“Look at what happens two days after each rental. One third of the total is paid to Aryan Motor Repair and one third to Waldrop Guide Services. Andy was clearing the funds from their fence and then paying out to fake businesses belonging to Donald Aryan and Matthew Waldrop. If that’s not a smoking gun about the looting, then nothing could be. A murder conviction might be more difficult, but if you look at the dates, you’ll find that the Turquoise Roadrunner made its largest payment, $9,800 three days after the looting and murder at Kinnickinick Pueblo. I think you’ll find some of the loot still in Robert Dohi’s inventory or at least you’ll be able to find records indicating where he sold it. Dohi gave up the beads to learn more about your investigation and to lay a false trail with his cowboy story. Maybe the looters split some of the artifacts among themselves after they fled the murder scene. We know that Donald Aryan kept the prayer stick and tried to sell in Santa Fe. You might find other items at Matt Waldrop’s house and at Andy’s house.”
“You did brilliant work last night, my love. This is enough for an arrest when Andy comes to our interview at 2:00. Was there anything else you noticed?”
“It is strange than not a single customer of his ATV rental company had paid in cash for any rental during the past six months. I suspect that Andy was pocketing the cash, probably to avoid taxes and not booking the transactions. It might be possible to figure out how much he took out by a detailed look at gas usage and ATV mileage. If you had a full audit of his past five years, I suspect you’d find a lot of money had been hidden someplace. He may have a safe deposit box with tens of thousands in cash, but if so, it’s probably not at any local bank branch. He could also have a safe full of cash at home or even deposits in foreign accounts. When you get a search warrant, try for evidence of hidden cash as well as artifacts at his house. Poor Frieda, she’ll be shattered by his arrest. She’s so religious and so very reserved and straight-laced.”
“I can’t assume she had no knowledge of her husband’s activities. We’ll need to review the case. She might be a possible accessory to the looting if not the homicide.”
“You know she is the leader of the Easter Pageant this year. Father Howard would probably excommunicate us if you arrested her before Easter.”
“I think excommunication requires someone higher than a parish priest, but I admit, it’s unlikely she was directly involved.”
When Mike got to his office, he updated Sheriff Taylor on what he’d learned about Andy Biggs. He took the disk with six months of Andy’s financial records to June in the research department mentioning what Margaret had discovered and asked if she could check gas and mileage against income estimating how much cash Andy might have hidden.
Next, Mike contacted the county attorney for an arrest warrant and a search warrant for Andy’s house in Sedona. Mike knew he had a large Santa Fe style house near the end of Jordon Road. The house was in the City of Sedona and also in Coconino County so he had no reason to involve anyone from the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Department. The dividing line between the two counties went through the town of Sedona. He was still leery of who might be sympathetic to the VVPB in the Yavapai department.
At about 10:00 he answered a call from Jarod Baldwin’s father who lives Alaska. Mr. Baldwin had called from Seattle’s airport where he was changing planes. Mike had tried to reach him twice the previous day, but he had not been able to get through on his listed home phone. He assumed his ex wife had finally reached him with the news last night.
Mike gave him a full update on the case and agreed to meet with him when he got to northern Arizona. It was a difficult conversation, and Mike disclosed more about the condition of the remains and the impossibility of an open casket or of even identifying the body by sight. He told him about the severed fingertips found in a campfire the previous day.
Mr. Baldwin concluded his side of the conversation by saying, “If I can find the m*f* before you do, you won’t need an expensive trial and execution. I have a lot of contacts among the same groups you think might be hiding him. I was born in rural Arizona and lived there until my divorce six years ago. If I find him first, he will know my wrath before he departs this earth.”
“Mr. Baldwin, please don’t say anything that you’ll regret saying to a law enforcement officer. I am sympathetic to your desire for swift and certain justice. If you get any sort of lead on Donald Aryan from your contacts, please let me know. I’ll bring Aryan to Flagstaff for trial. We’ll try him here in Coconino County, and he’ll get the full justice the law requires for premeditated homicide with special circumstances. Stay away from him; he’s extremely dangerous and a damn evil and sadistic killer. The last thing we need is another homicide victim.”
“Captain Damson, I’ll see you soon for more information about my son. I can’t promise anything else until I know more about Jarod’s death and can talk to you in person.”
Chapter 25
Mike made arrangements for the search warrant for Andy Biggs’ house to be served at exactly 2:00 PM. He wanted it served during his meeting with Andy and his attorney. He knew that Andy’s wife volunteered at their church’s food pantry in the mornings. However, she should be back home by 2:00.
Mike asked Sean Mark to be present when the Sedona police served the warrant at the house. Chad Archer, the manager of the Sedona substation of the Sheriff’s Department would serve a second warrant on Andy’s business also in coordination with the Sedona Police Department. Sean would supervise the search of the house on behalf of Coconino County and Chad would supervise the search of the business and take charge of the company computer. Both warrants would only be served after the formal arrest of Andy in Flagstaff.
The team doing the house search would be especially looking for Sinagua artifacts and a store of unexplained cash. If they were extremely lucky, they might find the stolen ground penetrating radar or an artifact that would tie Andy to the Kinnickinick Pueblo site using DNA. The whole point of the method of arrest and the two searches was to take Andy by surprise before he had a chance to dispose of evidence.
