VICTIMS IN 20 YEARS Kingman has continued to tackle a high murder rate in 2015.
This list includes 1st degree murder, 2nd degree murder, and some manslaughter victims. Some cases are not listed because they are pending, undetermined, or no public record was available. 1995 - 1999
July 1995
Killer: Curtis Chavez Victim: Dorothy Lowman August 1996
Killer: Robert Poyson, Frank Anderson, & Kimberly Lane Victim: Robert Delahunt August 1996
Killer: Robert Poyson, Frank Anderson, & Kimberly Lane Victim: Leta Kagen August 1996
Killer: Robert Poyson, Frank Anderson, & Kimberly Lane Victim: Roland Wear April 1997
Killer: Katsuyuki Nishi Victim: Dwayne Rowley April 1997
Killer: Katsuyuki Nishi Victim: Joseph Ward November 1997
Killer: Unkown Victim: Marie Evans May 1998
Killer: Unknown Victim: Tranada Burke May 1998
Killer: Unkown Victim: Ronald Hilbert May 1998
Killer: Unkown Victim: William Schanz August 1998
Killer: Charles Brown Victim: Lillena Pike December 1998
Killer: George Billingham Victim: Randy Davis January 1999
Killer: John Bowen Victim: Wendy Bowen February 1999
Killer: Richard Finch & Charles Ellison Victim: Lillian Boucher February 1999
Killer: Richard Finch & Charles Ellison Victim: Joseph Boucher June 1999 Killer: Eugene Shaeffer Victim: Noreen Overson 2000 - 2004
November 2000
Killer: Christopher Smith Victim: Henry DiFransesco April 2001
Killer: Unkown Victim: Keith Benefield August 2001
Killer: Chip Smith Victim: Chris Payton December 2001
Killer: Unkown Victim: Lee Livesay May 2002
Killer: Daniel Sprowson Victim: Aaron Helland September 2002
Killer: Unkown Victim: Kimberly Varela November 2002
Killer: Steven Zuncs Victim: Olivia Lara December 2002
Killer: Steven Zuncs Victim: Cecilia Antipala February 2003
Killer: Daniel Brackney Victim: Eric Ruiz February 2003
Killer: Daniel Brackney Victim: Roy Latimer February 2003
Killer: Daniel Brackney Victim: John Walker February 2003
Killer: Daniel Brackney Victim: Dan Zasadni March 2003
Killer: Unkown Victim: Todd Rogers May 2003
Killer: James Webster Victim: Henry Cordova December 2003
Killer: Steven Cook Victim: Bonnie Cook December 2003
Killer: Ronald Zern Victim: Donna Zern January 2004
Killer: Daniel Negrete Victim: Colleen O'Hara January 2004
Killer: Daniel Negrete Victim: Mary O'Hara October 2004 Killer: Unkown Victim: Letha James 2005 - 2009
January 2005
Killer: Matthew McCalman Victim: Carolyn Dubois April 2005
Killer: Anthony Zdanowski Victim: Michael Zdanowski August 2005
Killer: David Srout & Larry Tate Victim: Christopher Marcus September 2005
Killer: Christina Cornwell & Matthew Beem Victim: Alex Lackey October 2005
Killer: Jereme Cosby Victim: Peter Deakin December 2005
Killer: Vincent Brink Victim: Randall Eller December 2005
Killer: Jane Dugger Victim: Edith Hatszegi January 2006
Killer: Robert Fisher Victim: Vivian Neal June 2006
Killer: Brad Nelson Victim: Amber Graff June 2006
Killer: Brian Dugan Victim: Luis Ayala May 2007
Killer: Cody Simons & Travis Smith Victim: Marc Hall July 2007
Killer: Unkown Victim: Jimmie Hutch July 2007
Killer: Stephen Luxton Victim: Margaret Cappello December 2007
Killer: Pasqual Acuna & John Neal Victim: Anthony Martin December 2007
Killer: Unkown Victim: Anna Hammons December 2007
Killer: Unkown Victim: Annette Rounsville August 2008
Killer: Dennis Schilinski Victim: Sandra Bunn September 2008
Killer: Shawn Guerro Victim: John Guerro September 2008
Killer: Robert Moore Victim: Sally Boyd February 2009
Killer: William Cannon Victim: Duran Serna March 2009
