LOWER PROVIDENCE >> The manhunt for suspected mass murderer Bradley Stone has ended with his apparent suicide.
Stone, 35, who was wanted for the Monday killing of his ex-wife and five of her family members, took his own life by stabbing himself in the abdomen, officials said. His body was found around 1:38 p.m. Tuesday in a wooded area of Upper Hanover Township just a half-mile from his Pennsburg home, which was raided by police and SWAT teams Monday afternoon. Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman made the announcement at a press conference Tuesday afternoon at the Montgomery County Emergency Operations Center in Eagleville.
Upper Merion police Chief Tom Nolan, who headed the county’s tactical operation, said Stone’s body was discovered during a block-by-block search conducted by various Montgomery County SWAT teams, Pennsylvania State Police and members of the Federal Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force.
Investigators said Stone killed his ex-wife, Nicole Hill Stone, 33, her mother, Joanne Gilbert, 57, her grandmother, Patricia Hill, 75, her sister, Patricia Flick, Flick’s husband Aaron and their 14-year-old daughter, Nina Flick, in a series of shootings, stabbings and assaults that took place in Lower Salford, Landsdale and Souderton over the course of about 90 minutes Monday morning. Flick’s 17-year-old son, Anthony, was severely injured and airlifted to Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia, where he remains in serious condition.
The particulars of the killing spree were detailed in an affidavit of probable cause included in an unsealed search warrant.
A hang-up 911 call was made from the 100 block of West Fifth Street in Landsdale at 4:25 a.m., according to the affidavit. Police arrived to find signs of forced entry at the rear of the residence. Officers entered the house with a K-9 unit and discovered the bodies of Patricia Hill and her daughter, Joanne Gilbert, in a middle bedroom. A tactical response team was called in to clear the house, and Montgomery County forensics detectives determined that Gilbert’s throat had been slashed and Hill sustained a defensive-type wound to her left forearm and a gunshot wound to her right eye. Three .40 caliber bullets and their shell casings were also found at the scene, the report documented.
At 4:55 a.m., a neighbor of Nicole Hill Stone at the Pheasant Run apartments in the 100 block of Main Street in Lower Salford called police and reported hearing a commotion in Stone’s apartment, followed by a series of gunshots, according to the affidavit. The neighbor told police she heard Stone’s two young children yelling for their mother and saw Bradley Stone hustling the children out of the house and into his green Ford Focus. As Bradley Stone was leaving, he told the witness Nicole Hill Stone was hurt and that he and the children had to go.
Lower Salford police responded to the scene and discovered Nicole Hill Stone’s body in an upstairs bedroom, according to the affidavit. She had been shot twice in the head. Police discovered four spent .40 caliber shell casings near the body and recovered a .40 caliber handgun registered to Bradley Stone on her bed. A background check revealed that Stone also owned a 9mm handgun. The Lower Salford residence also showed signs of forced entry, and there were two bullet holes in one of the walls, according to the affidavit.
Ferman said that as information about the two crime scenes was gathered and the familial connection between the victims was discovered, investigators decided to perform a well-being check at the Flick home in the 100 block of Penn Avenue in Souderton. Officers arrived to find the rear door open and the bodies of Patricia and Aaron Flick in an upstairs bedroom. Patricia Flick had been stabbed and shot and had blunt force injuries to her head. Aaron Flick’s injuries were described as “significant.”
After a tactical raid to clear the residence, officers re-entered the house to find Anthony Flick and the body of Nina Flick, according to the affidavit. Anthony had barricaded himself in a room on the third floor and sustained a skull fracture and numerous lacerations to his hands and arms.
A neighbor told police he heard loud noises emanating from the Flick residence between 3:30 and 4 a.m., but the commotion ceased after he banged on an adjoining wall and yelled for quiet, according to the affidavit.
Around 5:10 a.m., Stone reportedly dropped his children off at a neighbor’s house in Pennsburg, leaving his car parked at the rear of the residence, according to the affidavit.
Because Stone was last seen at the Pennsburg location, SWAT teams descended on his residence in the unit block of Fourth Street in an attempt to extract him. Flash bang grenades were deployed at the home and tactical vehicles were used to dismantle an adjoining garage, and Stone was ordered out of the residence, but it was later determined that he was not inside.
Stone graduated from Souderton Area High School in 1998. He joined the Marines as a reservist and served in Iraq before returning to civilian life in 2011. A neighbor of the Hills said Stone came back from Iraq a different person and Patricia Hill feared for her granddaughter’s life. Ferman did not speculate as to whether he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder or how that may have affected him, but she said that Stone was embroiled in a contentious custody dispute with Nicole Hill Stone that may have motivated his actions.
In an earlier press conference detailing the manhunt, Ferman said that Stone’s current wife and infant son were accounted for and unharmed.
Ferman thanked law enforcement, emergency response personnel and the affected school districts and communities for their patience and cooperation during the investigation.
“To have an event like this really shatter the peace and tranquilly of the community is very disturbing,” said Ferman. “It’s just a horrific tragedy that these people had to endure.”