Mike planned to leave his meeting with Andy as soon as he formally charged him premeditated homicide with special circumstances. He assumed Ron Gordon would insist that Andy say nothing and probably also suggest that Andy get a more experienced criminal defense attorney. Ron Gordon was unlikely to have ever defended someone accused of a homicide. Mike assumed that Andy could afford to bring in one of the big gun criminal defense attorneys from Phoenix for this potentially capital crime.
Next, Mike arranged for a Cottonwood based locksmith to meet Sean Marks at the Biggs’ house in case Mrs. Biggs didn’t know or wouldn’t supply the combination for any safes on the premises. The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Department would execute a warrant on Deputy Matt Waldrop’s house. Waldrop lived alone, but his arrest had been a surprise and there might still be incriminating evidence at his house. Sheriff Taylor had arranged for the Waldrop search directly with Sheriff Smith, and the Yavapai sheriff didn’t plan to let any of his deputies know where they were going ahead of time. Sheriff Smith had assured them that he would supervise the search personally and make certain that no friends of Waldrop did a less than professional job.
At 9:35, Mike went to the briefing room where the 10:00 press conference would be held. He wanted to make certain the photos of Donald Aryan and the two victims were displayed where anyone photographing the event would also capture the face of the suspect. June Rosetta had set up the stage perfectly. Five television stations from Phoenix were setting up their cameras at the back of the room, guaranteeing them extensive coverage on the evening news in Phoenix. CNN also had a camera crew ready to record the press conference. The TV news would not have sent their news vans on the two-hour drive up to Flagstaff unless they regarded this as a major story. A table held the press releases showing the photos of the suspect and his victims. The rest of the reporters had not been allowed into the room yet, but Mike had the doors opened so they could wait the final minutes
inside the room. The briefing room was set up for a group of fifty, and most of the chairs would be filled. He recognized several news anchors from the Phoenix stations. He also saw the son of the owner of the Sedona Red Rock News and the chief crime reporter for the Flagstaff Sun.
At 9:45, Sheriff Taylor joined him, and they spent a few minutes talking about what each would say and who would answer specific questions. The sheriff and Mike were both dressed in conservative navy business suits, light blue shirts, and red ties. While the last of the reporters were finding their seats, Mike and Sheriff Taylor walked around saying hello to those they knew. Mike had been interviewed by six of the reporters present regarding previous high profile cases, and he remembered their names and the circumstance where they met. Sheriff Taylor knew even more of those present, and he wasn’t bashful about asking them to give the image of Donald Aryan a lot of visibility on the evening news.
At 10:00, Sheriff Taylor returned to the podium and formally welcomed the reporters. He gave Mike’s introduction, referring to his many years as a senior homicide detective in LA and his success in solving high profile cases in Arizona. Mike stepped to the podium and gave a twenty-minute summary of the two interconnected homicides. He didn’t say a word about Andy Biggs, but he did indicate they were investigating a third suspect. He spent a few minutes on the manner of death of both victims, including mentioning the cougar’s attack on the dying Paul McFarlane. He also described the horrible manner of death suffered by Jarod Baldwin, explaining that Jarod had given the authorities the tip that led to the arrest of Deputy Matthew Waldrop and the homicide charges against Donald Aryan. He also mentioned the close cooperation and successful internal investigation led by Sheriff Smith of Prescott and publicly thanked him for his close cooperation and support.
He opened the press conference for questions, calling on an AP reporter first. For the next thirty minutes, Mike and Sheriff Taylor answered questions, some insightful and some quite stupid. There was a lot of attention on the fact that a Yavapai County deputy had been charged, but by far the largest number of questions came about the horrible manner of death of both victims.
Finally, in answer to a question from the news anchor at Channel 3 in Phoenix, Mike said, “Our medical examiner, Dr. Kay Sumter, has agreed that the autopsy records can be made available to credentialed news reporters. You’ll need to send her a written request and set up an appointment to read them in her office, but it will not be pleasant reading. I attended both autopsies. Dr. Sumter told me that she has been doing autopsies for thirty years, but she’s never seen a more brutal death than that of Jarod Baldwin of Page Springs. He was extensively tortured before being drug to death behind a van along a gravel and cinder road. Each of Mr. Baldwin’s fingers had been severed at the final joint and cauterized in a campfire to stop the bleeding to keep him alive longer. There were other even worse things that are impossible for me to discuss in this forum.”
Those words brought a temporary halt to the questions as the men and women present digested the news. Mike saw many of them looking at the photo of the young man taken as he was graduating from Yavapai College. Mike noticed the cameras focusing on Jarod’s photo, and he wondered if his words would be on the evening news. Hearing this explanation on the evening news would be terrible for Jarod’s family, but he had not told the press anything that he had not at least mentioned to the family members.
Mike was asked if the cougar attack made it impossible to charge Aryan and Waldrop with homicide.
