Roommate Identified As Person Of Interest In Disappearance Of 53-Year-Old Woman

The roommate of a missing 53-year-old Oklahoma woman has been identified as a “person of interest” in the case, authorities say.

Talina Galloway was last seen on March 27, but her 58-year-old roommate, Kore Bommeli, waited three weeks before contacting police on April 17, Wagoner County Sheriff Chris Elliot said Wednesday at a press conference.

Bommeli allegedly told investigators that Galloway had tested positive for COVID-19 and had left town because she was afraid of being intubated, according to an affidavit acquired by Oxygen.com. She said that Galloway took her cell phone and her driver's license with her, among other things.

But Galloway's phone's last text was sent on April 7, Elliot said. Additionally, investigators found that she was never screened for COVID-19, according to the affidavit.

Police also uncovered troubling evidence at Galloway and Bommeli’s home. In the backyard, they found the charred remains of a mattress Galloway had recently purchased; it had been torched two days before Bommeli reported her roommate missing, according to the affidavit. Bommeli had also allegedly rearranged furniture in the house to make it appear that no bed was missing and that Galloway slept in the house’s front bedroom, when in fact she slept in the rear bedroom.

When investigators misted the house with a forensic spray, large areas in the rear bedroom and the garage reacted, indicating that they had once been covered in blood, according to the affidavit.

Police also said that Bommeli had conducted recent internet searches for ways to get blood out of concrete and wood. They also discovered the remains of Galloway’s driver’s license cut up in a storage unit that Bommeli was renting, according to the affidavit.

In another storage unit – this one allegedly rented by Bommeli under a fake name – police found two firearms and several hundred rounds of ammunition. The storage unit also contained the tire for a trailer that Bommeli had tried to hide, first at a friend’s house and then at a storage facility, according to the affidavit.

Investigators also found that Bommeli had used one of Galloway’s credit cards to pay her own attorney $1,500. She had also begun selling some of her roommate’s belongings on eBay, including some “very personal and sentimental" items, according to the affidavit.

Bommeli was arrested on June 6 on five counts of obstruction of justice, two counts of destruction of evidence, one count of credit card fraud and one count of larceny. She also faces four charges of possessing a firearm while registered as a felon, as she had been previously been convicted of a felony in a credit card theft/fraud case involving a burglary.

She made bail and is awaiting trial.

Sheriff Elliot stressed that this investigation is still considered a missing person case with suspicious circumstances.

Bommeli’s attorney, Chad Locke, could not be immediately reached for comment.