LANCASTER, Pa. — Update, 1:15 p.m. (May 25): Jere Bagenstose is free after posting $925,000 bail, according to court records.
Previously
The Lancaster County District Attorney's Office said it is considering an appeal of a ruling made by a Lancaster County judge this week to allow bail in the case of a man charged with homicide in the death of his estranged wife in 1984.
Jere Bagenstose , 68, was arrested last December by State Police and charged with the murder of his wife, Maryanne, who disappeared from her home on West Willow Road in Pequea Township on June 5, 1984.
At a hearing Tuesday, Lancaster County Judge Merrill Spahn set bail for Jere Bagenstose at $925,000—a nearly unprecedented move in Lancaster County homicide cases.
Bagenstose 's attorney, Curt Schultz, argued at Tuesday's hearing that Pennsylvania’s constitution allows bail for all crimes except death-penalty eligible cases, crimes punishable by life in prison, or “unless no condition or combination of conditions other than imprisonment will reasonably assure the safety of any person and the community when the proof is evident or presumption great," according to reporting by LNP | LancasterOnline.
Defense attorneys cited a 2021 Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that dealt with the burden of proof judges must consider to determine if someone is entitled to bail, and what the writers of the state constitution meant by "proof is evident or presumption is great."
In the case cited, Commonwealth v. Talley, Pennsylvania's Supreme Court said the “proof is evident or presumption great” phrase from the constitution means it is more likely than not that a defendant committed the crime they’ve been charged with.
In his opinion on Bagenstose 's bail, Spahn wrote that the Commonwealth "bears both a burden of production and a burden of persuasion" to meet the standard that "proof is evident or presumption is great."
Spahn said in his ruling that the prosecutors did not produce sufficient evidence to meet that standard, and therefore the court, "pursuant to Talley, is constrained to refuse the request and set bail."
Prosecutors argued that Bagenstose was not entitled to bail, but if bail were allowed in the case, it should be set at $5 million, according to LNP.
Bagenstose was still being held in Lancaster County Prison as of Tuesday night, court documents show.
Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams said in a statement that her office "received the court's order and opinion (Wednesday) morning and are in the process of evaluating an appeal."
Maryann Bagenstose disappeared from her Pequea Township home on June 5, 1984.
At the time, she was separated from Jere Bagenstose , and lived at the West Willow Road home with their two-year-old son and a boarder with whom she had a relationship.
In April 1984, Maryann was granted custody of her son. A formal custody hearing was scheduled for June 15. Maryann Bagenstose did not appear at the custody hearing, and Jere Bagenstose was awarded custody of their son.
Maryann was described as a devoted mother to her son, and people said she would have never left him behind.
Police say they spoke to Jere Bagenstose on multiple occasions, who relayed that he last saw Maryann alive on June 5, 1984, when he arrived at the house that morning to take Maryann in to trade in her car. He allegedly said he took his son to Long's Park because Maryann was not ready.
When he returned back to the house, Jere Bagenstose claimed, Maryann was not there, and had left a note that she had walked to a convenience store on Willow Street and he had not heard from her since.
Additional evidence gathered and relied on over the course of the investigation and cited in the affidavit of probable cause includes the following:
- Records obtained from Jere’s place of employment indicated that he had an unexcused absence for June 5, 1984, the date of Maryann’s disappearance.
- Jere Bagenstose had an unexplained injury to his left arm which was covered by a bandage. He provided inconsistent statements to law enforcement on how and where he injured himself.
- Jere Bagenstose provided multiple inconsistent statements to police on what the note left by Maryann said, why he would have dug a hole in his garage mere days after the victim’s disappearance, why he was present at the house that day, and what Maryann was doing when he arrived.
- Jere Bagenstose stated that Maryann was having car trouble and walked to a store. Interviews with the victim’s neighbors and acquaintances revealed the car was working fine in the days leading up to the victim’s disappearance.
- An assistant manager at the convenience store stated she had not seen Maryann at the store on the day of her disappearance. Jere Bagenstose told officers during the search warrant that the note did not say she was walking to that particular location, and that he only assumed that Maryann went to that store.
- A maintenance supervisor at Long’s Park related he had not seen Jere Bagenstose 's vehicle in the park on June 5, 1984, after being provided a picture of the vehicle. Two additional employees also had not seen the vehicle.
- In 1985, Jere Bagenstose told investigators that people had relayed to him they recently saw Maryann. The defendant never reported this information to police.
- Multiple notes and postcards sent to Jere Bagenstose purportedly from Maryann were never relayed to the police by the defendant.
- Witnesses relay that leading up to her disappearance, Maryann was in a good mood and looking forward to getting a new car.
In 2018, investigators with Pennsylvania State Police said they started reworking the investigation by focusing on the note that was seized during the June 13, 1984 search.
Investigators obtained public records and other documents to compare the writing of Jere Bagenstose to the note. That data led to the execution of a search warrant at the West Willow Road home on Sept. 20, 2022.
Jere Bagenstose was arrested in December, charged with one count of homicide in Maryann Bagenstose 's murder.
Her body has never been found.