“The charges are not up to the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department. However, shooting someone in the abdomen with triple ought shot at close range in a location many miles from any chance of help certainly seems like a premeditated murder to me. Mr. McFarlane would not have lived even if this had happened on a hospital’s steps. It takes half an hour to hike to that remote spot from the nearest jeep road. The cougar was a secondary cause of death like blood loss or traumatic shocks are also causes of death after a gunshot. In addition, this homicide was done with the special circumstances of eliminating a witness to a felony violation of the Antiquities Act.”
“If there were no witnesses, how do you know these men were the actual killers? Did one of them rat out the other two.” an Arizona Republic reporter asked.
“We have DNA evidence, the details of which I am not a liberty to describe at this time.”
The questions went on until the clock neared 11:00. The press conference was set to end at 11:00 so that those stations that wanted the report on the noon news would have ample time to get their report ready. Mike ended by saying, “When last seen, Donald Aryan and the unknown man he was with were armed with assault weapons. They are extraordinarily dangerous individuals. No civilian should approach them. Call your local law enforcement to report any contact or sighting. With enough eyes on the lookout for them, they will not escape justice. Thank you for attending. The sheriff and I have full schedules today, but you can call my office at 928 555 0305 to set up an interview for tomorrow or later in the week. We hope to have another announcement soon.”
After Mike went back to his office, he prepared for the 2:00 meeting. He expected to formally charge Andy Biggs with murder, but he wanted to give Andy a chance to make a statement first. He took a break at noon to have lunch in the break room in front of a TV. As he flipped around among the stations, he found the drawing of Donald Aryan without a beard was everywhere. Hundreds of thousands of Arizonans would have seen his likeness already, and many more would see it on the nightly news. If the national news picked it up, millions would be on the lookout for the fugitive.
At 1:40, June Rosetta came into Mike’s office. “This is our best estimate of revenue missing from this QuickBooks report for this six month period. This period covered the winter months, where I assume revenue is lower in general. We compared the detailed records of mileage and gas use to the revenue stream and estimate that fifteen thousand in cash receipts have not been recorded. I assume it would be higher over the peak tourist months. I checked with another ATV rental company in Utah to get their percentage of cash payments. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean tourists often pay in cash because that is the usual custom in their countries. Americans almost always use credit cards.”
“Good work June. Did your work confirm Margaret’s assumption is that the owner of the Turquoise Roadrunner is their fence?”
“Yes sir. She nailed it. Dohi was the fence, and Biggs was the money launderer and one of the partners. Waldrop and Aryan each got a third of the money and Biggs kept a third.”
“We’ll be bringing in his computer records for the past five years for you to examine later today, but you’ve told me what I needed to know.”
At 2:10, Ron Gordon and Andy Biggs were escorted to the conference room where Mike and Jimmy Hendrix were waiting. When they entered, Jimmy moved to the video camera and began to record.
Mike stood to shake hands, but Andy walked past him taking a seat on the opposite side of the large table. Ron shook hands and said, “We watched the noon news before we left Sedona. My client has not had contact with the man you arrested or the fugitive you are hunting. Let him make a statement for the record about his ATVs. That statement is all he will have to say about the matter. We’ll leave after he reads it.”
Mike motioned for Ron to have a seat next to his client, and he motioned for Jimmy to move the camera so that it would get a good view of Andy as he made his statement.
“I, Andrew K. Biggs, make the following statement about the tires of the ATVs that were impounded by the police yesterday. I have had in my employ a man named Carlos Garcia who comes to my business at night to clean all of the ATVs in preparation for their rental the following day. Carlos has access to all of the vehicle keys so he can move them into the washing area and return them to the line for use. After learning that you visited us yesterday and impounded twelve tires, he left the rental yard immediately without completing his shift. This morning I checked his residence at the Windsong Mobi
le Home Park, and his roommate said he had packed and left during the night. I swear that I had nothing to do with the crimes associated with my ATVs, and I sincerely believe that Mr. Garcia must have taken them without my permission or knowledge.”
“Ok, Andy. Is that all you know about the looting of Kinnickinick Pueblo and the murder of Paul McFarlane?”
“That’s it Mike. I have nothing to do with any looting and certainly nothing to do with a murder. You have my statement, and I now want to go back to my business.”
“Do you know a man by the name of Robert Dohi of Scottsdale?”
“No.”
“Do you know a man by the name of Donald Aryan, alias Harold White?”
“Absolutely not!”
“Do you know a man by the name of Matthew Waldrop?”
“No, and it’s time for us to leave.”
“Are you a member of the Verde Valley Pure Bloods?”
“God damn it Mike, that is none of your business. We still have freedom of speech and assembly in this semi police state of ours.”
Ron said, “Mike, I think it’s time for you to either charge my client or let us leave.”
Mike nodded and said, “Andrew Kenneth Biggs, a resident of Sedona, Arizona, you are charged with premeditated homicide with special circumstances. That circumstance is the murder of a witness to a felony violation of the Antiquates Act. You should expect additional serious charges. Since you’ve been charged with a capital crime, I suggest you say nothing else until you confer with your attorney.” Mike read his rights from a card while Andy and Ron both sat in stunned silence.
The Mauling at Kinnickinick Pueblo Page 18
