Spurned Advances May Be Behind Shootings

A Pomona College classics professor who police say shot and killed a house guest before committing suicide might have been angered that she didn’t want a romantic relationship with him and was going to move out, her father said Friday.

The bodies of Howard Jackson, 58, and Jennifer Grasmick, 30, were discovered by police Tuesday in the bedroom of the professor’s home in the 400 block of University Circle in Claremont.

Jackson shot Grasmick with a shotgun before shooting himself, Claremont Police Lt. Stan Van Horn said.

A friend of Jackson’s went to the professor’s home, found all the windows and doors open and decided to call authorities, Van Horn said.

Investigators are interviewing friends and relatives of the pair, who shared a close 10-year friendship. Police believe that Jackson wanted the relationship to become romantic and may have been angry when Grasmick found a boyfriend, the lieutenant said.

“I’m sure that was disconcerting for Howard,” said Grasmick’s father, David.

The pair met when Grasmick was a waitress at a Claremont restaurant, her father said. Both loved languages and good wine and quickly developed a close friendship that Jackson, a respected teacher of subjects that included classical Greek history and early Christianity, pushed to become more, he said.

“In her mind they were just friends, but she knew that Howard wanted more,” he said. “She was able to keep it platonic. The romantic relationship was in Howard’s mind.”

The pair entered cycles where they would become close until Grasmick would pull away and embark on one of her frequent trips abroad, her father said.

He added that Grasmick was free-spirited and a restless traveler who went to Europe often to soak up the cafe society of such countries as France and Italy, where she taught English before returning to Claremont about six weeks ago. Looking for a place to stay, she moved in with Jackson.

Jackson was socially reserved and took medication for manic depression, but he shined in front of a classroom and ranked as a leading expert in Gnosticism, authorities said.

Neighbors said that in the last few years, he had grown increasingly isolated, moody and unhappy. The reticent but always polite scholar withdrew even more, Lt. Van Horn said.

“He seemed to be a very, very intelligent man, but not particularly social and not very close to his family,” Van Horn said.

The elder Grasmick said his daughter was working on obtaining her credential to fulfill her dream of becoming a teacher.

“When she was with us, it was a blessing,” he said.