By Jennifer Edwards and Robert Anglen
The Cincinnati Enquirer

WEST CHESTER TWP. - The man accused of killing two people at a West Chester trucking company called several people, including his younger sister, and admitted to the shootings, his father and a prosecutor say.

Tom West left recorded messages on answering machines saying he shot the people because he was taking revenge against Watkins Motor Lines employees he claimed had been harassing him and chasing him around the country two years after he quit, a prosecutor confirmed Tuesday.

BENEFIT PLANNED

Stony Ridge Travel Center in Monroe is planning a dance benefit in January or February to aid shooting victims and their families. Kathy Elkins, the center's general manager, says she hopes trucking companies who use Stony Ridge and other travel centers across the region will participate. The benefit is still in the planning stages. To get involved, contact Elkins: (513) 539-9247.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

Tom West is charged with two counts of aggravated murder and three counts of attempted murder. Butler County prosecutors are expected to seek direct indictments Thursday. Prosecutors say it will be up to the grand jury to decide if West will be indicted on a fourth attempted murder charge for allegedly firing at, but missing, another man. One shooting victim remained hospitalized Tuesday. Glenn "Chip" Brierly, 48, of Hamilton, was listed in fair condition at Bethesda North Hospital in Montgomery.

"It was clear on the tapes it was retaliatory and vengeful," Assistant Butler County Prosecutor Craig Hedric said. "There are several people to whom he has confessed shooting these people. ... His motive is to seek some sort of retribution against Watkins, and it is clear on the tapes."

Hedric would not say who else received messages or allow reporters to listen to the tapes.

His court-appointed attorney, Greg Howard of Hamilton, said Tuesday he has only spoken "very briefly" to West and was not aware of the taped confessions.

"Obviously some sort of mental illness, I think, played a factor in regard to what happened here," Howard said. "But I am not basing that on anything I think he has specifically told me."

Authorities in two states say they suspect West, who is 50, changed his birth name 18 years ago from Joseph Eschenbrenner III to elude prosecution on charges of molesting two young girls in Minnesota.

West has been driving around the country in his white Ford van, floating from contracting jobs to truck driving jobs and living in rentals.

"There is a five-state warrant for his arrest," said G. Paul Beaumaster, Rice County attorney in Faribault, Minn. "He was charged with criminal sexual contact with minors."

Beaumaster said West, then 32, was friends with the girls' relatives. The complaint alleged that he got the girls alone and rubbed and tickled them under their clothes.

When West fled the charges, an arrest warrant was issued under the Eschenbrenner name in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa. Although the warrant still is open and West has been arrested, Beaumaster said he is unsure if he will pursue the case now because authorities would have to track down witnesses.

When West applied to be a truck driver at Watkins' Atlanta facility in 1998, the charges didn't turn up on a routine background check, company officials say.

"If he was a wanted felon, we would have turned him in. ... That background check came up clean," Rose Ann Froberg, spokeswoman at the company's Lakeland, Fla., headquarters, said Tuesday. "My understanding is the background check was on his alias, not his real name."

Froberg said Watkins uses a national company to verify employment information, but it is solely based on the applicant's resume.

"That's the glitch in the system, if they don't give us the correct information," Froberg said.

West worked at Watkins until November 2001, when he resigned after overturning a truck. Company officials won't talk about the accident, saying police are focusing on it as part of their investigation into the shooting.

West's father, Joe Eschenbrenner II of Rolling Meadows, Ill., said his son believed Watkins employees and agents continued to harass him after he quit because of that accident.

"Once an employee resigns, that is the end of our association," Froberg said Tuesday, adding that she can't imagine singling out one of Watkins' 2,000 drivers. "I've worked for this company for 14 years. I find it very hard to believe."

Authorities say they still don't know why West chose Watkins' West Chester facility for his rampage. But Thursday, shortly before 10 a.m., police say West sped his van past an unarmed security checkpoint, entered a building and opened fire, shooting five employees he had never met, killing two.

Killed were longtime Watkins employees Bob Lines, 65, of Springfield Township, who was buried Monday; and Donald Haury, 50, of Bellbrook, whose funeral is Friday.

West surrendered about 50 miles away at an Indiana truck stop.

Eschenbrenner said his son tried to call him after the shooting but he wasn't home. So, West called his younger sister, Mary Alice, and told her what he had done.

"He called Mary Alice after the action," Eschenbrenner said. "I wasn't there. I was at work. So, he called Mary Alice and said he was in Indiana. He told her what happened and said he was very sorry it went that way. He said, 'I want to give myself up to the cops' and that was it."

West faces two counts of aggravated murder and three counts of attempted murder. Hedric said West could be indicted on a fourth count of attempted murder for firing at a sixth person but missing.

West was held in maximum security Tuesday without bond at the Butler County Jail.

Outside court last week, West said he wanted to tell "the whole story" but had been advised to wait until he had an attorney.

Hedric intends to pursue the death penalty, saying West is fully aware of what is going on.

"It's bizarre that there are this many victims and this guy just went in there and coldheartedly and cowardly shot five people," Hedric said. "All the people involved in that office are all victimized."

E-mail jedwards@enquirer.com; ranglen@enquirer.com.