Three Rogers men are now connected to a murder case that began as a scheme involving fraud, a local car dealership and the car dealer’s death at the end of a gun.
New records show authorities believe a Rogers cancer research director, who became the subject of an FBI raid, may be an accessory to murder.
James W. Bolt, arrested last week in a federal fraud investigation that began with a raid of his cancer research center, was ordered Wednesday in federal court to remain in jail because he may be a flight risk. An FBI agent testified during the hearing that federal authorities were investigating Bolt on suspicion of being an accessory to murder in the death of a Rogers man.
Bolt, 60, was involved in a scheme with capital murder suspect Fred Bremer, 39, to take cars from a dealership run by Jack McCain, 67, and sell them for parts, FBI agent Robert Cessario testified in the detention hearing Wednesday. On orders from Bolt to intimidate the car dealer and cut him out of the scheme, authorities believe Bremer gunned down McCain in the back in 2011 on Gobbler’s Knob Road in McDonald County, Mo., records show.
Bolt then helped Bremer establish an alibi, the agent testified.
The case was left unsolved for two years. Then in June, Bolt allegedly implicated Bremer in McCain’s shooting death, the same month Bolt’s cancer research facility and three other properties were raided by FBI agents in the fraud investigation. Airplanes belonging to Bolt were also seized by federal agents during the raid, according to the FBI.
Bremer was arrested last month on suspicion of capital murder in connection with McCain’s death. He was later extradited to McDonald County, the scene of the alleged crime, and reportedly admitted to authorities that he killed McCain, according to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office in Fort Smith.
Cessario, the FBI agent, also testified Wednesday that Bolt may have told those close to him he was planning to abscond to Belize with $8,000 in cash if he thought police were close to catching him, authorities said.
Bolt remains in the Benton County Jail, awaiting the next hearing in his federal fraud case. Federal authorities continue to investigate Bolt’s potential accessory to murder charge. Bremer remains in the custody of law enforcement in McDonald County, Mo., awaiting trial in his capital murder case.