In 2014, Bradley Stone was a 35-year-old man living Pennsburg, Pennsylvania. He joined the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve in October 2002 & his specialty was listed as “artillery meteorological man.” His job was to assist with military fire accuracy & he was said to enjoy the job & the role of leadership it gave him. He was trained in California & deployed to Iraq on April 17, 2008 & returned on July 2, three months later.
He served alongside fellow Marine members Adam Perone & Robert Groover who said that Bradley frequently complained about his then wife, Nicole Stone & was often overheard yelling at her while they spoke on the phone while they were still in the U.S. The two had been married since 2004. When they were deployed in Ramadi, Stone would often wander off with the communal phone, returning angry. It was said that the job that he completed while in Iraq was not stressful & mostly involved monitoring a computer screen during four-hour shifts to track missiles. The base he was stationed in was safe enough that Stone was able to go running. During his time in Iraq, there are no records of his having been wounded though it was said he sometimes used a cane or walker when getting around.
A man named Joe who had served under Stone’s command in the 3rd Battalion 14th Marine regiment based out of Northeast Philadelphia & had spent more than a year working with him described Stone as a very quiet man who did not mesh well with others. He also said that the common theme was that Stone was, “quite frankly, a little odd & the common theme was always that he was a little out there.”
In 2009, Stone’s wife Nicole filed for divorce & a custody battle over their two daughters began. He would openly talk about the divorce with his fellow Marine members & say how crazy he felt Nicole was & that he was broke because much of his money was going toward the divorce. He filed an emergency request for custody for his daughters, 5-year-old Kayla & 8-year-old Shannon after he learned that Nicole had sought treatment for drug addiction but a judge rejected the petition. The terrible fights between the couple had been a constant topic of conversation amongst family members & a friend of Nicole’s indicated that ever since the two met, he worried about her relationship with Bradley.
In 2010, Stone was diagnosed with PTSD & the Veterans Affairs officials deemed him unemployable & totally disabled as a result of PTSD. Court documents indicate that Stone received in-patient treatment at the Coatesville VA Medical Center for PTSD though it’s unclear when & for how long. He was honorably discharged in May 2011. On December 8, 2014, a day before the custody ruling, Stone followed-up with a psychiatrist who deemed that he exhibited no signs of suicidal or homicidal thoughts. Court documents indicate that after he’d been deemed permanently disabled, he began collecting benefits from the VA that amounted to $3,260 a month.
Stone was also under the supervision of Montgomery County Veterans Court after pleading guilty to drunk driving in November 2013 to an April 28 car accident while under the influence & was given 23 months of supervision including an initial 90 days of house arrest. It was his third DUI arrest; the first happened in 2001 & the second in 2004. As part of his sentence, he was participating in a court-ordered county rehab program for veterans & was instructed by his probation officer that he was not permitted to own, possess or use firearms. Probation & parole officials conducted seventeen home visits, including seven unscheduled visits or contacts & inspected his home & outbuildings for any firearms or contraband. None of these visits found anything that would put him in violation of probation & parole. As recently as November 2014, Stone had lied to a military psychologist when he stated that he did not have any weapons.
In August of 2013, Stone married Jennifer Ovdiyenko Stone & the two had a son together. Nicole had gotten engaged during the summer of 2014. Despite both moving on to new relationships, the relationship between Stone & Nicole had grown increasingly bitter & relatives & Evan Weron, a neighbor at the Pheasant Run Apartments in Harleysville said that Nicole often spoke of the custody dispute. She would come over crying about how upsetting it was & she would tell anyone who would listen that she was fearful he would kill her. She would sometimes ask her apartment complex maintenance staff to check her apartment before she went inside because she was fearful he was lying in wait. He would often call her to threaten & harass her to keep her living in a state of terror.
Nicole had requested a permanent protection-from-abuse order against Stone but this was denied on September 23, 2010.
On Sunday, December 14, 2014, Stone’s neighbor, 24-year-old Drew Servis was walking home at about 11:30 pm in the below freezing night & was taken aback when he noticed Stone standing on the street corner just outside his house. He was wearing only a t-shirt & jeans & looking down at the pavement. As Drew neared him, he said, “How’s it going?” but Stone didn’t respond & just continued to stand with his hands in his pockets, staring at the ground. He was baffled by the odd behavior. The same impression was felt when a delivery man brought Stone his usual Friday night dinner & noticed that he wasn’t up for conversation & the interior of his home was “pitch black” which was not typical but said that Stone tipped him well.
Before dawn, on Monday, December 15, 2014, Stone went on a rampage that spanned 40 miles, traumatized three schools, killed six family members & orphaned three children & has been considered one of the worst mass murders in Pennsylvania since 1966. A hang-up 911 call that was traced to a home on West Fifth Street in Lansdale was the first indication that something terrible had happened. Thirty minutes later, a neighbor of Nicole’s also called 911.
