An Arizona woman who was apparently kidnapped from her Maricopa County home was found dead along with her captor today in a suspected murder-suicide. The bodies of Thomas Watson, 43, and his ex-girlfriend, Tara Shermerhorn, 31, were found in Watson's truck parked near Horse Thief Basin, a central Arizona recreation area, Goodyear police spokesman Ralph McLaughlin told AOL News.
Thomas Watson and ex-girlfriend Tara Shermerhorn were found dead today by Arizona authorities, who believe he may have abducted her. Watson left a suicide note behind.
The discovery was made about 10 a.m. (MST) by deputies with the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office, according to McLaughlin. A cause of death and positive identification is pending"The families [have] been notified," McLaughlin said. "We're 99 percent sure that it's them based on our descriptions and what not."Watson and McLaughlin were residents of Goodyear, a city about 20 miles west of Phoenix. They broke up in December, but were still involved in some sort of business venture together, police said.
Officers received a missing-person report for Watson at about 5 a.m. Thursday."[He left] what we call a suicide note behind," McLaughlin said.Co-workers of Shermerhorn last saw her at 9 p.m. Wednesday, when she clocked out and left for home. She was supposed to pick up her niece from school Thursday, but she never showed up. Concerned family members found her car parked in her driveway. They contacted police when they were unable to locate her.
Early on in the investigation, Watson's phone was "pinged," and it was reported to have been located near I-17, north of Phoenix. His phone has since been shut off. Investigators also pinged Shermerhorn's phone, and it appeared to be stationary, near the Crown King area in Yavapai County.
According to a former FBI agent who has worked on dozens of missing-person cases, cell phone pings can be extremely useful in finding missing people."Cell phones are in constant communication with surrounding towers, and they can place you within a triangle of those towers that your cell phone hit off of," Harold Copus, now head of Copus Security Consultants in Atlanta, told AOL News. "The ping won't give them an exact location, but they can significantly narrow down where the cell phone is at."In this case, McLaughlin said, investigators had triangulated the phones and got them down to a one-mile radius of where they were at the time they pinged the towers.
The search for Watson and Shermerhorn was based in the areas indicated by the cell phone signals. According to McLaughlin, the truck containing the bodies was found "in that general area."Authorities say Watson may have had a history of violence toward women."Yes, there is a history of domestic violence that I am hearing from the deputy," McLaughlin said. "I haven't confirmed anything yet, [but allegedly] in South Dakota with his ex-wife, who happens to also be named Tara."More details are expected to be released once the coroner completes his investigation into the case police said.
No comments:
Post a Comment