Unsolved Arizona: Murder on Bumble Bee Road - AZFamily

Unsolved Arizona: Murder on Bumble Bee Road - AZFamily
Despite Denials, Putin's Approval of Wagner Well Documented - Polygraph.info
Editorial: Starved Rock murderer’s parole: The injustice when a life sentence doesn’t mean life - Chicago Tribune

Posted: 22 Nov 2019 09:15 PM PST

PHOENIX, AZ (3TV/CBS5) - They were just 19 and 20 years old.

In 2003, a young Scottsdale couple celebrated their first anniversary camping near Sunset Point. The location was just two miles off the Interstate 17 on Bumble Bee Road. But their lives were cut short, and the killer is still on the loose.

[WATCH: Questions remain in 15-year-old unsolved murder of Scottsdale couple]

Now, for the first time, we're seeing the very last pictures taken of the two when they were alive that night, and investigators tell Arizona's Family what they believe has gone wrong in the investigation.

WHO ARE THEY?

Nineteen-year-old Lisa Gurrieri's life was picture perfect. She sang in church, worked at Salt River Project, and was in love with a 20-year-old Arizona State University student Brandon Rumbaugh. The couple lived in Scottsdale.

"She always had a smile on her face," said Mike Gurrieri. "As a matter of fact, she sang at my wedding." Mike is Lisa's uncle but helped raise her after her dad died of cancer. "I always thought of Lisa as my own," said Mike.

"He asked you to watch over Lisa?" asked reporter Briana Whitney.

"Yeah," Mike said quietly.

THE MURDERS

In October of 2003, Lisa and Brandon wanted to go camping to celebrate one year of dating.

bumble bee road murders — In October of 2003, Lisa and Brandon wanted to go camping to celebrate one year of dating.
(Source: 3TV/CBS 5)

Their plan was to head up to Bumble Bee Road Friday night with the white truck and be back Saturday morning.

Lisa knew Uncle Mike would worry about her safety, so she asked her mom not to tell him. Lisa never came home.

"So, you didn't know she had gone up there?" asked Whitney.

"No. And it's crushed me ever since," said Mike.

As day turned to night, Lisa and Brandon planned on stargazing then going to sleep. But instead, both were shot multiple times and died in the back of the truck.

There was a lot of evidence collected at the scene, including trash and other items found around a common campsite, but one piece of evidence intrigued investigators more than the rest.

A disposable camera was found near the truck, and for the first time ever, we're seeing the very last pictures that were taken on it.

THE INVESTIGATION

"The camera looked like it had been thrown away from the truck. It was found by some rocks," said Yavapai County Sheriff's Lt. Frank Barbaro.

"Do you think the person who killed them tried to throw the camera away to destroy evidence?" asked Whitney.

"Well, that's a good possibility," Barbaro said.

The lieutenant was at the crime scene in 2003 and is still working the case. Even broken, he said detectives were able to develop several pictures on that disposable camera. They found a solo picture of each of them in the truck.

They were the last pictures on the roll. But before that, there are blurry pictures of a compact fluorescent light (CFL) in some kind of building.

Detectives still don't know where those were taken, or where the couple was before they parked for the night.

But Lisa and Brandon had another camera with them. A video camera. "We never located that thing. We found the camera case, but we never found the video camera," said Barbaro. "We know everything about it, even the serial number."

"So you think the person who killed them took that video camera with them?" asked Whitney.

"Absolutely," the lieutenant said.

And a rare weapon was used for the murders, a .25 caliber handgun. That gun was nowhere to be found, and still hasn't been.

Detectives needed to know why this young couple was targeted. "Normally, people are killed by somebody they know," said Barbaro. And that's where they started.

When the two went missing, a group of guys went searching and found the truck with the dead bodies inside. This was a group Brandon and Lisa knew.

"If they're not involved, they are involved as far as they know something," said Mike. He went to question one of them soon after the murders, the man he believes might have had a reason to kill.

"What would have been the motive?" asked Whitney.

"He wanted Lisa. He wanted Lisa bad, to be with her," Mike said. "I was on my way. I was in my truck headed to the freeway. I got a phone call saying that he wasn't there. The place was wiped out clean."

And that's when he said YCSO botched the investigation with that man.

"The family believes there was a person of interest who was talked to and was only cleared by a polygraph test. And then that person skipped town. Is that true?" Whitney asked the lieutenant.

"He moved to Washington, I think, and they went and they went and did a polygraph and cleared him. But I wouldn't clear somebody just off a polygraph," said Barbaro.

"But was he?" asked Whitney.

"Well, he was cleared by them. Nobody is cleared by us right now." He responded.

"Cleared by them, you mean Washington authorities?" asked Whitney.

"No, by the detectives working on the case," Barbaro said. Those detectives were from YCSO, his own department.

"So do you think you guys should re-test him and re-question him and re-evaluate everything about him?" asked Whitney.

"Everything's on the table right now," he said.

Barbaro admits the investigation hasn't been perfect, starting with processing the truck.

"I wouldn't have processed it at night. Probably would've waited until the morning to process it," he said. "There's always stuff you could've done better."

A NEW THEORY AND POSSIBLE CONNECTION

But there's something that's been nagging at the sheriff's office for years.

"I like to read. I like to research," said Deborah West. "The more time I spend with it, the more I'm not willing to give up."

West is a cold case volunteer with the sheriff's office, focusing on this case to help Barbaro. She doesn't believe Lisa and Brandon knew their killers at all.

"I'm leaning more toward a random. The purpose was to break into the truck, steal the truck, and were surprised by the people in the back," she said.

