Always a Victim: The Tragic Life and Death of Thomas Bauer

Gina Westfall
Apr 23, 2024
7 min read

Thomas Bauer was born in 1935. He married his wife, Joyce, and the two lived a relatively normal life in Granite City, Illinois. In the early 1980’s, Tom began to get ill. He had previously been drinking alcohol quite a bit, much to his wife’s chagrin. The illness, however, was not related to the alcohol and was quite mysterious. The truth would come out, but it would not be the worst thing to happen to Bauer.

From 1983 to 1985, Tom Bauer started to get sick. He was hospitalized several times for treatment of an unknown illness. Tom had no appetite and lost a ton of weight. In fact, between 1984 and 1985, Tom went from 174 pounds to 114 pounds. His tendons in his hands and feet began to tense up, causing the man to be unable to walk. Tom told reporters that, “My muscles deteriorated and went down to skin and bones- nothing but skin and bones. I couldn’t walk and I had to be in a wheelchair”.

Tom, who worked for Granite City Steel Co., was placed on disability as his health continued to fail him. In October of 1985, he was once again hospitalized. The route cause of his illness was finally discovered: The man had been poisoned with arsenic. Police accused his wife, Joyce Bauer, of poisoning him and causing permanent injuries. Joyce Bauer was accused of spiking Tom’s drinks with arsenic for more than two years.

Thomas Bauer trusted and loved his wife. When authorities first told him that his wife had poisoned him, he didn’t believe it. He told reporters “I love my wife very much, and she loves me very much.” He said he would not believe that his wife had done this without substantial proof. Joyce Bauer was charged with aggravated battery and attempted murder, despite her husband’s disbelief that she was capable of such a thing.

Joyce eventually took a plea deal to the lesser charge of aggravated battery and received two years of probation. Joyce claimed that she was not trying to hurt Tom, but she wanted to make him stop drinking. Joyce and Tom divorced following her guilty plea. Tom was never able to return to work and was put on disability at age fifty-one. He was confined to a wheelchair and required assistance for transportation. He often used a local cab company to go to and from doctors’ appointments, the grocery store, and anywhere else he needed to be.

Fast forward to 1992. Thomas was living by himself in Granite City and remained disabled and in a wheelchair. Tom Bauer relied on a local cab company for transportation, and he often had the same driver, thirty-eight-year-old Roena Ashing. Roena Ashing was born in Granite City, Illinois on April 25th, 1954. Roena was one of five children and lived with her mother and half-siblings. Roena believed that because she was close to her biological father, her mother did not like her.

Roena alleges that as she got older, her mother became more physically abusive. She planned to go into the military after high school, but upon the physical examination it was determined that Roena was pregnant. Roena’s boyfriend was also planning into the service. The father continued with his plans, while Roena made arrangements with her mother. Despite the abuse she states her mother inflicted upon her, she made arrangements to leave her baby with her mother after birth and continue to the military. Unfortunately, Roena’s mother died of heart failure shortly before Roena gave birth to her eldest daughter.

Following Roena’s mother’s death, Roena gave up on her military plans. She gave birth to a baby girl and began the journey of motherhood. After a few months, Roena left her daughter with her father and left to start again in Louisianna. Roena met a man in Louisianna that would become her husband. She brought him back to Illinois and came back into her daughter’s life. She had two more children with her husband before they finally divorced in 1991.

Now living in Granite City with her two younger children, Roena took a job as a cab driver. Her eldest daughter was now eighteen years old and living on her own. Roena liked driving the cab and helping people who couldn’t drive. Roena became the regular driver for Thomas Bauer. She would often take the disabled man to the bank, post office, grocery store, doctor’s office, and anywhere else he needed help. Roena felt she had a good relationship with Thomas Bauer. He trusted her.

On Monday August 10th, 1992, a house was ablaze on Myrtle Avenue in Granite City. As the fire department worked tirelessly to extinguish the flames, neighbors screamed that someone was in the house. The house was owned by Thomas Bauer, and he was wheelchair bound. Thomas was found; however, he was already deceased. Although he was clearly alive when the fire started, Tom was strangled with a belt prior to being lit ablaze.

