Father of Palm Springs fertility clinic bombing suspect speaks out; "After Twentynine Palms he just changed"
The father of Guy Edward Bartkus is speaking out after news that his son is the person investigators believe to be the suspect in the bombing at a Palm Springs fertility clinic on Saturday.
Richard Bartkus says that he hasn't spoken to his 25-year-old son in more than a decade and that he is not the person he remembers.
"He tried to help people," Bartkus said of his son. "After Twentynine Palms he just changed."
He was unaware that his son was a suspect in the massive investigation that sprawled across Southern California on Saturday, which is still ongoing at his son's home in Twentynine Palms. He was also unaware that his son is believed to be dead following the incident.
"It didn't say anything about him dying and I read later that he died," Bartkus said while speaking with CBS News Los Angeles.
Guy Edward Bartkus, the 25-year-old Twentynine Palms man who FBI investigators believe responsible for the bombing outside of a Palm Springs fertility clinic on Saturday, May 17, 2025.
FBI
FBI investigators say that Guy Bartkus packed his 2010 silver Ford Fusion with explosives before making the hour-long drive to Palm Springs, where they believe he intentionally parked outside of American Reproductive Centers, an IVF clinic.
Investigators say that they're still digging through a series of Bartkus' online posts and writings, which appear to indicate anti-natalist beliefs, a view that people should not continue to have children.
"We need the public's help in identifying gaps in our investigation," said Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles field office in a press conference on Sunday. "We know where Mr. Bartkus was at about 6 a.m. We know the timeline of when he entered the city, but we need the public's help identifying where he traversed within the city before the explosion went off."
Damage from the explosion outside of a Palm Springs fertility clinic on May 17, 2025.
Getty Images
As that investigation continues, Bartkus says that his son was fascinated with how things worked as a kid. Barktus also said that when his son was nine years old, he accidentally burned their family home down while trying a trick with matches but never noticed any red flags.
"He would make a smoke bomb, stink bomb, kid things," his father said. "He didn't make anything dangerous. When I say bomb, it wasn't like a bomb bomb. It was like something you just throw on the ground and it pops."
Bartkus says that bombing a building, what the FBI is now calling the largest in Southern California history, is something he never imagined his son would do.
"I don't know what changes ... maybe a girl, maybe people he was hanging out with up there. It wasn't him. Before that, Guy was more for helping people," Bartkus said.
Federal investigators say that they're handling the investigation as an international act of terrorism. They did not have a timeline for when the neighborhood surrounding Bartkus' Twentynine Palms home would be reopened as they continued to gather evidence.
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