HOUSTON — Arizona authorities now believe five bodies recovered from a torched SUV dumped in the desert 35 miles south of Phoenix over the weekend were not victims of Mexican cartel violence, but rather a family killed in a murder-suicide.
The white Ford Expedition was seen fleeing from a U.S. Border Patrol agent early Saturday on Interstate 8 in the Vekol Valley area, a known smuggling corridor between Phoenix and Tucson.
About four hours later, Border Patrol agents found the SUV several miles north of the highway in the desert, charred, with four bodies in the cargo area and a fifth in the back seat.
Police in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe announced Tuesday that the SUV was registered to a local family, James and Yafit Butwin.
The couple and their three children were reported missing Monday by an acquaintance who received a note from them, and after police called to the Butwin home found “suspicious and concerning evidence,” authorities began investigating the disappearance as a murder-suicide, according to a Tuesday statement.
“We do not believe there are any outstanding suspects involved in this case,” Tempe police said.
James Butwin, 47, was a licensed real estate broker married to Yafit Butwin, 40, an interior designer, who listed herself on Facebook as “separated.”
“They had some marital issues. . They were going through the process of getting a divorce,” Tempe Police Sgt. Jeff Glover said, although he said the couple had been living together.
Glover said finances “might have played a role” in the suspected murder-suicide.
“There were some kind of financial issues going on with the business,” he said of James Butwin’s real estate work, adding, “They were under some financial duress.”
Last Friday, Yafit Butwin, who described herself as Israeli, posted a photograph of herself on Facebook with her husband and three children, Malissa, Daniel and Matthew.
“Happy Birthday Jim,” she wrote. “I am so proud of my three children 🙂 and they know why.”
The bodies recovered from the SUV were autopsied by the Pima County medical examiner’s office Monday, but investigators were unable to identify them or to determine their genders because of burn damage, according to a Tuesday statement by Pinal County sheriff’s investigators.
Federal law enforcement officials, as well as local authorities, had theorized that the deaths were connected to the drug trade and possibly another example of violence spreading from Mexico across the Southwest border into the United States.
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu initially said on Facebook that the deaths might be linked to a “violent drug cartel,” adding a barb directed at former Arizona governor-turned-Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano: “The border is NOT more secure than ever, Ms. Napolitano!”
But after the SUV was traced to the missing family Tuesday, Babeu’s office backpedaled.
In a statement, they noted that federal officials had also speculated the SUV may have been torched by the Zetas criminal gang but that, “The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office is not able to confirm this information as our investigation is still ongoing.”
“The investigation is definitely not drug-related,” Glover said.
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