Bob and Kay Harper were celebrating their thirty-third wedding anniversary on September 16, 1994, at their rural Anderson, Missouri, home in the southwest corner of the Show Me State, approximately one-hundred miles northeast of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The evening was interrupted when Kay heard a loud bang coming from the kitchen and the sound of her husband hitting the floor.

Kay’s first fear as she raced through the hallway to Bob’s aid was that her husband’s heart had given out on him. Bob, a Corporal with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, was on leave after recovering from a recent heart attack. But Kay quickly realized such an episode would not explain the loud bang she had heard.

To her relief, Kay found Bob was alive; to her horror, he was lying in a pool of blood, having been shot once in his rib cage with the bullet landing only 1/16 of an inch from his fragile heart.

Responding quickly to Kay’s call, Bob’s fellow lawmen arrived at the home and found a shell casing from a semi-automatic rifle in an area of trees two-hundred-forty-five feet from the kitchen window.The shell casing was traced to thirty-five-year-old Timothy Coombs, a member of a militant right wing militia.

Corporal Bob Harper recovered from the shooting, believed to be in retaliation for the earlier arrest of one of Coombs’s fellow militia members.

Timothy Coombs failed in his effort to kill Corporal Bob Harper, but he has succeeded for nearly three decades in staying one step ahead of law enforcement.

Timothy Coombs

Coombs was a member of the Freemen Militia Movement, a loosely knit brotherhood united by a disdain for the United States Government. The devoutly Christian Freemen members contend the Bill of Rights and the United States Constitution are documents created by God and give them preeminent rights as American citizens. The Freemen believe any subsequent man-made laws, such as having to pay income tax or requiring a license to drive, do not apply to them.

Perched on the extremist right wing of the political spectrum, the Freemen do not acknowledge the United States legal system’s authority and view courts as a means to circumvent the federal government.

The Freemen view themselves as “true Americans.” Authorities have a different term for them: domestic terrorists.

Robert Joos was also a Freeman member. In 1985, the self-proclaimed minister was convicted of concocting a bogus court order for a parishioner who had been arrested for a minor traffic offense.

Joos contested the conviction for nine years, remaining free until June 1994, when the new McDonald County attorney ordered his arrest. He fought with Missouri State Troopers as they tried to arrest him and had to be forcibly taken.

In addition to filing the fake court order and resisting arrest, Joos was charged with carrying an unlicensed concealed weapon.

Robert Joos

Corporal Bob Harper was one of the Missouri Highway Patrolmen involved in Joos’ arrest. Three months later, the lawman was nearly shot to death in his home.

Corporal Bob Harper

Missouri State Highway Patrol

The day after Corporal Harper’s shooting, as police were nearing Joos’ farm to question him, they were approached by an armed man identifying himself as James Wilson. After a tense half-hour standoff, the man agreed to talk to the authorities. Clad in military fatigues, he claimed he was a church elder who was training snipers to avenge violations against the Christian religion.

The man said he was from Witts Springs, Arkansas, one-hundred-sixty miles southeast of Anderson, Missouri. While truthful about his home state, the man was not forthcoming about his identity. His real name was Timothy Coombs, and he had previously served time in prison on weapons viloations.

Coombs’ neighbor told authorities his horse had been shot and gave them the bullet he had recovered. The neighbor suspected Coombs had fired it while target shooting.

Coombs Looms

A search of Coombs’ property yielded shell casings matching those found outside Bob Harper’s kitchen window. The gun the shell casings came from was traced to Robert Joos, who had purchased the rifle three weeks before the shooting.

Inside Joos’ home, investigators found an arsenal of pistols, rifles, and over forty sticks of dynamite.

Robert Joos’ Weapons

Authorities believe Timothy Coombs and Robert Joos orchestrated the attempted murder of Corporal Bob Harper, although only Coombs has been charged in the shooting.

Joos was convicted of unlawful use of a weapon in 1997 and for felonious operation of a motor vehicle without a driver’s license in 2004. He was released after serving five-and-a-half years in prison.

Joos is Suspected, But Not Charged, in the Attempted Murder

The Freeman’s freedom was short-lived as he was soon arrested for his involvement in a hate-crime bombing and for being a felon in possession of ammunition and firearms. In 2010, he was convicted and sentenced to another six years in prison. The Freeman member was released in 2016 and is again a free man . . . so far.

Joos maintains he had no role in the shooting of Corporal Bob Harper.

             

    Back to the Slammer

By the time authorities had enough evidence to arrest Timothy Coombs, he had disappeared. The militia man has been at large for nearly thirty years.

Authorities believe the fugitive’s friends, relatives, and nationwide militia cohorts have helped him stay underground.

          A Wanted Man

In 2015, billboards of the fugitive were placed in Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.

Billboard Featuring the Fugitive

A reward of up to $100,000 is offered for information leading to the capture of Timothy Coombs. He would today be sixty-four-years-old.

If you have any information on the his whereabouts, please call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI, the Missouri State Highway Patrol at 573-751-3313 of the McDonald County, Missouri, Sheriff’s Department at 417-223-4319.

 

Computer Aged-Image of Timothy Coombs

Corporal Bob Harper died in 1995, a year after the shooting.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133972923/robert-eugene-harper

SOURCES:

• America’s Most Wanted
• FBI
• The Joplin Globe
• Kansas City Star
• Southeast Missourian
• Unsolved Mysteries