UPDATE: Fugitive killed in standoff

Police: Bostian fatally shoots ex-girlfriend before sniper takes him down

By ArkansasOnline

Photo by Rick McFarland

The body of Todd Bostian is removed from near the home at 144 Blue Heron Drive on Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs on Friday morning.

ADVERSTISMENT

LITTLE ROCK — The two-day manhunt for fugitive Todd Bostian came to a violent end in Hot Springs early Friday when he fatally shot his ex-girlfriend and injured another woman before being taken down by a sniper in a standoff, authorities said.

Bostian was outside a Driftwood Estates home using the two women as human shields when he shot both of them, according to an officer with the Grant County sheriff's office.

Afterward, Bostian was fleeing toward a boat dock on Lake Hamilton when he was killed by a single shot from a sniper . His body was recovered from the lake, reports said.

Police said Bostian shot his ex-girlfriend, Kasey Myers, twice. The pregnant 18-year-old, who was taken against her will from Ward on Wednesday night, was transported to St. Joseph's Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

The injured woman, Rhonda Keck, was transported to a local hospital with a non-life threatening gunshot wound to the leg. Keck and her husband, Mike, own the gated-community home that Bostian had holed up in late Thursday night after leading authorities on a chase in another city.

Todd Bostian

Kasey Myers

About 9 p.m. Thursday, the Garland County sheriff's office received word that a mint green Ford Mustang Bostian was purportedly driving had been seen at a home off Arkansas 7 on the south side of Hot Springs, according to Lt. Rodney Neighbors.

By midnight, SWAT members and negotiators had moved into placed near 144 Blue Heron Drive in Driftwood Estates, he said.

The standoff ended when Bostian apparently tried to make a run for the lake, using the women as shields.

"We were worried that with his reputation, that this might happen if he got cornered," Neighbors said. "He'd run from everyone else."

It was not clear how Bostian got through the subdivision gate, which requires a passcode, or whether the Kecks originally understood Bostian was a fugitive.

Bostian had met Mike Keck at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Neighbors said.

Authorities had mounted a two-day search for Bostian, who they said burglarized at least three homes, stole four vehicles and tied up an elderly woman in her home before taking Myers against her will and fleeing Wednesday night.

Information for this article was contributed by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and The Associated Press.

Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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