It was a double murder that stunned Miami-Dade County and hit close to home at NBC6.
A father and son, Clarence and Brian Gehrke, were gunned down in their southwest Miami-Dade home. No one has ever been held responsible for their deaths.
At the time, the elder Gehrke’s daughter, Bonnie, was engaged to be married to Bob Mayer, a reporter here at NBC6, who would later become a long-time anchor.
The now-married couple spoke with NBC6 about the case that changed their lives, the lingering questions that remain, and why they’re not losing hope for justice to be served.
The murders
On Oct. 10, 1975, at around 7:15 a.m., two bodies were discovered on the kitchen floor of a home on Southwest 43rd Lane near Southwest 107th Avenue in Miami-Dade County.
The victims were Clarence Gehrke, 54, and Brian Gehrke, 24.
Archive video shows police at the home and a diver searching a nearby canal for the murder weapon, which was never found.
“A fellow worker of one of the victims, Clarence Gehrke, came to pick him up at about 7:30 or so, and he discovered both victims with numerous gunshot wounds,” said one of the detectives at the time who spoke to reporters outside the home.
Subsequent news coverage of the murders showed police almost immediately ruled out any possibility of a murder-suicide and discounted robbery as a motive because nothing appeared to be taken from the home.
The weeks before
Clarence, who went by “Bud,” was an experienced engineering inspector with the City of Miami Public Works Department.
A letter from then-Mayor Robert King High welcomed him to his new position back in December 1960, writing in part, “I hope that your employment with the City of Miami will be satisfactory in every respect.”
But in the weeks leading up to the murders, his time with the city seemed far from satisfactory.
Daughter Bonnie Mayer said she noticed her dad was growing nervous.
“He says, ‘I’ve been getting phone calls, hang up, nobody there, and phone calls to hang up.’ He set up a tape recorder to try to record if anybody would speak to him,” she said.
At the time, Bonnie was engaged to Bob Mayer, whom she met on a blind date. Bob spent more than 40 years at NBC6 as a reporter and anchor.
He was out on a story that tragic day when he got an alert from the newsroom telling him to call his then-fiancée right away.
“I called Bonnie and she’s in tears, and I just remembered that she said, ‘Dad and Brian are dead,’” he said.
The search for answers
WTVJ, which was channel 4 at the time, offered a $2,500 reward for information leading to an arrest, but no one ever came forward.
Suddenly, Bob Mayer went from covering crime stories to being on the other side as a grieving family member.
“I knew all the reporters at the other stations, and I asked them, please don’t take pictures of the bodies as they come because I knew it would really be difficult for Bonnie,” he said.
The couple were supposed to get married just three weeks after the murders. The wedding didn’t come until months later, without Bonnie’s dad walking her down the aisle or her little brother by her side.
“I couldn’t eat; I lost 10 pounds. I couldn’t work. I just talked to my friends. Tried to get support. I asked questions, but I didn’t ask a lot of questions. I just figured they would find out who did it,” Bonnie Mayer said.
But 50 years later, investigators still haven’t figured out who did it.
Bob Mayer questions whether city and law enforcement officials at the time did enough to get answers.
“We really believe that for some time, there are people who did not want this case solved,” he said.
The couple said an attorney stepped in to help and has been trying to get answers for the past 11 years.
You’ll meet that man on NBC6 Friday at 6 p.m. We’ll show you what he discovered and why they all believe Clarence’s job may have made him a target.
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