Shawna Forde, Jim Gilchrist, and the Arivaca Murders - The U
Shawna Forde, Jim Gilchrist, and the Arivaca Murders - The Untold Story
May 31st, 2011 11:46 pm PT .
Jeff Schwilk San Diego Immigration Policy Examiner
May 30th was the two-year anniversary of the tragic home invasion, robbery, and murders of a 9-year old girl and her father, a suspected drug dealer, in Arivaca, Arizona by Shawna Forde and other members of her small criminal posse.
What has rarely been mentioned by the mainstream media over the past two years is that Forde, 43 had a long criminal history going back to her teens, and was masquerading as a “minuteman” border activist to commit her robberies under the cover of her official title as “Border Director” for Jim Gilchrist’s Minuteman Project (MMP).
View slideshow: Jim Gilchrist, Shawna Forde, and the Arivaca Murders
Forde’s picture, contact information, and writings were posted all over the MMP website long before the murders along with words of high praise from Gilchrist and his business partner and MMP Executive Director Steve Eichler for her aggressive actions at the Arizona border in 2008 and 2009. All postings mentioning Shawna were quickly removed from the MMP website upon her arrest on June 12, 2009 and Gilchrist began telling the media and public that he hardly knew her – a blatantly false statement. Luckily his web posts were screen captured by concerned activists before they were deleted, and they were posted here.
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Jim Gilchrist and Shawna Forde teamed up in 2008 to conduct border ops in Southern Arizona
One of Shawna’s last postings on the MMP website in the Spring of ’09 before the murders, informed her supporters that she was headed back to the Arizona border to take on the drug smugglers. She ended her statement and call to action with “It is time for Americans to lock and load”. Just weeks later, her partner in crime Jason Bush pumped two bullets into Bresenia Flores’ face from point blank range as she pleaded with him for her life.
In the two years since the murders, this bizarre and tragic case has been reported on by numerous media worldwide, used as propaganda by pro-illegal alien and open border activists, and thankfully dealt with aggressively in the Arizona courts.
In February 2011, Shawna Forde was tried by a jury, found guilty, and sentenced to death for the first degree double murders and other related charges by a Tucson jury. In April, Jason Bush was also convicted for the murders and sentenced to death. Bush, 36, is a life-long criminal with a history of severe mental illness who is also suspected in at least four other murders dating back to the 90’s. Bush never joined the Minutemen; he just wanted to help his new friend Shawna rob drug smugglers.
Barring appeals, both Forde and Bush will be executed in Arizona by lethal injection.
Shawna Forde, from Everett, Washington, first tried to latch on to the Minuteman movement in 2006. She joined Chris Simcox’s MCDC border watch group, but was terminated for cause from MCDC less than a year later when she lied and tried to claim a leadership position in the group. She then formed her own local group, Minuteman American Defense, ironically known as “MAD”, but she failed to attract more than a handful of followers.
Despite her failures and being shunned by other leaders in the anti-illegal immigration movement, Jim Gilchrist, of Aliso Viejo, CA, quickly became one of Shawna’s biggest fans and supporters.
Gilchrist had himself been exiled by the mainstream minuteman movement that he helped found in 2004. He had fallen out of favor with almost every secure borders leader and group in the country after a series of bizarre and destructive actions, statements, and malicious lawsuits against several Patriot leaders in 2007.
Jim Gilchrist has admitted he has PTSD and other psychological disorders resulting from head wounds he sustained in the Vietnam War. A former member of the MMP board of directors, who asked not to be identified, says Gilchrist’s wife Sandy admitted to some of the board members in 2006 that Jim has had five brain surgeries.
In early 2008, the two outcasts, Gilchrist and Forde, teamed up to organize new border watching events on the Arizona-Mexico border. They made a deal – Forde would run border operations for MMP in Arizona in exchange for support, recruiting assistance, and promotion from Gilchrist and Eichler. It was a teaming that would eventually lead to disaster.
Gilchrist and Eichler soon featured Shawna prominently on the MMP website for over a year and regularly posted her reports from her border operations. They praised Shawna for having the guts to take on the Mexican smugglers there and urged all MMP members to sign up and join her at the Arizona border. Luckily, few ever did. Shawna scared away many potential recruits when she told them in 2008 not to show up at her border operations without automatic rifles.