35-year-old Stone started his gruesome rampage at Nicole’s sister’s home in the 100 block of Penn Avenue in Souderton at 3:30 am, gaining entry to the home by bashing in the back door. 36-year-old Patricia Flick, her husband, 39-year-old Aaron “AJ” Flick & their 14-year-old daughter, Nina Flick were killed. Patricia was found on the second floor front bedroom & had been shot in the head & arm & had slicing injuries to her legs, AJ was found in the same room & had suffered gunshot wounds to his head & right hand & cutting injuries to his arm & head & Nina was found on the second floor middle bedroom & had twelve cutting injuries to her face & skull & an incision wound to the back of her neck. Their 17-year-old son, Anthony, who was a student at Souderton High, was discovered alive after barricading himself on the third floor after he sustained a gaping head wound & three severed fingers which were inflicted when he was trying to defend his sister. Anthony was taken from the home in an armored vehicle & then air-lifted to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia for treatment & was said to be in serious but stable condition at the time. One week later, Anthony was released from the hospital.
Stone then left the Flick family home & traveled a few miles to Lansdale at about 4:25 am where Nicole’s mother, 57-year old, Joanne Gilbert lived with her mother & Nicole’s grandma, 75-year-old Patricia Hill in their row home. He also gained entry into this home by breaking through the back door. Joanne was found on the second floor middle bedroom with her throat slashed & a gunshot wound to the head & Patricia was found in the same bedroom & had a gunshot wound to the left forearm & a fatal shot to the head near her right eye as well as defensive, cutting wounds to her arms. Neighbors never heard a sound.
At 5 am, he headed to the home of 33-year-old, now Nicole Hill’s Lower Salford apartment where she was staying with their two daughters. He entered the home after breaking the sliding glass door with a propane tank. Nicole was his last victim & was shot twice in the face as well as the hand while their two girls were in the home; her body was found in a second floor bedroom. Shell casings from Stone’s .40-caliber handgun were found at all three of the crime scenes & the gun itself was located at Nicole’s home.
Nicole’s neighbor, Ashley Deane called 911 after hearing glass breaking followed by three to four gunshots coming from Nicole’s apartment just before 5 am. She also heard Nicole’s girls yelling, “Mommy, mommy, no! I want my mom!” before hearing a man’s voice say, “Come on, let’s go. We have to leave now.” Ashley opened her window & called to Stone, asking if everything was okay when she saw him leading the two girls away, wearing pajamas & no coats, to his car & he said, “She’s hurt, we have to go. She’s hurt.” The girls were thankfully found safe with one of Stone’s neighbors where he had dropped them off.
When police responded to the apartment, they could see two bullet holes in the wall from the outside & found Nicole deceased. This was when they realized that she had a sister & decided to make a welfare check to her home at 8 am which is when they found the three bodies & a badly injured Anthony. In the meantime, they tracked down Stone’s new wife Jennifer & held her & her infant son at a secure location for safety. It was the police’s immediate theory that a dispute over the custody of the children set-off the killing spree.
SWAT teams surrounded Stone’s Pennsburg home for hours on Monday, pleading via bullhorn that he come out & surrender. The FBI, ATF & US Marshals all joined the search. A series of flash-bangs were heard & at one point, a team smashed into the garage & sent a robot inside. Nearby neighbors were forced to vacate their homes during this time, terrified by the site of the dogs, guns & the SWAT team themselves. Not knowing where Stone was, police also surrounded the Flick home & spent several hours there, believing he could be inside. It was said that Anthony remained injured inside for seven hours because police believed that the person they briefly saw in the upstairs window was Stone. They finally made entry into the home just before noon & moments later, an ambulance was seen rushing from the home. Area schools closed & hospitals & other public places had increased security measures during this time. Members of the local community were instructed to shelter in place as a manhunt for Stone began. He was considered armed & dangerous & residents were instructed not to approach him if seen & to immediately dial 911. That night, canine units picked up Stone’s scent & a wooded area was searched along with a police helicopter that flew overhead, using infrared cameras though he was not located. He was white, 5’10” & 195#, likely wearing military fatigues & had possibly shaved off his facial hair.
Later that night, 34-year-old Luke Sanderlin reported that a person matching Stone’s description had pulled a knife on him while he was walking his dog & demanded his car keys. He said he fled after he fired several shots at him from his handgun. This encounter was later proved to be fabricated & Sanderlin eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of making false reports.