Killer: John Hett Victim: Valery Hett July 2009
Killer: Darrel Ketchner Victim: Ariel Allison August 2009
Killer: Brad Anderson Victim: Holly Anderson September 2009 Killer: Unknown Victim: Robert Buss 2010 - 2014
April 2010
Killer: Casey Fessenden & Norman Corley Victim: Christopher Gillespie July 2010
Killer: Mario Piccinini Victim: Bryan Prentice July 2010
Killer: Robert Alber Victim: Michael Sessoyeff August 2010
Killer: John McCluskey, Tracy Province, & Casslyn Welch Victim: Linda Haas August 2010
Killer: John McCluskey, Tracy Province, & Casslyn Welch Victim: Gary Haas September 2010
Killer: George Lyman Victim: Serenity Lyman October 2010
Killer: Eric Depierro Victim: Mario Izquierdo-Diaz January 2011
Killer: Dustin Colpitts Victim: Adrianna Sweeney June 2011
Killer: Roland Cook Victim: Darlene Sinyella July 2011
Killer: Russel Shields & John Langan Victim: Alberto Orosco September 2011
Killer: Elizabeth Stone Victim: David Whatahomigie September 2011
Killer: Michael Dobson Victim: Ruby Caldwell November 2011
Killer: George Loader Victim: John Oppenheim November 2011
Killer: Michael Rivera Victim: Nickolaus Gerencser May 2012
Killer: Richard Venola Victim: James O'Neill April 2012
Killer: Ronald Rixe Victim: Rhonda Knaack October 2012
Killer: Philip Martin Victim: Steven Schwartz January 2013
Killer: James Craft Victim: Matthew Paulson February 2013
Killer: Roger Drake Victim: Carol Drake July 2013
Killer: Delbert Brechler Victim: Cody Raymond December 2013
Killer: Robert Adkins Victim: Michael Sudkamp January 2014
Killer: Louie Torres Victim: Jeffrey Allen February 2014
Killer: David Kim Victim: Mi Soon Kim April 2014
Killer: Robert Dodd Victim: Linda Chevalier August 2014
Killer: Tyler Smith Victim: Jerry Reece October 2014 Killer: Joseph Baird Victim: Edward Miller
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Kingman and Bullhead City made it onto an unwanted list this year. We were named among the most dangerous cities in Arizona. A lot of people lay blame to Mohave County's drug problem as an excuse for higher crime. Arizona laws actually allow reduced sentences for crimes committed while under the influence of drugs such as crystal meth. Chase Salveson accepted a plea deal offered by prosecutors in November that would allow him to walk free after a few months in jail. He was charged with stabbing another man 84 times in Bullhead City. He was the last person to see the victim and his DNA was found on the duct tape used to bound the victim's body. The judge denied the deal at the family's request. More often than not the judge signs off on the deal. 28-year old Josh McCoy was arrested and charged with 2nd degree murder in July after the body of a 61-year old victim was found inside his garage at his home in Kingman. What kind of deal is in store for McCoy? Local prosecutors have a history of offering plea bargains with low sentences, often with the possibility of parole, to avoid costly homicide trials:
The number of local unsolved murder cases is a disturbing testament to our lack of demand for justice: - In August Arlica Dendy was shot and killed near hiking trails in Downtown Kingman. - In 2009 Robert Buss was stabbed to death at his home in Kingman. - In 2007 Anna Hammons was killed at her home in Kingman. - In 2004 Letha James was shot at her home in Kingman. - In 2003 Millie Harvey was found strangled off Katherine Mine Rd in Bullhead City. - In 2001 16-year old Keith Benefield was beaten to death in Dolan Springs.
