KEY WEST -- A man accused of committing a ghastly April murder at the Key West Bight was arrested late Friday at an Arizona mountain gathering to pray for world peace.
Joseph Giebel, who allegedly killed a Jensen Beach woman then eluded police for two months, was turned in by the Rainbow Family, a group that holds annual camps around the nation to promote alternative, nonviolent lifestyles. After getting a tip via the Internet from Key West police, 25 members of their internal security force, known as the Shantasena, captured Giebel near Eager, Ariz., Friday night.
The Shantasena don't carry weapons. They apprehended Giebel by surrounding him while he was sitting in a folding chair, then called police.
``Braver men than I. I don't know how they managed it,'' said Sgt. Jim Morris, of the Apache County Sheriff's Office. ``If I wasn't a law enforcement officer I would have been hesitant to take on a man with that kind of criminal charge.''
Giebel, charged with murder and sexual battery, spent Independence Day in jail in Springville, Ariz. Key West Detective J.R. Torres and Detective Sgt. John Hardy flew to Arizona Saturday to meet him.
Giebel is suspected of killing Sherri Lynn Jett, a tourist in town with her boyfriend for the Conch Republic Days celebrations, police said. Her boyfriend, Donald Wright, also of Jensen Beach, reported her missing April 26 when she didn't return to their Holiday Inn La Concha hotel room after a disagreement.
Police believe Giebel befriended her at a bar then killed her while sexually assaulting her with an object that ruptured her bowel. According to the autopsy report, Jett bled to death. She was also beaten on the head, back and arms. Injuries suggest she tried to fight off her attacker.
Giebel, 57, was known on the island as William Nelson Kirby, a Jabour's Trailer Court employee who often played a bongo drum in the doorway of a William Street warehouse.
Hearing that Giebel, also known as Bongo Bill, liked to hang out at Rainbow Family gatherings, play drums and sell arts and crafts, Sgt. Hardy looked up the group on the Internet. He found a site for the Rainbow Family of Living Light, then sent an e-mail to them.
``It was just something I tried out on my home computer to see if it might work,'' Hardy said. ``And it did.''
The two-week gathering, the 26th annual Rainbow Family Gathering of the Tribes in the mountains of northeastern Arizona, attracted 25,000 people, Apache County police said. The crowd more than doubled the population of that corner of the county. The celebration ended Saturday morning with a prayer for the protection of mother earth, followed by a dance to drum beating, Sgt. Morse said.
Copyright 1998 The Herald Times