Kimberly Bailey: Holistic Medicine Mogul Has Private Eye Ex-Lover Kidnapped, Tortured and Killed’ Kimberly Bailey’s paranoia led her to hire a private investigator — and then ultimately have him murdered.
When millionaire Kimberly Bailey found out her sometime-boyfriend, Rick Post, was sleeping around and stealing from her, she had him kidnapped, tortured, and murdered. But it turned out Rick’s business associate was the one telling Bailey lies to get him out of the way.
Kimberly Bailey: Holistic Medicine Mogul Has Private Eye Ex-Lover Kidnapped, Tortured and Killed
Richard “Rick” Post was born in 1945 and grew up in San Diego, California. He joined the U.S. Army at the age of 18 and served in the Vietnam War.
“He scored the highest IQ test in the whole western seaboard of the Army so they immediately put him into Army Intelligence,” Rick’s son Ian Post told “Snapped,” airing Sundays at 6/5c on Oxygen.
Rick was married twice and had four kids. To support his family, he put his military training to use, opening Intellisource Security And Investigative Services, Inc. in San Diego.
“The type of work ranged anywhere from, we’ll call it investigation to cheating investigation of a spouse or husband and anything in between,” said Ian.
Rick wasn’t afraid of dangerous assignments and also worked on murder cases that brought him face-to-face with killers.
In the late 1990s, he hired aspiring young private investigator John Krueger to help with his caseload.
Then, in 1997, Intellisource was hired by a woman named Kimberly Bailey. Bailey owned a 33-acre farm north of San Diego where she grew holistic medicines and avocados and also sold alternative medical devices.
“She had a business known as AstroPulse and the idea was that by using electrical currents you could cure pretty much anything,” former FBI Special Agent Jeffrey Thurman told “Snapped.”
By her early 40s, Bailey was a multi-millionaire. With success though, came suspicions.
“Kim was rather paranoid. She always believed that someone was watching her or after her,” former business associate Kenneth Altpeter told “Snapped.”
Fearful people were stealing from her, Bailey hired Intellisource. The relationship between her and Rick eventually went from professional to romantic, but Rick later broke it off with Bailey.
“I do remember my father telling me at our home he wanted to keep this relationship professional, that he did not want to have a romantic relationship with her,” said Ian Post.
But then, on August 21, 1998, a secretary at Intellisource called 16-year-old Ian Post and asked if he knew where his father was. Ian hadn’t seen him in 24 hours and calls to his phone went unanswered. Rick’s car was parked in front of his house with the keys in the mailbox.
Though Ian was used to his father leaving town abruptly for work, Rick always told him when he would be back and would make arrangements for someone to look after the teenager.
“Rick didn’t tell his 16-year-old boy that he was going any place. Took no clothes. Took no medications with him. That’s not a normal business trip. That’s suspicious,” former FBI Special Agent Nick McKean told “Snapped.”
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John Krueger contacted Ian a week later to say Rick had left a voicemail message at the office.
“The voicemail was Rick’s voice and was directed to his office staff saying that he was going to be in Mexico for a few days and he was fine, not to worry about him,” FBI Special Agent Brett Fenoglio told “Snapped.”
Though Krueger insisted the message was left the day before he disappeared, Ian thought it sounded like his father was being coerced.
“It really wasn’t what my father was saying, it was his candor, the way he spoke,” said Ian.
The Post family filed a missing persons report in August 1998.
Krueger told investigators he had last seen Rick on August 20, in the company of Kimberly Bailey. They then interviewed Bailey, who said she and Rick had traveled to Mexico for business on August 20. She claimed they went out for a meal while in Tijuana, during which Rick was approached by two men.
“At the conclusion of the conversation, Rick told Kimberly that he needed to make a business trip to Mexico City,” said Thurman.
Bailey claimed she took Post to the airport where he boarded a plane. She then drove his car back to his home in San Diego, leaving the keys in his mailbox.
But four months later, the U.S. Attorney’s Office was contacted by lawyer Coleen Cusack. She was seeking blanket immunity for a client in exchange for information about the kidnapping and murder of a San Diego resident. The U.S. The Attorney’s Office refused the deal but passed the information to the FBI. With the few details they had, investigators believed the victim was Rick Post.
