Planned Parenthood gunman had violent temper, licentious religion

While media attention has shifted to another mass shooting, investigators in Colorado Springs, Colo., continue to search for details about what might have motivated the man who killed three people at a Planned Parenthood facility there on Friday. Public records and interviews with people who knew the accused shooter reveal a disturbing pattern: Robert Lewis Dear had a history of violence and claimed to be a once-saved-always-saved Christian who could do whatever he wanted.

Two law enforcement sources told NBC News when Dear was first taken into custody he said, “No more body parts,” in reference to the Planned Parenthood facility he attacked. The abortion giant has been the focus of a recent pro-life investigation into its participation in and profit from the fetal tissue trade.

But Colorado officials have been tight-lipped so far about the suspect’s potential motives and have declined to name the type of weapon used in the attack. A judge sealed all court records at the request of prosecutors during Dear’s first hearing, held Monday via video conference from an El Paso County jail. Dear is represented by public defender Dan King, one of the attorneys who represented Aurora theater shooter James Holmes. King requested to be assigned to the case, The Denver Post reported.

Records show Dear, a South Carolina native, was married three times. In 1979, he married Kimberly Ann Dear in Louisville, Ky., and the couple had one son. But they separated three years later and Dear moved to Charleston, S.C., where he worked in fast food management until he secured a job with Santee Cooper, a South Carolina power company. The couple’s divorce was finalized in 1985. Dear married Barbara Mescher Micheau three months later, The New York Times reported.

But in 1993, Micheau filed for divorce and provided a detailed affidavit that painted a frightening picture of Dear: She accused him of multiple affairs, a gambling addiction, and physical violence.

Micheau said Dear had no friends but would disappear for gambling trips to Las Vegas or Atlantic City. At home, he often exploded suddenly in anger, kicking her and pulling her hair.

“Rob’s anger erupts into fury in a matter of seconds and is alarming,” she wrote. “You have to constantly monitor his emotional state.”

She also noted he claimed to be deeply religious, although his actions belied that.

“He claims to be a Christian and is extremely evangelistic, but he does not follow the Bible in his actions,” Micheau wrote. “He says as long as he believes he will be saved, he can do whatever he pleases. He is obsessed with the world coming to an end.”

Micheau told the Associated Press that while they were married, Dear came home one day and told her he put glue in the locks of a Planned Parenthood facility in Charleston.

“I just remembered it because I haven’t thought about him for a long time,” said Micheau, whose last contact with Dear was more than seven years ago, when their son turned 18 and Dear no longer needed to come for visits.

Micheau said Dear never talked much about Planned Parenthood although “obviously he was against abortion.” She also recalled Dear “was always plotting revenge against people he felt did him wrong, and you know it didn’t take much for him to feel like somebody did him wrong.”

Pamela Ross, Dear’s third wife, told The New York Times they were married for about 12 years, divorcing in 2000. A 1997 police report filed by Ross said she told police Dear locked her out of the house. When she attempted to climb back in through a window, he “hit her and pushed her out the window,” shoving her to the ground. She declined to file charges, but “wanted something on the record of this incident occurring,” the report said.

Dear’s angry outbursts were usually followed by an apology, Ross told The New York Times. She also said she remembered him as a “big man, well-groomed, gentle and pleasant, but not much for chit-chat.”

Ross said Dear, who worked as an art dealer while they were together, was a pro-life conservative but did not appear obsessed with politics. He was raised in the Baptist church, but was not a regular churchgoer.

“He believed wholeheartedly in the Bible,” Ross told The New York Times. “That’s what he always said. He read it cover to cover to cover.”

Dear’s involvement in questionable activities increased after his last divorce. In 2002, a woman filed charges against him for being a “peeping Tom,” according to NBC News. He moved to a remote cabin in North Carolina with no electricity or running water. He lived as a recluse and hid food in the woods like a survivalist, neighbors said. While a loner in real life, his online persona sought “discreet” sadomasochistic sex via an online adult dating site called SexyAds. He also posted regularly on a web forum dedicated to marijuana, saying he was looking for women for “partying,” the New York Daily News reported.

But Dear’s dozens of posts on Cannibis.com most often contained biblical rants in all caps, according to New York Daily News. Comments included: “aids, hurricanes, we are in the end times,” “accept the LORD JESUS while you can,” and “A FOOL HATH SAID IN HIS HEART THERE IS NO GOD. PROVERBS.”

Dear often argued with users who disagreed with his posts, calling them “slaves” and “demons” who would suffer at the end of the world, according to The New York Times.

Public records show Dear purchased land in Hartsel, about 60 miles west of Colorado Springs, about a year ago. A photo of the property released by The New York Times revealed he lived in a white recreational vehicle parked in the middle of nowhere: no running water, no electricity, not even trees—just snow—at an elevation of more than 8,850 feet.

Stephanie Bragg, his girlfriend of seven years, lived with him in the trailer. A relative of Bragg’s told The New York Times that Dear had not shown signs of violence and the couple was “very religious, read the Bible often, and are always talking about Scripture.”

Despite his questionable lifestyle, nothing in Dear’s background—such as a felony conviction or documented mental health issue—would have disqualified him from buying an AK-47, the style of rifle presumably used in the shootings, according to NBC News.

Prosecutors will file formal charges on Dec. 9. Under Colorado law, prosecutors can seek the death penalty.

“All indications are this guy, as I say, was off the grid,” said Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos. “[It’s] very hard to ferret out these folks.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.