John Jefferson
Inset: Mary Collier (GoFundMe). Background: Collier’s home in San Tan Valley, Ariz. (Google Maps).
An Arizona teenager walked out into a field with his mother, killed her, then faked her kidnapping, police in the Grand Canyon State say.
The timeline of events appears to be what led law enforcement to believe the 18-year-old defendant was the culprit in the homicide case.
On Wednesday morning, a jogger discovered the body of 38-year-old Mary Collier amid plowed dirt rows of a crop field in the San Tan Valley — a large community and census-designated place in Pinal County.
Two 911 calls would come in that day about the woman.
The original call came in at around 9 a.m. — from the jogger, according to a press release issued by the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office.
James Richey was out for a run that day and has since spoken to numerous local media outlets in the broader Phoenix area.
The body was found in a large plot of farmland — not too far from railroad tracks — west of Gantzel Road and south of Skyline Drive.
“I was hoping that 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-based 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. So was the presumed murder weapon.
“It was a butcher’s knife,” Richey said — before referencing 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. Those realizations confirmed the worst fears.
“Instantly, when I saw the blood on the blade it was like, no, this is a dead body. This is a crime scene,” Richey continued in comments to the TV station. “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 arrive — and less than 10 minutes after he made the 911 call — another call came in.
This time, the caller reported a kidnapping that had just occurred on West Vineyard Plains Drive, according to the sheriff’s office.
The residence in question is located less than a mile away from where Collier’s body was found — well within walking distance — in the Skyline Ranch neighborhood, which is directly adjacent to the farm where the woman is believed to have been killed.
Deputies quickly ascertained both 911 calls were about the victim.
“It was determined the victim’s 18-year-old son placed the second 911 call,” the sheriff’s office said in the press release. “He has been identified as the homicide suspect. He was suffering from self-inflicted wounds when deputies arrived and was taken to the hospital. He will be booked into the Pinal County Jail for First Degree Murder upon his release from the hospital.”
The alleged killer’s name has yet to be released as of this writing.
No motive has been offered by law enforcement for the discord between mother and son. Deputies did say, however, that a domestic violence call from the Collier address came in the night before — but that the call only related to an argument between the two.
“I just don’t know how someone could be so mad and angry that their first thought is to go and just like, kill somebody, let alone your mother,” Richey told Phoenix-based NBC affiliate KPNX.
One neighbor of the Collier family told Phoenix-based Fox affiliate KSAZ that he saw the suspect walking 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,” the neighbor said. “I didn’t see anything unusual. He wasn’t acting strange, he was just walking back to his house.”
A GoFundMe was started by the victim’s niece to raise funds for her family. Collier leaves behind four children and a husband who cannot work due to an illness, according to the online fundraiser.
“Mary, I hope all of our love reaches you in heaven because I know that’s exactly where you are,” the GoFundMe reads. “We’ll always be here for your family, and I want to let you know that we’ll take care of them, and that they miss you. I can feel you, even now as I write to you, and your soul has never been warmer.”
The investigation is said to be ongoing. As of this writing, the alleged killer is still recuperating in the hospital, law enforcement said.
Law&Crime reached out to the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office for additional details on this story but no response was immediately forthcoming at the time of publication.
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