In May 1999, the FBI attempted to re-interview John Krueger. He said he would first have to speak with his lawyer, Coleen Cusack. He subsequently ended the interview.
“At that point we quickly made the connection that Rick Post was not just a missing person. Rick was murdered and John Krueger has information directly related to the kidnap of Rick Post,” said Fenoglio.
The FBI also learned Kimberly Bailey was under investigation for fraud related to the medical devices she sold and put her under surveillance. In November 1999, the FBI went to Bailey’s farm. There, they spoke with farmhand Bruce Perlowin and his wife, Svetlana Ogorodnikova.
“This moment was a jaw-dropper for the agents. Svetlana was someone that was known to virtually every FBI agent who joined the agency during the 1980s and 1990s,” said Thurman.
During the 1980s, Ogorodnikova was convicted of espionage after seducing a Los Angeles FBI agent and passing confidential documents to the Soviet Union. She served nine years in prison before being deported and moving to Tijuana with her husband, according to the Berkeley Daily Planet newspaper. Ogorodnikova and Perlowin later entered the United States illegally and worked for Bailey at her farm.
Ogorodnikova said Bailey was upset Post broke off their romance and suspected him of stealing from her.
“Kimberley Bailey had actually confided in Svetlana that she had orchestrated the kidnap and murder of Rick Post,” said Fenoglio.
Ogorodnikova agreed to record Bailey talking about the murder. The perfect opportunity arrived when Bailey asked Ogorodnikova to pick her up in Arizona and drive her back to California. Hidden recording devices in the car caught Bailey sharing details of Rick Post’s grim end.
Bailey said Krueger had contacted her in August 1999 and told her Rick was stealing her money and sleeping around behind her back. Enraged, Bailey paid $40,000 to have an associate of Krueger’s named Humberto Iribe kidnap and torture Rick, according the Los Angeles Times.
Bailey lured Rick to Tijuana where he was abducted by Iribe and tortured for five days, enduring beatings and having his fingers crushed with pliers. Bailey said she would travel down to where he was kept in Mexico to watch the torture.
“Rick said, ‘I admit that I slept with other women.’ He’s always denied stealing anything,” Bailey told Ogorodnikova on the recordings, which were obtained by “Snapped.”
Bailey claimed she wanted to keep Rick alive and imprison him in a private dungeon but that Iribe said it was too dangerous.
“That’s when I said, ‘Do what you have to do,’” Bailey told Ogorodnikova.
Bailey would later pay Iribe an additional $10,000 to have Rick executed, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Bailey subsequently asked Ogorodnikova to help her find someone to kill Krueger and Iribe. A meeting was set up between Bailey and former FBI Special Agent Nick McKean posing as a hitman.
“She wanted three people killed. She wanted John Kreuger. She wanted her attorney and then she wanted her gardener,” said McKean. “I couldn’t get her to tell me why she wanted her gardener killed. Still don’t know.”
She then gave him $10,000 as a down payment.
John Krueger was arrested in April 2000 in San Diego. Later that month, Kimberly Bailey was arrested at a Mexico City airport, where she was traveling with a Canadian passport. Humberto Iribe would avoid arrest until 2003, when he was extradited to the United States.
Krueger pleaded guilty to conspiring to kidnap Rick Post and agreed to testify against Bailey at her trial. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison and five years of supervised release, according to the Los Angeles Times, and released from prison in 2010.
He told authorities he was angry at Rick for not paying him enough. He admitted to fabricating the stories about Rick stealing from Bailey in order to rile her up.
“It was actually John Krueger who dripped the first poison in Kimberley Bailey’s ear, knowing how paranoid Kimberly Bailey was. John Krueger orchestrated this plot to get rid of Rick Post so that John could take over the business,” said Fenoglio.
Kimberley Bailey was convicted of kidnapping, conspiracy to kidnap, and using interstate commerce in a murder-for-hire scheme in connection with the disappearance of Richard Post. In 2003, she was sentenced to life in prison, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper.
She died while incarcerated in 2008 after being diagnosed with cancer.
Humberto Iribe was found guilty of conspiracy and attempted kidnapping and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was scheduled for release in December 2022, according to court documents.
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