The woman identified as the “Bad Hair Bandit,” who’s suspected of robbing 20 banks in four states, worked as a contract nurse in the Bethel School District during the time some of the robberies were being committed, a district official said Friday.
Cynthia Van Holland, 47, was a nurse with the district from September 2010 until March, district spokeswoman Krista Carlson said. She worked at different schools but primarily was at Camas Prairie Elementary.
As a licensed nurse practitioner, Van Holland worked directly with students who had health problems, Carlson said. The district received no complaints about her.
Van Holland’s time at the district overlapped with seven bank robberies or attempted heists in Pierce County attributed to the “Bad Hair Bandit,” who earned the moniker by wearing a variety of wigs and baseball hats during the robberies. The Pierce County robberies started Dec. 22 at a Tacoma bank and ended April 9 with a holdup at a University Place bank.
Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said Friday that there were no tips to Tacoma-Pierce County Crime Stoppers naming Van Holland as the “Bad Hair Bandit.” The nonprofit organization had been offering a reward for information identifying the robber and leading to her arrest.
“We got a ton of tips on that with a lot of different names but not that one,” Troyer said.
Law enforcement authorities in California arrested Van Holland and her husband Monday shortly after a bank robbery there. Her husband is suspected of being her getaway driver.
The FBI believes Van Holland is the “Bad Hair Bandit,” who also is accused of robbing other banks in Washington plus more in Oregon, Montana and California.
Van Holland has lived in Idaho, California and Tacoma. She was working as a contract nurse at an Idaho state prison when she met her husband, Christopher Scott Alonzo. The 26-year-old was serving time for forgery convictions.
He was released to parole officers near Coeur d’Alene in October 2010, two months before the robberies attributed to the “Bad Hair Bandit” started. The couple married March 14 in Coeur d’Alene.
When she worked in the Bethel School District, Van Holland was employed by Soliant Health, a health care staffing company based in Georgia. The Bethel School District subcontracts with Soliant for nursing services, Carlson said.
Soliant would have fingerprinted and run a background check on Van Holland. The district also checked her references before she started work.
“She had no priors and no red flags,” Carlson said.
Carlson said she didn’t know why Van Holland stopped working in the Bethel School District in March.
After she left the district, Van Holland returned to Idaho. Starting in April, she worked at the Kootenai County Jail for a private contractor as a part-time night-shift nurse.
Her last day at work was Aug. 10.
Stacey Mulick: 253-597-8268 stacey.mulick@thenews tribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/crime
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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