19 September 2024
MOORHEAD, Minn. — Family and friends of Tom Bearson wonder what he would be doing today. Would he have become the nurse anesthetist he hoped to be? Would he have his own family?
They also think about the young man he would have been at age 28.
Ten years ago this week, the life of 18-year-old Tom “Tommy” Bearson from Sartell, Minn., a freshman at North Dakota State University in Fargo, was cut tragically short.
Father Greg Bearson said losing Tom is as hard now as it was then.
“We’ve missed out on whatever life he was going to have and what that would have meant to our family,” he said during a recent interview with The Forum from his home in Sartell.
“Not a day goes by when I don’t think of him,” he added.
Longtime friend Sam Neeser, 29, said this 10-year mark puts into perspective the experiences Tom missed.
“As kids in college, I don’t really think we understood the weight of that,” Neeser said.
Tom Bearson was deemed missing in the early morning hours of Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014, after leaving a house party near the NDSU campus.
A mysterious tweet, posted around 1:20 a.m. to Bearson’s then-Twitter account by someone he may have been with, hinted at some kind of danger.
Bearson’s body was found three days later in the parking lot of an RV dealership in Moorhead, about five miles from the house party in Fargo.
The manner of death was classified as homicidal violence, meaning investigators ruled out accident, suicide or natural causes, while the cause of death was classified as asphyxia, or oxygen deprivation.
Though the people Tom Bearson was with that night initially spoke with Moorhead police when he was missing, they did not speak with law enforcement after Bearson’s body was found.
Moorhead police have said for years that this remains an active case.
Capt. Deric Swenson said the department plans to comment on the Bearson investigation through a statement on Friday and declined an interview.
Greg Bearson said he and Moorhead police are in frequent contact, and his family is supportive of their work.
“We absolutely know that they care about Tom and our family and are doing everything humanly possible. … That helps us sleep at night,” he said.
Greg Bearson said he believes the universe has a way of revealing the truth over time.
“At the 10-year mark, this is just another opportunity for the people involved to make things right, so all of us can kind of move on and try to find peace in our lives,” he said.
‘A heavy burden’
Previous reporting by The Forum established that Bearson left his room at Reed Hall around 10 p.m. that Friday night in September 2014 but did not indicate to his roommate where he was going.
At some point, Bearson met up with high school friend Jake Wenzel, and at 1:23 a.m. Saturday, a message was posted on social media from Bearson’s phone that tagged Cody Mead, Wenzel’s roommate, The Forum previously reported.
It read: “dude it’s jake come pick us up. … We are so lost and we are going to die. Just get somebody.”
Bearson and Wenzel eventually made it to the house where Wenzel lived at 824 14th St. N. in Fargo, about six blocks south of Reed Hall.
Police have said Tom Bearson was last seen leaving the house party around 3:40 a.m.
One of Bearson’s shoes and his cellphone were never found.
Authorities monitor Larry’s RV Sales & Services in Moorhead, Minn., where the body of Thomas Bearson, a North Dakota State University student from Sartell, Minn., was found on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014. (Carrie Snyder / The Forum)
In July 2015, Greg Bearson and his wife, Debbie, encouraged people who were with Tom that night to cooperate with police and take a polygraph test.
Police would not confirm whether polygraph tests have been used in this case.
“We’re talking about a crime here. … It’s a big deal for when it goes to trial or whatever, all those things matter. That’s why everybody has to be so careful,” Greg Bearson told The Forum.
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The people responsible for Tom Bearson’s death might have “perfect lives” including good jobs and families now, his father said, but must feel tremendous guilt.
“It’s got to be a heavy burden to carry. At least in my mind, the only path for real peace is if they’re ever able to admit guilt. Until then, they’re just lying. They’re just living a lie,” Greg Bearson said.
He and his wife have managed to find some of their own peace through the nonprofit Tom Bearson Foundation, which raised about a half-million dollars over eight years, he said.
The foundation also partnered with the city of Sartell to build the Tom Bearson memorial basketball courts in a city park in 2022.
Tom Bearson was a standout high school basketball player in the central Minnesota town, graduating in the spring of 2014.
The foundation helped Greg Bearson, his wife and their 30-year-old daughter Maddie cope with grief and gave them an outpouring of support.
Since the foundation reached its goals, the family announced that it was closing the nonprofit after the memorial courts were opened and dedicated in August 2023.
‘Sadness is still there’
Tom Bearson was an integral part of a large core group of friends in Sartell who still think often about what life would be like with him still here.
T.J. Bevans, 28, works as a physician assistant in general surgery at a hospital in St. Cloud.
His father and Greg Bearson are lifelong friends, and their sons were born about 10 days apart, also becoming lifelong friends.
Bevans said Tom had one of the most infectious personalities of anyone he’s ever met.
“When he walked into the room, he was somebody that everyone always wanted to be around,” he said.
Neeser became friends with Tom Bearson in middle school at a basketball camp, and the two lived just down the street from each other in Sartell.
He described his friend first and foremost as funny, someone who wanted to get a smile or a chuckle out of people.
Neeser works for a content marketing company in the Twin Cities where he lives with his wife, 5-month old son and a dog.
Tom Bearson would have been a groomsman in his wedding, he said. Many of the friends are becoming established in their careers and have families of their own.
“These are all things that Tom deserved to experience,” Neeser said.
The bonds go even deeper, as he and his wife gave their son Levi the middle name of Thomas in Bearson’s honor.
Bevans said he’s always thought that time would heal anything — a belief he relied on when his mother died.
He tried to use that as a coping mechanism in the aftermath of Tommy’s death, but it feels different.
“It’s like that stinging feeling, that sadness is still there, even after 10 years,” Bevans said.
Bringing to justice, whenever it comes, the person or people responsible for Tom’s death will provide some level of satisfaction, Greg Bearson said, but it will be bittersweet.
“As much as it would mean to us, it still would never bring Tom back,” he said.
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