According to Arizona authorities, a boy strolled out into a field with his mother, killed her, and then pretended she was kidnapped.
The sequencing of events appears to have led law authorities to assume the 18-year-old suspect was the perpetrator in the homicide case.
On Wednesday morning, a jogger discovered the body of Mary Collier, 38, among the plowed dirt rows of a crop field in San Tan Valley, a significant hamlet and census-designated place in Pinal County.
That day, two 911 calls were received regarding the woman.
The initial report came in at 9 a.m. from a jogger, according to a press release published by the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office.
James Richey was out on a run that day and has since spoken with several local media sites in the Phoenix area.
The body was discovered on a big stretch of farmland near railroad tracks, west of Gantzel Road and south of Skyline Drive.
“I was hoping it was kinda like a Halloween scarecrow or something like that, that somebody just threw it out here or like a prop,” Richey told Phoenix CBS affiliate KPHO. “As I got closer and closer and closer it was starting to look like a real person, real real real.”
The body was real, he realized. As was the supposed murder weapon.
“It was a butcher’s knife,” Richey claimed, before referring to the weapon used by a popular horror movie character from the “Halloween” series of films. “Like, you know, a Michael Myers knife.”
The blood was also real. These realizations verified our darkest worries.
“As soon as I saw the blood on the blade, I knew it was a dead body. “This is a crime scene,” Richey told the television network. “The handle was broken in two pieces and then like the blade was just sitting there and there was blood all over the blade.”
As the jogger waited for law enforcement to come, and less than ten minutes after dialing 911, another call came in.
The caller this time reported a kidnapping on West Vineyard Plains Drive, according to the sheriff’s office.
The residence in question is less than a mile from where Collier’s corpse was discovered — well within walking distance — in the Skyline Ranch area, which is directly adjacent to the property where the woman is thought to have been murdered.
Deputies soon determined that both 911 calls were concerning the victim.
“It was determined that the victim’s 18-year-old son placed the second 911 call,” according to the sheriff’s office. “He’s been named as the homicide suspect. When deputies arrived, he had self-inflicted wounds and was brought to the hospital. He will be placed into the Pinal County Jail for First Degree Murder once he is released from the hospital.”
As of this writing, the alleged killer’s name had not been disclosed.
Law enforcement has not provided an explanation for the conflict between mother and son. Deputies did state, however, that a domestic violence call came in from the Collier house the night before, but it was merely about an altercation between the two.
“I just don’t understand how someone could be so mad and angry that their first thought is to go and kill someone, let alone your mother,” Richey told Phoenix-based NBC station KPNX.
A neighbor of the Colliers informed Phoenix-based Fox affiliate KSAZ that he saw the suspect coming back home later that morning.
“I was out front with my dog and I saw the gentleman in question walking from the direction of the field toward the house and then after that, about an hour later, the wife tells me there are cops everywhere,” according to a neighbor. “I did not notice anything different. He wasn’t acting odd; he was simply walking back to his residence.
The victim’s niece created a GoFundMe campaign to raise finances for her family. Collier leaves behind four children and a spouse who is unable to work owing to illness, according to the online fundraising.
“Mary, I hope all of our love reaches you in heaven because I know that’s exactly where you are,” according to the GoFundMe page. “We will always be here for your family, and I want you to know that we will take care of them and that they miss you. I can feel you even as I write to you, and your spirit has never felt warmer.”
The probe is reported to be ongoing. The alleged killer is still recovering in the hospital as of this writing, according to law authorities.