Five bodies found in burned SUV in Arizona desert -- 6/1/12

Five bodies found in burned SUV in Arizona desert

By Associated Press

Sunday, June 3, 2012 - Added 4 hours ago.



This image provided Saturday June 2, 2012, by the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, shows the vehicle where five dead bodies burned were found inside in Pinal County’s Vekol Valley area, west of Casa Grande, N.M.

An Arizona sheriff says five bodies found burned beyond recognition inside the shell of a charred SUV are likely the result of drug cartel violence.

The bodies and vehicle were found in the Vekol Valley, a rugged, mountainous desert area that’s a well-known smuggling corridor for drugs and illegal immigrants headed from Mexico to Phoenix and the U.S. interior.

The bodies were so badly burned that investigators couldn’t immediately determine their gender or ethnicity. While it’s unclear whether the victims were from Mexico, the sheriff’s office has notified the Mexican Consulate.

http://bostonherald.com/news/national/southwest/view/20120603five_bodies_found_in_burned_suv_in_arizona__desert

Wow, how horrible. I wonder if the people inside were already dead?

FystyAngel wrote:Wow, how horrible. I wonder if the people inside were already dead?

I really hope so. This is just so brutal. ~~C

I am not sure why this case made the national news. It happens all the time in AZ. I am from that exact area (Casa Grande) and my husband was LE in the city. My take is that is was a coyote (someone who gets paid to smuggle illegals into the country) who took money from (usually) poor hardworking people, then when he got them across the border, he shot and killed them and set the vehicle on fire. He had to have had a cohort to drive him back to Mexico to pick up the next batch of people. The other common scenario is another coyote killing this coyote and his passengers so as to get more business for himself. IMO, I don't see it as drug related as there are not usually that many people in the vehicle during drug runs. It is also my opinion that they will find the people were all shot first and they will probably never be ID'd.
It is sad, but unfortunately, a common every day occurence in that area.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/police-burned-suv-with-5-bodies-in-desert-belongs-to-missing-suburban-phoenix-family/2012/06/05/gJQAPYw4GV_story.html

TEMPE, Ariz. — An SUV found burning in the desert with five bodies inside was registered to the home of a missing family of five, including three children, police in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe said Tuesday.

More at link

http://trivalleycentral.com/articles/2012/06/07/front/doc4fd0d2b61b1b1072076063.txt

PHOENIX — In what could be some of her last words, Yafit Butwin wished her husband a happy birthday and said how proud she was of her three children.

Now police in Tempe believe that Butwin, her husband Jim, and their children are all dead in a murder-suicide, and have matched their SUV to one found burning in the desert 35 miles south of Phoenix.

More at link