A 21-year-old Pennsylvania woman had told authorities that her ex-boyfriend threatened her and installed a tracking device on her car in the weeks before he apparently killed her and her mother the day after Thanksgiving.
Court records obtained Tuesday show that Victoria Schultz talked to police and testified in court that she had feared Cody Bush might harm her. The records also say that at one point he threatened to blow up her car and sent text messages to her and his mother threatening to kill himself.
After she discovered the tracking device, Schultz told police that she had been trying to end her 3 ½-year relationship with Bush, “but he is being very obsessive and is making the split very difficult,” the state trooper wrote in his report. Schultz told him “she is in fear of what Bush might do once he knows the police are involved.”
Last Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, state police issued a news release that they had charged an unidentified 26-year-old man — presumably Bush — who went to Schultz’s address and threatened harm to an unidentified “victim and her family.” But no charges were filed, according to court officials, and Bush remained free.
On Friday morning, Bush went to Schultz’s house in Osceola Mills, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northeast of Pittsburgh, and fatally shot Schultz and her mother, Beth Schultz, before fleeing and killing himself a short while later, according to authorities.
Cody also shot Schultz’s older sister, Jessica, 25, who was hospitalized, police said. Police did not say where Bush got the firearm, or respond to questions about last Wednesday’s threats.
It was not clear whether Schultz had secured a protection-from-abuse order against Bush, which allows a judge to order a stalker to hand over his guns while it is in effect. Clearfield County Court officials said they do not release information about protection-from-abuse orders.
Bush had been charged by state police with stalking and harassment stemming from the tracking device incident.
The existence of the device first came to light Oct. 29 when Bush sent Facebook messages about it to a friend, who then took screenshots of the messages and told Schultz, according to the police report. They located the device in a case attached by magnets to the undercarriage of Schultz’s car, according to court records. Bush later admitted putting it there, police said.
Bush promptly went free after posting a $25,000 bail bond and remained free, even though the conditions of his bail required him not to contact Schultz and to remain free of criminal activity, including intimidating or retaliating against witnesses or victims.
In a Nov. 8 hearing on Bush’s charges, Schultz testified that she was scared of what else Bush was capable of if he put a device on her car, according to the judge’s notes of testimony.
