78-year-old woman accused of robbing a Missouri bank has died, court records show
A 78-year-old woman accused of robbing a bank in Pleasant Hill, Missouri, in early April has died, court records show.
Bonnie B. Gooch, who had been charged in Cass County Circuit Court with one count of stealing from a financial institution, failed to show up for an arraignment hearing last week and a warrant was issued for her arrest.
When Pleasant Hill police officers went to her home on July 26 with the warrant, they found a dead woman in the rear bedroom, police said in a news release.
On Monday, the warrant was returned with a notation that Gooch was deceased per the Pleasant Hill Police Department, court records show.
This was not the first time that Gooch had been accused of bank robbery. Court records show that she had at least two bank robbery convictions — one in 1977 in California and the other in 2020 in Lee’s Summit.
In the Lee’s Summit case, she was sentenced to probation, which ended in November 2021.
‘Unusual’ case
At about 3:20 p.m. April 5, Gooch allegedly entered the Goppert Financial Bank at 2100 N. Missouri 7 highway wearing plastic gloves, a black N95 mask and black sunglasses. She was dressed in an all gray outfit.
She allegedly passed a not to a teller saying she was robbing the bank and needed $13,000 in small bills, according to court documents.
“Thank you sorry I didn’t mean to scare you,” the note read in part.
Surveillance video allegedly captured her banging on the counter, asking the teller to hurry and give her the money, prosecutors claim.
After getting the money, Gooch allegedly left in a Buick Enclave, heading south on Missouri 7. Officers spotted her vehicle and stopped it in the parking lot of an animal clinic. That’s when officers arrested her after finding evidence allegedly linking her to the bank robbery.
Gooch allegedly smelled strongly of alcohol and officers found a large amount of cash on the floorboard of her SUV, prosecutors claim.
In June, she waived her right to a preliminary hearing and was released on her own recognizance on the conditions that she didn’t consume alcohol, enter any financial institutions or be within 50 feet of any Goppert locations.
After her arrest in the Pleasant Hill bank robbery, Police Chief Tommy Wright told The Star that the case was “unusual.” In his 30- years of police work, he said he’d never encountered a bank robbery suspect her age.
“When officers first approached her, they were kind of confused . . . It’s a little old lady who steps out,” he said. “We weren’t sure initially that we had the right person.”
Their suspicions were confirmed, Wright said, when they allegedly found the wads of cash in her vehicle.
