Guy Edward Bartkus, the deceased “anti-life” suspect in the bombing of a Palm Springs fertility clinic on Saturday, may have made a suicide pact with a Washington woman who died last month after allegedly asking her boyfriend to shoot her.
On April 20, detectives from the sheriff’s office in Pierce County, Washington, found Sophie N. Tinney, 27, lying in her bed with multiple gunshot wounds.
Tinney’s boyfriend, Lars Eugene Nelson, 29, a software engineer, faces charges of second-degree murder in the case.
“The victim may have convinced the defendant to shoot her in the head while she was sleeping,” Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Dalton Smith told the Pierce County Superior Court at Nelson’s arraignment.
Guy Bartkus’s father Richard E. Bartkus, 75, told the Long Beach Post that his son was a friend of Tinney’s. “He went to Washington to visit Sophie before she was killed. He said he loved Sophie very deeply.”
The Long Beach Post reviewed writings on a website apparently controlled by Guy Bartkus. His father confirmed that an audio on the website “sounds like Guy to me.”
A section of the website entitled “What finally put you over the edge?” contains a chilling explanation of what allegedly motivated Guy Bartkus to detonate a car bomb outside the American Reproductive Center in Palm Springs.
“Recently my best friend Sophie killed herself (she got the guy she was living with to shoot her while she was sleeping, her preferred method)… I don’t think I really knew how much it was going to affect me… [I recall] we had agreed that if one of us died, the other would probably soon follow.”
Links on the website lead to a Tumblr account that detectives in Washington have tied to Tinney and to a TikTok account that includes videos of a young woman, believed to be Tinney, explaining her ideology.
“Children can’t consent to being born,” says the woman. “Therefore, it’s not really cool to do.”
The audio of what appears to be Guy Bartkus’ voice echoes these sentiments. “There’s no way you can get consent to bring someone here so don’t f’ing do it.”
The audio also mentions “Inmendham,” the online handle of Gary Mosher, 65, who champions “efilism” — a doctrine that regards human life as an evolutionary mistake.
The Tumblr account linked to Tinney describes the account holder as an “efilist,” and the TikTok video says that “a lot of people into antinatalist philosophy are really big fanboys” of Inmendham.
In a video posted to YouTube on Sunday, Mosher insisted that the Palm Springs bombing was “clearly not my fault.”
Mosher also sent an email to a reporter stating in part: “I consider it a serious crime and recognize and respect that there is an on-going FBI investigation.”
Guy Bartkus’s father told the Long Beach Post that his son “was not a monster” and never wanted to hurt anyone.
“The FBI keeps asking where Guy was between 6-11 a.m. on Saturday. My guess is he was scoping it out and making sure nobody died.”
Four bystanders were hurt in the blast but have since been released from the hospital.
The joint task force is continuing to investigate Guy Bartkus’s motives for allegedly bombing the fertility clinic and whether he had help from any co-conspirators.
Doug Kari is an attorney and freelance investigative journalist. Reach him at [email protected].