The Granite City and Madison County police started an investigation to determine who would have killed the fifty-seven-year-old man. Authorities were immediately concerned because on Saturday, August 8th, two days prior to the murder, Tom had filed a complaint with the local police department against his cab driver, Roena Ashing. Tom alleged that Roena had driven him to the bank that day where he withdrew $500. Upon returning home following his errands, Roena Ashing helped him inside and then swiftly left. After she left, Tom realized that Roena had taken the $500 with her.

Thomas Bauer filed a complaint with the police department on August 8th about the theft of $500 from his cab driver, Roena. Roena was facing criminal charges for theft, something she was familiar with. She had previously been convicted of stealing money from an elderly person. Could it be possible she killed Tom to prevent legal trouble? Tom’s former wife had once tried to kill him, could she have finished the job? Newspapers reported on August 14th that neither Roena nor Tom’s ex-wife, Joyce, were considered suspects in his murder. However, the detectives were making progress and by the next day, August 15th, 1992, five arrests were made in the case.

The very next day, August 15th, police took twenty-five-year-old Jeffery Ramsey, eighteen-year-old John McIntyre, nineteen-year-old Robert Russell, twenty-six-year-old Richard Loftis, and thirty-eight-year-old Roena Ashing into custody. Despite earlier claims that Roena was a suspect, she had become implicated during the investigation. It was true, she was not at Bauer’s house the night he was killed, and she had an alibi. However, she was now being accused of orchestrating the murder plot.

Steven Ramsey, Jeff’s brother, had come forward and said that Jeff had told him about the crimes. Allegedly, Jeff had become involved with the older woman, Roena Ashing, and the two were a couple. Jeff lived with Roena, and she supported him and her children. They had met when the two both took jobs at the same cab company. According to Jeff’s family, Roena was a bad influence on him. This story only strengthened these beliefs.

Jeff told his brother that he, John McIntyre, Richard Loftis, and Robert Russell had gone to Tom Bauer’s house to scare him out of pressing charges against Roena. Jeff said that the other men went inside while he waited outside to stand guard. According to Jeff, the others were beating the fifty-seven-year-old man up when things got out of control. They strangled Thomas Bauer with a belt and then set the house on fire to destroy the evidence.

Roena denied these allegations, stating she had nothing to do with nor did she have knowledge of the plan to assault, intimidate, or murder Mr. Bauer. Richard Loftis turned on the other three, accepting a plea deal that gave him twenty years in prison. According to testimony, it was actually Richard who had been waiting in the car, not Jeff. Jeff Ramsey provided state evidence and received a fifty-five-year sentence in exchange for testimony against Roena as the mastermind. Robert Russel was given a deal for thirty-five years in prison with the agreement to testify as well. All three of these men later refused to provide the promised testimony that their deals were based upon but received their reduced sentences anyway.

John McIntyre was the only one actually willing to follow through with his promise to provide testimony. He took the stand and explained how Roena wanted to silence Mr. Bauer before he could testify against her. She allegedly told the men that they could pocket $1500 that she knew Bauer had in the home. The defense claimed he was unreliable, however, as he had changed his story several times. McIntyre received a deal of twenty years in prison in exchange for his testimony. Roena Ashing decided to change her plea to guilty out of fear of receiving the death penalty. She received forty years in prison.

In 2008, Roena Ashing was featured on the television show Women Behind Bars. She indicates that she is innocent and did not know the men were going to kill Mr. Bauer. She continued to proclaim she only pled guilty to avoid the death penalty. She was the last of the perpetrators to be released on parole in 2013. She now lives out of state.

Thomas Bauer had a rough life- first poisoned by his own wife, then robbed by someone he called a friend, and finally murdered by a group of young men acting on Roena’s behalf. Despite the horrendous history of abuse, those who knew Mr. Bauer state he was a happy and friendly man.

References

MVOAY Detail (illinois.gov )