A comedy club owner traveled 2,400 miles to murder his ex-wife and her elderly father, then vanished into the Alaska wilderness where authorities found his body the next day.
Story Snapshot
- Mathew Thomas Becker, 61, flew from Arizona to Anchorage and attempted to shoot his ex-wife at her hair salon before killing her 87-year-old father, Romaine Clark
- Becker tampered with the salon lock, opened fire on his fleeing ex-wife, then drove to her home and shot Clark through a window while friends waited outside
- Police launched a manhunt for the armed suspect, discovering Becker’s body in nearby woods the following morning
- The comedy club owner had recently been diagnosed with cancer, according to his brother, though no prior criminal history or family disputes were reported
A Saturday Morning Ambush That Turned Deadly
The violence erupted on a Saturday morning in March when Becker’s ex-wife arrived to open her Anchorage hair salon. She immediately noticed someone had tampered with the door lock. Before she could process what was happening, she spotted Becker sitting in a car nearby. The man she had divorced, who now lived in Arizona running a comedy club, had returned unannounced. He stepped out of the vehicle and opened fire. She ran for her life and survived, but her first thought after escaping went to her father, 87-year-old Romaine Clark, who lived with her.
An Elderly Man Killed While Friends Waited Outside
Becker drove directly to his ex-wife’s residence after the failed salon shooting. Clark was inside, preparing for an outing with friends who had already arrived and were waiting outside the home. Becker positioned himself at the rear of the house and fired through a plate glass window, striking Clark fatally. The friends, growing concerned when Clark didn’t emerge, entered the home and discovered his body. They immediately contacted police, who launched an intensive search for an armed and dangerous suspect now fleeing through Anchorage.
The Manhunt Ends in the Woods
Anchorage Police Department issued urgent alerts throughout Saturday, warning residents that Becker remained at large and posed an active threat. Officers combed the area around the crime scene, expanding their search radius as hours passed with no sighting. Sunday morning at approximately 10:30 a.m., searchers located Becker’s body in woods near where he had killed Clark. APD Chief Sean Case confirmed that preliminary evidence supported the sequence of events, from the salon attack through the fatal shooting. The medical examiner was tasked with determining Becker’s cause of death, though the circumstances strongly suggested suicide.
Cancer Diagnosis and Cross-Country Violence
Becker’s brother provided investigators with context about the suspect’s recent life in Bisbee, Arizona, where he owned and operated a comedy club. The brother revealed that Becker had recently received a cancer diagnosis, adding a layer of complexity to understanding his state of mind. However, this health crisis doesn’t excuse or explain the calculated nature of his actions: traveling thousands of miles, tampering with locks, and methodically hunting two people. The divorce had apparently festered into murderous rage, but no previous incidents, restraining orders, or warning signs appeared in any records police could locate.
When Domestic Violence Crosses State Lines
This case exposes a troubling reality about post-divorce violence and the limits of geographic separation. Becker’s ex-wife had put considerable distance between herself and her former husband, rebuilding her life in Alaska while he remained in Arizona. That distance provided no protection when he decided to act. The targeted nature of the attack, the tampering with the salon lock, and the immediate pivot to the residence when the first attempt failed, all demonstrate premeditation. An 87-year-old man died simply because his daughter had married and divorced the wrong person years earlier.
The Aftermath for Survivors and Community
The ex-wife now carries the trauma of surviving an assassination attempt and losing her father on the same morning. The friends who discovered Clark’s body will forever associate that moment with what should have been a pleasant social outing. Anchorage residents spent hours on edge during the manhunt, uncertain where an active shooter might surface next. The Bisbee comedy community lost a club owner under the most disturbing circumstances imaginable. The case awaits final closure from the medical examiner’s determination on Becker’s death, though few doubt the conclusion. What remains is grief, unanswered questions about what drives such violence, and the cold reality that divorce papers don’t always end dangerous relationships.
Sources:
Comedy Club Owner Kills Ex-Wife’s Elderly Father, Later Found Dead in Woods
