Suspect In Horrifying Idaho Triple Murder Hasn’t Been Seen in Nearly 7 Years

Depending on how long you’ve lived in Idaho, there are some news stories that live in your head rent free but surface when you’re least expecting them to. 

There's a Plane...On the Freeway

Like this story from October 2015. A small plane landed on I-84 in the middle of the morning commute. We were in the middle of our morning show when we heard our traffic reporter mention that at least two lanes of the freeway were closed due to a Cessna on the freeway. Apparently, the engine had failed mid-flight and the Colorado-based pilot was trying to make it to the Boise Airport for a safe landing. The landing gear also wasn’t working, so he had to land it on the belly of the plane. No one got hurt, but a pick-up truck did hit the wing of the plane as it passed by. 

Goats on the Loose in Boise

Or what’s been affectionately named “Goat-A-Palooza 2018.” We’ll never forget it because it happened the day before our wedding. Our out-of-state relatives wondered if Boise’s news cycle was always slow enough that something like more than 100 escaped goats roaming a neighborhood was enough to be a lead story. They belonged to “We Went Goats” and broke out of the property where they were called in to eat weeds and overgrowth. They were eventually captured and returned to their enclosure but not before videos of the hilarious incident went viral. 

Suspect in Idaho Triple Homicide Hasn't Been Seen in Nearly Seven Years

Then, there’s a much darker story that came up over drinks with a few girlfriends. This story falls under the “true crime” umbrella of news stories you’ll always sort of wonder about. It was June 2017 and the lead story of all of Boise’s newscasts was about a possible triple homicide at a KCID Road home in Caldwell. What started out as a welfare check resulted in the discovery of three partially decomposed bodies covered up in a shed. 

Eventually, they discovered that the bodies were the bodies of Gerald “Mike” Bullinger’s girlfriend, her teenage daughter and his wife. All of them were killed by a single gunshot wound and had been left to rot in the shed. It appeared that the bodies had been there for up to two weeks before they were discovered. 

Yes, you read that right. Bullinger’s girlfriend and wife. Bullinger conveniently never mentioned his wife, Cheryl Baker, to his girlfriend, Nadja Medley when she and her daughter moved from Utah to join him on his new ranch in Caldwell. People who knew Medley were stunned to find out that Bullinger had been married to Baker for nearly a decade. 

READ MORE: 5 Twisted Idaho True Crime Stories That Made National TV

He’d been living a double life, playing doting boyfriend to Medley and a father figure to her daughter, Payton. People Magazine revealed that at the same time, he was still a supportive husband in a seemingly perfect marriage. 

To this day, we don’t know exactly what happened the day the three women were shot. True crime podcast, Casefile, did an episode on the case that suggested that Baker decided to surprise Bullinger with a visit at the Caldwell property the couple purchased together and planned to move to after Baker retired from her teaching job. The episode suggests that visit is when the truth came to light for all parties involved. What happened next? Only Bullinger truly knows.

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Bullinger took off in his Ford Focus, which was eventually found at a remote campsite in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest. It’s widely believed that Bullinger is dead, either as a result of taking his own life, an animal attack or exposure to dangerous outdoor conditions but to this day, no one knows for sure. His body was never found and he hasn’t been seen since 2017. He was the sole suspect connected to Nadja, Payton and Cheryl’s murders.