The next day, Tuesday, December 16, a grid-based, property-to-property search resumed in Pennsburg & at approximately 1:30 pm, the 36-hour manhunt came to an end when his body was found in the woods, about a half-mile from his Pennsburg home. On initial findings, it was believed that he’d died of self-inflicted wounds at the center of his body. A gash to his leg was also apparent & in the vicinity of his body, medication bottles with a crushed-up powdery substance, an energy drink with a powdery substance around the lip, a double-bladed black ax & a machete were located. Both the machete & ax were coated in blood. It was estimated that he’d been dead for about twelve hours by the time he was found.
A preliminary autopsy by the former Warren County Medical Examiner found a seven-centimeter stab wound to his upper thigh & three superficial cuts to the leg & hip area. He also had ten scratches on his face & neck. It was determined that the self-inflicted cutting wounds to his midsection had not been Stone’s cause of death. After toxicology results came back, his cause of death was determined to be due to “combined drug intoxication” via suicide. He’d consumed the antidepressant Trazodone, the antipsychotic Risperidone & a psychoactive drug called mCPP.
Nicole was described as affectionate & sincere; someone who loved to camp & fish with her daughters. AJ Flick was an athlete who played baseball, soccer & football & collected Spider-Man comics. He was said to be the kind of person who would give you the shirt off his back. Nicole’s sister & AJ’s wife, Patricia Flick was a nurse who lived by the motto, “You can’t help others unless you help yourself.” A longtime friend of her son’s said that she was one of the kindest people he had ever & will ever meet. They raised their two children in a home that was always welcoming. 14-year-old Nina was described by her friends as carefree & cool & made friends very easily because she was someone who always had a smile on her face.
Local residents were shocked & sickened by what happened. Police officer Tom Lawson said he’d been there for about twenty-two years & had known the Flick family throughout that time. The entire crime scene was sickening but he couldn’t wrap his head around Nina’s murder. He always knew her to be a wonderful little girl & recalls entering the home & seeing that she’d died so tragically.
Neighbors of Patricia Hill & Joanne Gilbert, Bill & Lisa Andry, didn’t only know them but had also watched Nicole & Patricia grow up. They were at the hospital when Patricia gave birth to Anthony. They remember seeing Nicole just the day before she was murdered & was saddened that they hadn’t had the chance to talk to her one last time. They said that anytime they were working outside their home, tending to their garden, they were always in contact with Patricia & Joanne & she described them as old-school & not afraid to share their opinion. Lisa knew Bradley Stone from times when Nicole would come for a visit & she described him as friendly during their interactions, but she was very aware of the issues the couple had experienced during their marriage, personally seeing the couple scream at each other. They stood on their front porch as Patricia & Joanne’s bodies were removed from their home & immediately knew it was Brad who had done this.
A year after Stone’s rampage, Nicole’s daughters were living with family in Montgomery County while Anthony was living with an uncle in the same county. During the investigation, Souderton Police Chief James Leary realized that they couldn’t only focus on the police investigation but also needed to think of the surviving children, Nicole’s two daughters & Anthony Flick. He got a group together & a foundation was formed to raise money for the kids & it was named the Stone & Flick Children Fund. Within a month, more than $100,000 had been raised & less than a year later, it had reached $341,000. Additional fundraising efforts were also launched since so many people had known the Flicks; their motto was to bring the children from tragedy to stability & then from stability to progress. Montgomery County Community College also offered to pay Anthony’s tuition to help him to earn his associate’s degree to transfer credits to another college if he chose to continue his education. Anthony’s close friends started a fundraiser called Flick’s Fighters that raised $36,490 through many small donations from students. Anthony eventually returned to his high school & was extremely grateful for the support. Anthony’s friends also try to keep the traumatic memories from December 15, 2014 at bay.
References:
- The Guardian: Marines who served with Bradley Stone reveal past aggression toward ex-wife
- Murderpedia: Bradley William Stone
- Phillysburg.com: Recovering from tragedy, one year after the Bradley Stone murders
- CBS News: DA: Pa. killing spree suspect dead in apparant suicide
- ABC News: Pennsylvania killing spree suspect poisoned himself, autopsy reveals
- Iradiophilly: Anthony Flick out of hospital
- WRCBtv.com: Correction: Home shootings – Pennsylvania story
- Lehighvalleylive.com: Bradley Stone brutalized his seven victims, poisoned himself, authorities reveal
- Wikipedia: 2014 Montgomery County shootings
- NBC 10 Philadelphia: Shooting spree suspect had odd reputation, known issues with ex-wife: Fellow Marines
- Patch.com: Who is Bradley Stone?
- ABC 7: Montgomery County killing spree suspect possibly spotted
- New York Post: War veteran accused of killing 6 committed suicide
- Daily Beast: Iraq vet who killed ex-wife & 5 in-laws found dead
