A man arrested Thursday after a four-day manhunt in Boone County had planned to torture his estranged wife before killing her, Harrison Police Chief Paul Woodruff said.
But Heaven Lee Bolen managed to escape and run from her house in Harrison before Matthew J. Bolen chased her down and shot her in the back of the head on Sunday, Woodruff said.
She died Monday at a Springfield, Mo., hospital.
Woodruff said Bolen was angry because his wife was seeing another man, and jealousy was the likely motivation: "If he can't have her, no one else will."
The police chief said that the only visible wounds Heaven Bolen had besides the gunshot were scraped knees. Her body has been sent to the state medical examiner's office for an autopsy.
Woodruff said Matthew and Heaven Bolen had been separated for a couple of months.
After receiving a telephone call Sunday from Matthew Bolen's brother, police found Heaven Bolen, 26, at about 1:30 p.m. handcuffed and lying face down in a paved alley across the street from her house.
Inside her house, investigators found a bag that contained a ball-peen hammer, a pair of wire pliers, a knife, tin snips, rope, duct tape, Matthew Bolen's truck keys and chewing tobacco, Woodruff said.
Matthew Bolen, 36, had parked his Chevrolet Silverado pickup at the Hotel Seville and walked two blocks to Heaven Bolen's house on Prospect Street, carrying that bag and a 9mm pistol he had borrowed from a friend the previous day, Woodruff said.
Matthew Bolen hid in his wife's house waiting for her to come home, which she did at about noon on Sunday, Woodruff said. When she entered the house, she encountered Matthew Bolen, who apparently handcuffed her with her hands in the front of her body.
At some point, she tried to escape.
Woodruff said he doesn't know of any witnesses who saw the shooting or heard the gunshot. He said Matthew Bolen had called his brother and other relatives saying he had shot his wife.
The police chief said Matthew and Heaven Bolen had two children, an 8-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy. Matthew Bolen dropped the children off at his sister's house before the shooting, Woodruff said. Matthew Bolen was supposed to return the kids to his wife on Sunday, the police chief said.
Matthew Bolen left the scene in Heaven Bolen's Chevrolet Equinox, which had the pink words "Heaven's Day Care" in the back window. Woodruff said Bolen drove to Elkins, 67 miles to the west, where he stopped at an ATM and withdrew cash. On the way there, he stopped to buy chewing tobacco and a soda.
Then Matthew Bolen drove back to Boone County and abandoned the vehicle on Arkansas 392, less than a mile from his father's house north of Batavia. The words "Heaven's Day Care" had been scraped off the back window.
The manhunt for Matthew Bolen ended Thursday when he went to his father's house and called the Boone County sheriff's office, asking if he could surrender. He was arrested without incident.
For the previous four days, about 20 officers from several police agencies had combed the woods in that area looking for him, Sheriff Mike Moore said. Bloodhounds and an Arkansas State Police helicopter were brought in to help.
Woodruff said Matthew Bolen had been sleeping in the woods while he was on the loose.
On Tuesday, as police followed leads, the manhunt expanded beyond Boone County to include Carroll, Newton and Madison counties. But investigators continued to concentrate the search on the woods north of Batavia, where Heaven Bolen's vehicle was found.
The sheriff said Bolen's father gave investigators a 9mm pistol he had gotten from his son.
Bolen is being held in the Boone County jail. Formal charges have yet to be filed against him.
Matthew Bolen was employed at Wabash Wood Products in Harrison, which manufactures laminated oak floors for tractor-trailers.
Heaven Bolen ran a day care business. According to her Facebook page, she was originally from Clyde, Ohio.
Metro on 01/28/2017