By late 2008, the Forde-Gilchrist border watch in Arizona had waned and Forde returned to her home in Everett. That’s when her new round of troubles with law enforcement began.
On Dec. 22, 2008, an unknown man entered Forde’s estranged husband’s house and shot him 5 times. The Fordes’ divorce was just weeks away from being finalized. Miraculously, Mr. Forde survived. Shawna immediately began blogging and emailing telling everyone that Mexican drug cartels had tried to kill her soon-to-be ex-husband, despite no evidence to support that claim. Everett PD soon suspected Shawna might be involved in the attempted murder and attempted to question her – standard police procedure when one spouse is violently attacked.
Shawna avoided police and a week later she suddenly claimed that she had been violently raped, sodomized, and beaten in her home by MS-13 gang members. Just hours after the incident, she posted semi-nude photos of herself online with alleged deep bruises all over her body. People who viewed the photos and read her story of the alleged attack immediately suspected the bruises and scrapes were faked with makeup. Forde had worked as a makeup artist in the past. Everett Police did a rape kit on Forde, investigated the cliam, and could find no evidence of rape or forced entry into the home.
Skeptical secure borders activists, police, and local Everett media began connecting the dots that Shawna was trying to create a cover for her involvement in her husband’s attempted murder, but Jim Gilchrist quickly jumped in publicly to defend her claims and began attacking and smearing anyone who questioned them.
By early January 2009, many secure borders leaders had sent out warnings and web postings advising their members and the public of the Forde situation and to keep their distance from her. One leader, who didn't want his name used for fear of retaliation from Gilchrist, says he warned his California group to avoid all contact with Forde and Gilchrist following the drama in Everett that winter. "Several of us top leaders were pleading with Jim Gilchrist to back off and drop his support of Forde, who clearly had major personal issues and troubles in Everett. We could see disaster coming if Forde and Gilchrist continued to support each other and Forde returned to the border, either in Arizona or California." he said.
Feeling emboldened with Gilchrist’s unwavering support of her increasingly outrageous claims, Shawna continued posting wild stories on the internet about how the “Mexican mafia” was after her and threatening to kill her in Everett. As if on cue, on Jan. 15, 2009, Shawna was mysteriously shot in the arm while supposedly walking in a dark alley not far from her house. She claimed a car full of Latino gang members pulled up to her and shot her, then sped off. Police could find no evidence of a gang attack and suspected that Shawna most likely staged the shooting like she had staged the fake sexual assault two weeks earlier.
Under increasing pressure from police to come in for questioning about her husband’s shooting and the other two incidents, Forde went into seclusion and began plotting her escape to Arizona with the help of Gilchrist. Gilchrist encouraged her to get away from Everett and go back to the Arizona border to resume her border activities. Gilchrist even gave Shawna at least $200 to help pay her travel expenses to Arizona.
Just weeks later, Forde, Bush, and at least one other man forced their way into the Flores home, demanded money and drugs, shot and killed the father and daughter, and then shot Bresenia's mother who survived by shooting back at the killers from the kitchen. She wounded Jason Bush in the leg and that ultimately led to their capture.
It appears that justice has now been served, as two of the three suspects have been convicted and sentenced to death. The third defendant, local Arivaca drug dealer Albert Gaxiola, goes on trial for the murders in June.
Jim Gilchrist, although heavily involved in Shawna Forde’s activities in the 6 months leading up to the murders, has never been charged with aiding and abetting or any crimes regarding Forde and Bush's crimes. He was on the witness list for Shawna's trial but was never called to testify.
Records show that one week after the brutal murders, Gilchrist was still in close contact with Forde and even warned her that police in Arizona were looking for her. A few days later, on June 12, 2009, Shawna Forde's luck ran out and she was caught and arrested at a ranch near Sierra Vista, putting an end to her life of crime, hopefully forever.
Gilchrist and Eichler still run their "Minuteman Project" website, although they have not attempted any more border watches or public rallies since Shawna's arrest.
source: http://www.examiner.com/article/shaw...e-untold-story
