Detectives Looking to Schools for Break in Unsolved Killing

Detectives searching for James “Jake” Bush’s killer are hoping the lead that will break the case will come from teachers, counselors or students within the Ventura Unified School District.

On Tuesday, Ventura Police Dets. Glen “Skip” Young and Pat Stevens went to Balboa Middle School, where Bush’s mother and stepfather--Gail and Bob Shirley--teach, and asked for help. They also distributed informational fliers with a composite sketch of a suspect being sought.

“We’re hoping that this gets things going again,” Young told Assistant Principal Lane Jackson.

Jackson said Bush’s parents are still struggling with the loss of their son, but returning to their teaching jobs appears to have helped.

“I think they’ve found a lot of relief in coming to school,” he said. “But staying in that home, and the weekends, are real hard.”

It was four months ago that Bush, a 16-year-old Buena High student, and his mother returned from a day of shopping and discovered that their home on Swift Avenue had been burglarized.

While his mother phoned police, Bush searched the rooms in the front of the house and surprised the intruder.

The lanky, sandy-haired cross-country runner and standout student was stabbed at least three times, and the intruder dashed out the front door, disappearing into the modest Montalvo neighborhood where the family lived.

His mother tried desperately to keep her son alive, but he died three hours later in the hospital.

*

Apart from finding the knife, police have had few promising leads.

Using a composite sketch of a youth seen by neighbors shortly before the stabbing, detectives are hoping to prod someone who may know something about the case to come forward, Young said.

The sketch has been distributed to teachers and counselors at Ventura’s four middle and high schools.

“We’ve had things come trickling in second- and thirdhand,” he said. “We want to encourage anyone with any information to come forward.”

Since the June 24 stabbing, detectives have identified 125 individuals as possible suspects, and each one has been interviewed and re-interviewed.

Most have been eliminated as suspects, Stevens said.

Police located one young man who had bragged to friends that he was the killer, said Stevens.

“We wasted two weeks early on tracking that one down,” Stevens said. “It was very frustrating for us.”

After Bush’s slaying, 13 detectives and officers worked for two months on the investigation, but three homicides in Ventura since Bush’s killing diverted their attention, Stevens said.

*

Because the killer is believed to be in his early teens--neighbors reported seeing a Latino youth they described as 13 to 16 years old with close-cropped black hair and about 5 feet tall--detectives hope that he is either a student or a friend of a student at one of the area’s middle or high schools, Stevens said.

Detectives are asking teachers and school counselors to pass on any information that may be related to Bush’s death.

Anyone with information about the case should contact Stevens at 339-4479 or Sgt. Gary McCaskill at 339-4482.