John Francis Baumgardner

Passions

Vocation

Family

American homicide victim, he was gunned down at a mall in Fairfax, VA in 1994, allegedly as punishment or revenge for being an abusive partner. His mother Julianna described him as an athletic child, constantly on the move, a boy who enjoyed sports, playing Little League baseball, football, ice hockey and lifting weights regularly as he got older.. He was the second born of four sons to her and her husband, James. They brought their children up as Roman Catholics, and young John served as an altar boy. When he was nine his dad had open heart surgery and was forced to take a medical leave from the mill in which he worked. His mother earned her degree as a licensed practical nurse and went back to work. John became close to his stay-at-home dad. John graduated from Clairton High School in 1987 and shortly after, in October that year, fulfilled his childhood dream of becoming a Marine. He married dog groomer Deanna Abbott, in Stafford, VA on April 15, 1991, two months after they were married secretly by a justice of the peace. Their son Joseph was born that November. After being honorably discharged from the Marines in September 1992 he began driving a truck. Knee injuries sustained from his athletic endeavors and Marine training prevented him from becoming a State Police Officer. Nevertheless he and his wife bought a house in Manassas, VA. In 1992 with the bills piling up and after the death of his father, John left his wife. In May 1994, he met Karen Nelson and moved in with her and her three children from a previous marriage. The relationship lasted for six months, when John decided to try again with his wife Deanna. On Friday, November 18,1994, his mother was to pick him up but the day before he had been killed. He had reportedly stopped at the Fairfax, VA mall, to have a bite to eat or a drink at a Benigan's Restaurant. When he came out, with a woman at his side, he was gunned down. One of the shooters claimed that the woman, Sheron Montrey, had asked him to protect her from a man named Tony who had been stalking her. In official legal documents, Montrey claimed that she had known Baumgardner for the past two years and that he had been abusive towards her. She had asked Louis William Raia, the shooter, to take care of him for her and had arranged for them to meet on that fateful day.