Martinez, Calif. – Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton announced today that the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office has secured a first-degree murder conviction with special circumstances in the trial of People v. Mitchell Lynn Bacom, docket 05-1911829-1.
On Tuesday, March 15, a Contra Costa jury convicted 67-year-old Antioch resident Mitchell Lynn Bacom of the 1980 murder 14-year-old Suzanne Bombardier. Bacom, 27 years old at the time, was an early suspect in the initial murder investigation. The case went cold until 2017 when Bacom was identified as the perpetrator through a biological sample matched to his DNA profile.
“Justice did not come swiftly for the Bombardier family,” said District Attorney Diana Becton, “with the perseverance of Antioch detectives and scientific advancement, the successful prosecution of Mitchell Bacom brings closure to this 37-year-old mystery.”
On June 21, 1980 Suzanne Bombardier disappeared from her sister’s apartment where she was babysitting her younger cousins. A week later, her body was recovered from the San Juaquin river. Along with evidence of a sexual assault, the cause of death was determined to be a single stab wound to the chest.
Having been convicted of first degree murder, along with special circumstances for commission of the murder during the course of burglary, kidnapping, and rape Bacom will be sentenced to life in prison without the possible of parole.
Bacom had previously been convicted in 1974 of rape and other felony offenses in Mountain View. Bacom was on parole for those offenses at the time of Bombardier’s murder. In 1981, Bacom was convicted of a subsequent sexual assault and related felonies for which he was sentenced to 24 years in state prison. The 37-year-old murder of Suzanne Bombardier was the oldest open homicide on record in Antioch.