And for the first time, Arizona's Family is learning there's a reason to believe that may have been the case. YCSO has been investigating a theory behind the scenes, one that's hard to ignore. Just six months after Lisa and Brandon were killed, two men from Yuma were camping in Crown King, just minutes away from Bumble Bee Road. They were shot dead, too, and their truck was stolen. That suspect committed suicide after being found in Colorado.

"Six months later, we have the same type of crime. Two people shot for their vehicle to be stolen. It's very unusual. It never happens here," said Barbaro. "We don't have any physical proof of it yet, but it really surprises me that these would be completely unrelated."

WHAT COMES NEXT

West said the focus now is DNA testing items from the crime scene they haven't before.

"Brandon's pants, the jeans that were there. It's very possible the perpetrator looked through the pants," she said.

And Barbaro will be questioning people again, even if they've been cleared.

"It always comes back to somebody," he said.

"Do you think this will be solved?" asked Whitney.

"Yes," Barbaro said confidently.

And Lisa's family can only hope he's right because for 16 years, her silenced voice has made everything feel very wrong.

"It's been a pretty horrible thing," said Mike. "My father had a saying, 'It is what it is.' But I don't think that goes for murder."

YCSO is still offering a $10,000 reward for anyone who comes forward with information.

Despite Denials, Putin's Approval of Wagner Well Documented - Polygraph.info

Posted: 22 Nov 2019 03:39 PM PST

On November 21, the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta published an investigative report headlined "Head cutters." In it, the newspaper analyzed a video showing four Russian-speaking men torturing, disremembering and burning an Arab man.

Novaya Gazeta identified one of the four men as a mercenary from Wagner, the Russian private military company (PMC). The report included copies of the man's passport, his contract with Wagner and other documents proving his identity.

Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov commented on the Novaya Gazeta investigation the day it was published, saying the Russian presidential administration had seen neither the video nor the newspaper's report. Peskov said the matter had "nothing to do with the Russian military" and that any "fears about our reputation are groundless."

"The president cannot make decisions regarding such companies, it is simply impossible," Peskov insisted.

That claim is false.

Wagner - Utkin, Concord and Prigozhin

Wagner is Russia's most famous private military company, and is reportedly named after its commander, Dmitry Utkin, a former Russian military intelligence (GRU) officer who used the nom de guerre Wagner during his service in Chechnya.

Wagner is reportedly active in eastern Ukraine, Syria, and several countries in Africa and Latin America.

Apart from his position running Wagner, Utkin is chief executive of a company called Concord Management and Consulting LLC.

The U.S. Justice Department indicted Concord and its owner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in February 2018 as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.

Commenting on the Concord Management and Consulting LLC indictment, Russian President Vladimir Putin said: "We heard accusations against the company Concord. … and the accusations against it just fell apart in a U.S. court." Polygraph.info earlier found that claim to be false.

Russia -- businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, right, smiles as he shows Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, around his factory which produces school means

Prigozhin is the Russian president's close confidant and has often been described as "Putin's chef" because his firms provide food delivery and catering services to the Kremlin.

U.S. prosecutors say Prigozhin is a leading figure in the Kremlin propaganda and disinformation campaigns that are part of its hybrid warfare strategy. His companies finance and own the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, a.k.a. the "troll factory," which was also indicted by the U.S. Justice Department.

Putin and PMCs

In 2012, Putin, who was then serving as Russia's prime minister, described PMCs as "an instrument for the realization of national interests without the direct participation of the state."

In a Kremlin ceremony on Dec. 9, 2016, Putin, who was again serving as president, awarded state medals and orders to Russian military personnel who had served in Syria. Among those who received the Order of Courage was Dmitry Utkin, who was at the time not a Russian Defense Ministry service member, but a retired private business owner.

The Kremlin confirmed Utkin's appearance at the ceremony, but declined to provide any details on why he was awarded.

During his end-of-the-year news conference in Moscow on December 20, 2018, Putin said: "Now about 'Wagner' and what people are doing: everyone should stay within the framework of the law, everyone. We can ban the private security business altogether, but once we do that, I think you will get a lot of petitions to protect this labor market."

Putin added: "As for their presence somewhere abroad, if, I repeat again, they do not violate Russian law, they have the right to work and push their business interests anywhere in the world."

Putin again spoke about the PMCs during "Direct Line," his annual televised Q&A call-in, on June 20, 2019.

"As for private companies, including private security companies … and they are really present there (Syria), this is not the Russian state, and they are not participants in combat, unfortunately or fortunately," Putin said.

Polygraph.info obtained proof of Wagner's military activities in Syria, after a February incident in which hundreds were reported killed by U.S. troops who came under attack.

Grave of Vasily Kudrichev, Wagner PMC mercenary, who died in Syria, in Deir ez-Zor battle on Feb 7th, 2018

Officially, private military companies are illegal in Russia. Under Putin, the country has dropped out of international initiatives aimed at regulating them.

The Kremlin benefits enormously by maintaining a fuzzy status for PMCs, experts told the congressional U.S. Helsinki Commission during a Nov. 6 hearing titled "Putin's Shadow Warriors."

"Russian PMCs are the tool of the government, which benefits include plausible deniability," said the Rand Corporation's Dara Massicot.

Editorial: Starved Rock murderer’s parole: The injustice when a life sentence doesn’t mean life - Chicago Tribune

Posted: 22 Nov 2019 05:18 PM PST

Weger, a 20-year-old dishwasher at the lodge, was questioned by police and passed polygraph exams. But when police questioned him later, they said, he failed one. Under interrogation, Weger confessed, giving details of the crime that investigators said only the killer would have known. Transported back to the park cave, Weger calmly reenacted his crime, explaining how he beat the women until they were dead, for investigators and news reporters.

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