By Clair McFarland, General Assignment Reporter
Clair@CowboyStateDaily.com
Believed to have killed his friend who was afraid to go to prison for possessing child pornography, a Laramie County man now faces life in prison for first-degree murder.
The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office arrested Mark Dean Switzer, 71, on Thursday at his home for allegedly killing his friend, Nathan Thomas “Tom” Combs, in Weld County, Colorado, on May 18, 2017.
Combs was 49 at the time.
Switzer is in custody in Laramie County and has not yet been extradited to Colorado. His home address is listed on Laramie County Road 206 in Carpenter, Wyoming.
A Distant Shot, A Closer Shot
According to the affidavit in his case, Weld County Sheriff’s Office personnel found Combs dead on the side of Weld County Road with his semitruck. Deputies initially believed he’d been run over by his own truck.
But they later found two .22-caliber bullet wounds in his head. One in his temple was shot from a distance, and another in his forehead was shot from an intermediate range with the stippling, or pin-prick metal shards consistent with a middle-range shot, imbedded in Combs’ skin.
Combs’ wife Rebecca Combs reviewed his body after his death and was aware he’d been shot in the head but authorities didn’t tell her what caliber the bullets were – a fact that case authorities used later to implicate Switzer.
‘I’ve Got It Arranged’
Switzer and Combs were close friends, according to Combs’ other friend Charles McLean, and according to Switzer’s former employer.
Combs, who lived in Burns, was out on bail for a charge of child pornography possession from the previous year, 2016. He had struck a plea agreement in Laramie County District Court in which he agreed to plead guilty to the charge, but there was no maximum-sentence cap on the plea agreement so he faced up to 10 years in prison.
McLean said Combs was scared to go to prison, especially as a child sex offender.
McLean said Combs was adamant that he wasn’t going back to jail and had said, “I know what they do to people like that,” according to the affidavit.
“Don’t tell anybody, but I’ve got it arranged,” Combs reportedly told McLean.
In a later phone call with Combs, McLean became convinced that Combs was going to kill himself.
Combs said, “Look after Becky, stop in say hi to her and see how she’s doing,” the affidavit relates.
“You’re scaring me,” McLean recalled answering.
“Don’t be, I’m not,” Combs reportedly said.
Combs that March had activated a $50,000 life insurance policy and increased the coverage to $100,000 one month later. He signed a will April 25, 2017, leaving his worldly possessions to his wife Rebecca, the affidavit says.
Sniper Type
Switzer attended Combs’ memorial service at the Antelope truck stop in Burns, McLean told police.
McLean said he knew Switzer and that Switzer had worked with Combs at a trucking company. He described Switzer as a “sniper type” who built guns.
Phone records show that from April 1, 2017, to May 18, 2017, when Combs died, he and Switzer talked often, the affidavit says.
Switzer two days after Combs’ death messaged another man, “They found him next to his truck shot in the head. They think it was a .22.”
But Switzer could not have learned the deadly caliber from Combs’ wife or from law enforcement at that time, the affidavit alleges.
While He Was Praying
A few days later Rebecca Combs told police she’d gone to Switzer’s house, and he confessed to killing Combs.
He reportedly told Rebecca Combs that he’d shot her husband twice in the head with a .38 while he was kneeling and praying.
Rebecca Combs told police she was in shock and went home, and couldn’t sleep that night.
Later in the case she agreed to set Switzer up by having a monitored phone call with him.
She called Switzer and told him the police knew he’d killed Combs.
But Switzer argued with her, reportedly saying that the police did not know that, and “if they knew that I killed him I’d be in fuckin’ prison right now.”
She then asked why he told her he shot Combs but now was saying he didn’t.
“Why would I kill a friend?” he answered. He then said he only told Rebecca he’d killed her husband because Combs had asked him to do so, but that someone else he didn’t know had killed him, the affidavit says.
He then told her she was supposed to get $5,000 for him which Combs owed him from a loan the previous year.
Rebecca Combs did not know why her husband owed Switzer $5,000, the affidavit says.
At The Roadside
The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office on Jan. 19, 2018, obtained a search warrant for Switzer’s home and truck.
Switzer visited with detectives while they searched his belongings, telling them Combs asked Switzer to kill him, but Switzer said, “No. No fuckin’ way.”
Switzer then reportedly told the detectives that he had been at the roadside with Combs the day of his death.
The death scene is an 8-mile, 16-minute straight shot drive from Switzer’s home, the affidavit says.
Switzer also told police that he only told Rebecca Combs that he’d killed her husband because that was what Combs wanted.
Detectives confronted Switzer about the text message in which he correctly stated that Combs was killed by .22-caliber bullets.
Switzer said he heard that from another truck driver, whom he described to police but was never found.
Here Comes The FBI
Deputies found several .22-caliber weapons during their search. They sent these as firearms evidence to the Northern Forensic Regional Laboratory for analysis.
The analysis took two years.
The results in May of 2020 were “inconclusive,” the affidavit says, so that June police reached out to the FBI for help.
The FBI on Oct. 6, 2022, confirmed a match between the death casings and a .22 Ruger rifle found disassembled in Switzer’s home during the 2018 search.
Description
According to the affidavit, Switzer is a U.S. Army combat veteran who served in Vietnam from 1971-1972.
He is 5-foot-9 and weighs about 190 pounds.
