Arizona Sen. Russell Bowers said yesterday that he could not believe Valerie Pape was guilty of killing and dismembering her husband, the crime for which she was arrested Friday.
"Valerie Pape showed my paintings in her salon," said Bowers, an avid artist. "She is a very gentle, decent person, and I'm astonished at this." Merle Bianchi was Bowers' administrative assistant for several years, and introduced Pape to the senator. It was to Bianchi's house that Pape went in the fall when she sought refuge from her husband, Ira Pomerantz, 60, a bar owner. It was to Bianchi's home Saturday that police went to serve a search warrant.
"They looked and perhaps took some things, but I don't know what," Bianchi said Sunday. "I only know that Valerie was the most kind, warmest, most gentle person you ever met in your life. She was naive and trusting." Mesa police arrested Pape on Friday. The 47-year-old French citizen and Scottsdale beauty salon owner admitted to police that she had dumped Pomerantz's headless, legless, armless torso into a Mesa trash bin that day. It was four days after finding him dead at their home, she said.
Pape told police she found her husband's clothed body lying face up in a pool of blood in her Scottsdale home on Monday morning. A gun lay nearby. Her husband had been fatally shot in the back, police said. Then, on Friday, she dumped the body. It remains unclear what Pape did with the body during those four days. Pape told investigators she disposed of the body because she feared being accused of his murder. In court Saturday, Pape said she had not killed her husband. Bianchi said Pape "was terribly afraid" of Pomerantz. "She started coming to my home last fall, shortly after my husband was murdered," Bianchi said. "She called me one night and said Ira had thrown knives at her. She ran out the back door and said could she come and stay with me." Bowers also knew about Pape's problems. "I think highly of Valerie, and it makes me sick to my stomach to think this could happen to her," Bowers said. "I knew her husband beat her up. I've seen her face. It was a sickening thing."
