted the case was “frustrating,” but said, “I think it’ll be solved.”

She added, “We work on it every day.”

As to whether the crime was perpetrated by someone who had knowledge of the store’s operations, such as an employee or ex-employee, Fogarty said, “I don’t want to comment.”

When police arrived at the store that morning they found no sign of forced entry and the doors were locked. Investigators said Bell’s keys were with her. Money was taken from the store, but police and Dollar General have refused to disclose the amount.

Last spring, Bonner Springs detectives traveled to FBI headquarters in Quantico, Va., where they presented the case to the Behavioral Analysis Unit, which provided a profile of the killer. This resulted in new leads, Schubert said.

According to the profile, the murderer would have displayed these traits in the weeks after the murder: having extra money, anxiety, showing an unusual amount of stress, absences from work, missing appointments, disposing of a vehicle or having it detailed, and increased drug and/or alcohol abuse.

One ex-employee of Dollar General, Aaron Clark, was arrested shortly after the murder for felony theft in connection with a September report that $1,641 was missing from Dollar General. Clark was not considered a suspect, but continues to be a “person of interest” to the case, Fogarty said.

Don Bell has his own ideas on the crime.

“I don’t think it was robbery,” he told the Chieftain in September. “I think it was something else … something personal, beat as bad she was.”

Bell said his wife had no enemies he knew of.

DNA evidence was recovered at the murder scene, Schubert said, from “everything you can imagine,” including blood other than Bell’s. The DNA is registered in a federal database so that it can be compared to DNA taken from convicted felons, Fogarty said.

Search for ex-husband

The investigation has included a search for Chuck Davis, Robin Bell’s ex-husband and father of her daughter, Melissa. Fogarty said Chuck Davis was not a suspect, but that all possibilities were being considered. Fogarty said Chuck Davis hadn’t been located; his daughter said she last saw him 24 years ago in Arkansas.

Mathia said someone from “America’s Most Wanted” had tried to contact the Bonner Springs Police Department, but that the investigation had been dropped because of lack of returned calls from the department. No one who could be reached at the department said they knew about the television show’s interest in the case, and no calls from the Chieftain were returned by the show’s producers.

Mathia said she wasn’t optimistic about her mother’s murder being solved by the police.

“If I had the money and the sources I’d just try to do it myself,” she said. “I feel so helpless – there’s nothing I can do myself, other than try to make a personal connection” with anyone who might have information, in order that they would be more apt to talk.

Mathia said she planned to call the television show “Cold Case Files” after this weekend to see if a segment might be done on her mother’s case.

“I know somebody knows who did it,” Mathia said, “and they just don’t understand what her being murdered – especially because I was at my most vulnerable point because I was pregnant – has done to me.”

Cleared as a suspect

At Dollar General, the store implemented new security precautions and procedures after Bell’s murder.

While Bell’s murder was a blow to her family, their lives continued.

Don Bell moved to Edwardsville from the home he had shared with his wife.

“It’s easier to not live there,” Bell said. “I still have pictures of her around. I meet new friends now that I moved.”

What also made his life easier, Bell said, was being cleared as a suspect in his wife’s death. Besides the stress and sting his status as a suspect brought him, it also prevented Bell from collecting life insurance.

The most poignant illustration that life goes on for those who knew Robin Bell may be the birth of her grandson, Chapter Alexander Mathia, to her daughter, Melissa Mathia.

Chapter, so named because his mother writes short stories, was born in March. Mathia said he recognizes his grandmother in pictures.

“We have one of the fliers on our fridge – every time he goes by, he smiles and grabs for it,” Mathia said.

Mathia married in September, and said the wedding made her think of her mother.

“Yeah, I still think of her a lot,” Mathia said. “Especially when I was having my baby and getting married. Every time I got to Bonner Springs over there. Every time I have something to tell her – so all the time.”