Several projects planned for downtown Kingman in 2016 show continued optimism in reviving the historical district:
These projects follow several other recent downtown developments:
It’s been six months since Sidney Cranston seemingly vanished after meeting with a friend near his home in Kingman, Arizona. By all accounts he was living an enviable life. He owned a successful real estate business and was looking forward to starting a family with his fiancee Luna. Sid was an avid traveller and had met Luna during his time in Mexico. He planned to move her soon from Mexico to Kingman. Things were falling into place for Sid. He had found the fulfillment he had been searching for. June 16, 2015 started as any other ordinary day for Sid. He headed to his office and completed some paperwork before showing a property to a prospective buyer. He let a colleague know he would be meeting a friend of his for lunch. That friend, Al Blanco, had known Sid several years. He was completing work on a house where he and Sid met up around noon. That house didn't belong to Sid although he did often hire Al to work on his own properties. They went to the In-&-Out where Sid purchased lunch for Al and Al’s two kids. Sid was close to Al’s family. He had just celebrated Al’s youngest kid’s graduation from high school with Al’s family a few weeks earlier. What happened next is a mystery that has devastated a family and conflicted a community. Sid left the home after lunch to meet up with a potential buyer at one of his properties, according to Al. That unknown person picked Sid up from the house to go out for a viewing. The property, north of town, was searched by helicopters for 2 days. Nobody knows the identity of the mystery client Sid met up with. This lead, provided by Al, would not be the only evidence to come out in the case. Sid’s brother Chris came to Arizona from North Carolina, where he operates a flooring company, to find out what happened. He was close to his brother and they often spoke on the phone. He had last talked to his brother the morning he went missing. Al invited Chris to stay at his home in Kingman while he searched for his brother. Chris met Al’s wife and kids. The Blanco family was very involved in the community. Al was a handyman and ran his own contracting company. His wife taught at a local school and his children had graduated from an illustrious private high school. They were friends with many people in the community. Chris felt comforted by the kindness this welcoming family had shown him. One of the first steps that Chris took was hiring a private investigator to help him in his search for his brother. The private investigator began interviewing everyone that knew Sid. He planned to conduct polygraph tests to help clear potential suspects. More than twenty people were requested to undergo the tests and all of them agreed, including Al Blanco. There wasn’t much information for investigators to go on and it looked like the case was going nowhere. That is until a prominent local jewelry store owner contacted police about a suspicious sale at his shop. A man had come in to sell a couple of rings the day Sid went missing. The man had come in just before the store was closing so the owner told him to come back the following day. The man did return promptly the next day when the store opened at 9am. He sold the rings and collected the money just like like any typical transaction in the store. However this sale was anything but typical. The man who sold the rings was Al Blanco. It didn’t take long for investigators to discover the rings belonged to Sid. When confronted about the rings Al said that Sid had removed them and left them at the house before he went to meet the mystery client. It’s a questionable story but the rings had not been reported stolen so the police had no legal reason to pursue it. Investigators turned to cell phone records to better help pinpoint Sid’s potential whereabouts. His last outgoing call was at 1:30pm when he contacted a financial company about one of his properties. His cell would later ping a tower east of town at 4:45pm. The ping was from a call he missed from Al Blanco. Al told investigators he called Sid because they were both supposed to attend a public hearing that afternoon about one of Sid’s properties. Investigators were able to narrow down a potential crime scene based on that data. Al backed out of the polygraph and stopped cooperating with investigators a few weeks after Sid’s disappearance. More questions arose when Al’s cell phone records revealed he wasn’t at the location he had first told police following his lunch with Sid. In fact he was in the same area as Sid at a remote location more than 20 miles from town when he called Sid’s phone. Several searches have been conducted and no new evidence has turned up. The investigation has stalled. Al continues to walk the streets of Kingman and denies any involvement in Sid’s disappearance. Meanwhile the Cranston family awaits answers and the community demands justice for Sid. UPDATE: Al Blanco was found unconscious in his home on December 16, 2015.
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