Bond increased for Travis Bonham

KNOX COUNTY — The bond for Travis Bonham, the suspect in a Knox County double homicide, has been set at $1 million.

Bonham, 31, appeared for a bond hearing in Mount Vernon Municipal Court Friday on two counts of murder and one count each of grand theft of a firearm, tampering with evidence and having weapons under disability.

Bonham is accused of using a .380 pistol owned by his mother, 50-year-old Sandra Stelk, to shoot both Stelk and Bonham's 23-year-old girlfriend Jaime Barber. The bodies of both women were found in Stelk's Coshocoton Road home Sept. 30.

Bonham was arrested Sunday on a charge of grand theft of a  motor vehicle and was being held in lieu of a $50,000 bond. He also had a holder warrant filed by the Adult Parole Authority.

Bonham was indicted Monday on the grand theft of a motor vehicle charge, a fourth-degree felony.

The new charges were filed Thursday afternoon.

Knox County Prosecutor Chip McConville said Bonham confessed to the shootings to a Knox County Sheriff's Office Detective and said he was high on bath salts. Bonham reportedly said he shot the women on Sept. 29, then took a vehicle belonging to Stelk and destroyed a cell phone so police were not able to use it to locate him.

Bonham evaded police for five days before being arrested on U.S. 62 in Licking County Sunday without incident. The woman who was driving the vehicle Bonham was located in, Ashli Price of Mount Vernon, also appeared in Mount Vernon Municipal Court Friday.

Price entered a not guilty plea to a charge of driving under suspension. Her case was continued for a pre-trial hearing later this month. She is free on her own recognizance.

She has not been charged with any crime related to Bonham, however, police have said several people are being investigated for aiding Bonham in his attempt to avoid capture.