The deaths of the New Hampshire friends have baffled authorities and led to speculation that the killings were committed by Drew Ryan Maras, who died in Sunday’s shootout with officers in Phoenix.

Similar guns — high-powered rifles — are believed to have been used in both cases, and the crime scenes are connected by Interstate 17.

“Because of the type of weapon used in Sedona, he could be the guy,” Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said, adding investigators are awaiting ballistic results to determine whether Maras killed Coleman, Johnson and Raynsford.

Detectives in Yavapai County found numerous casings from a .223-caliber rifle on both sides of Johnson and Raynsford’s car. Some callers reported seeing the car parked at the turnout on Thursday. Authorities believe the two might have been in Flagstaff, Winslow, Sedona and Cottonwood before they were killed, based on gas and store receipts found in the car.

The biggest unanswered question, said Yavapai County sheriff’s spokesman Dwight D’Evelyn, was why. “There does not appear to be an indication of a robbery, any indication of provocation on the part of the victims,” he said. “It’s a mystery.”

Maras, 30, attended Arizona State University in 2004 but was not currently enrolled, said university spokeswoman Julie Newberg.

Before that, he served with the U.S. Marine Corps from 1999 to 2003, completing infantry training with a specialty as a rifleman before joining a reserve unit in Chicago, said Marine Maj. Shawn Haney.

Johnson and Raynsford, both 62, were looking for a house for Johnson and planned to head home at the end of the month, said Raynsford’s piano teacher and friend, Jayne Kelly. The pair belonged to a nonprofit group that adopts and preserves parts of a 48-mile hiking trail from Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire.

“They both loved nature equally,” Kelly said. “They would go off to different places — often to Arizona — and just hike and camp in the most rustic style and love it.”

Friends of Raynsford remembered her as a talented jazz and folk singer who performed at local clubs in a band. Raynsford also studied acupuncture, practiced Shiatsu massage, and had friends and family in Arizona. She had been friends with Johnson, a former park ranger at Monadnock State Park, for several years.

“When I first heard the horrible news of her murder, I envisioned the violence of what she must have experienced,” friend Gordon Peery said. “But I also felt she was so comfortable with her spirituality, that she may well have radiated peace and forgiveness as she transitioned to the next realm.”

Jane Difley, president of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, called Johnson a tireless volunteer whose work benefited many.

“No doubt Forest Society volunteers and staff alike … will continue to be inspired by his hard work and dedication,” she said. “Not only will we all miss Jim, but I wouldn’t hesitate to say that Mount Monadnock will miss him as well.”

Coleman, 50, was a 20-year veteran. He is survived by a wife and two young children, ages 4 and 7, Arpaio said. He also has grown children in another state. He was assigned as a patrol deputy but had previously worked the sheriff’s lake patrol unit.

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McCormack reported from Concord, N.H. Associated Press writer Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix contributed to this report.

Little was 17 when he joined the U.S. Marine Corps, becoming one of hundreds of Navajos trained as Code Talkers. They used a code developed by 29 tribal members that was based on the then-unwritten Navajo language. Their code helped confound the Japanese and win the war.

“My motivation was to fight the enemy with a gun or whatever,” Little told The Associated Press in a July 2009 interview. “When I went into the Marine Corps … I knew nothing about the Navajo code. It was really astonishing to me to get to Camp Pendleton and there were a bunch of Navajos there, and they were working with a Navajo code.”

Little, the longtime president of the Navajo Code Talkers Association until his death, traveled the country seeking funding for the museum that is expected to cost up to $30 million. He preached about the preservation of Navajo traditions, culture and the language that the federal government tried to eradicate before he and others were called on to use it during the war.

It was a story he never tired of telling, association secretary Yvonne Murphy said.

“That was his life. That was the drive behind him,” Murphy said Wednesday. “It didn’t matter where he was. If there were people who came and wanted to sit and talk with him, he would share with them.”

Nellie Little said her husband hoped the museum would be open by 2014 at its proposed location just outside the Navajo Nation capital of Window Rock. But she said more money is needed.

She is asking people to send museum donations rather than flowers for his memorial.

Keith Little’s health had been deteriorating over the past year, as he went in and out of hospitals between speaking engagements and appearances in parades — the last time in New York in November for Veterans Day, the association said.

A video on the association’s website features Keith Little speaking about the importance of the unbreakable code. Fellow platoon members referred to the Navajos as “walking secret codes,” with each message having to be memorized and destroyed after it was sent or received, Keith Little says.

“That is something that in itself was marvelous,” he said in the AP interview. “It was so proficient and safe.”

A public memorial is planned for Friday in Window Rock, with funeral services scheduled Saturday in nearby Fort Defiance. Navajo President Ben Shelly has ordered flags lowered across the reservation from Thursday through Sunday in Keith Little’s honor.

“Despite misconceptions perpetrated in the media, Mr. Ray is not a man of significant assets and certainly not the millions reported in the press,” his attorneys wrote in documents obtained by The Associated Press from the court. The documents are now officially sealed.

Ray himself has touted his wealth and success in numerous media interviews and on his Web site, including an estimated $10 million in revenue in 2009 and a seven-figure advance for his book, “Harmonic Wealth” that hit the New York Times Best Sellers List in May 2008.

He told “Fortune Magazine” for an April 2008 article that his financial goal was $21 million a year and that he was sure there were limits, but “I am not aware of them.”

But the court documents paint a much different picture, showing that he is severely in debt with a net worth of negative $4.2 million. Real estate makes up about $3.1 million of Ray’s total assets of nearly $4.2 million, but he has little equity.

The properties include homes in Hawaii and Nevada, and rentals in California. Ray’s Carlsbad, Calif.-based business, James Ray International, and a Beverly Hills mansion he recently put up for sale are not listed among the assets.

Ray’s liabilities were listed at more than $8.5 million, much of which was unexplained in a statement of net worth.

In a financial statement filled out by Ray the day of his arrest, he wrote that he pays out $94,000 a month in expenses, including for rent and mortgages, utilities, insurance and vehicles. He listed his assets as $14,000 in a checking account and $220,000 in a retirement account.

Ray’s attorneys said his financial stability has been shaken by withdrawals from bank accounts in the last several months to pay creditors and legal fees, including a significant retainer deposited in a trust account at the California-based law firm representing him.

Ray’s attorneys say he has no criminal history, isn’t a threat to public safety or a flight risk and cannot afford the bail. They are set to argue Tuesday in court to have Ray released on his own recognizance coupled with the surrender of his passport or have bail set at a minimum.

It’s unclear what position the Yavapai County, Ariz., attorney’s office has taken on the defense request to reduce bail. Its response to the motion is sealed, and a spokeswoman cited fair trial rights in declining to comment.

Ray has pleaded not guilty to each of the manslaughter counts. If convicted, he faces up to 12 1/2 years on each count, with probation being an option.

Prosecutors contend Ray recklessly crammed more than 50 participants of his “Spiritual Warrior” event near Sedona into a 415-square-foot sweat lodge, a sauna-like experience that uses heated stones to cleanse the body and is commonly used by American Indian tribes. Many participants have said Ray chided them for wanting to leave, even as people were vomiting, getting burned by hot rocks and lying unconscious on the ground.

Three people died — Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, N.Y., James Shore, 40, of Milwaukee; and Liz Neuman, 49, of Prior Lake, Minn. Eighteen others were hospitalized.

Ray’s attorneys have called the deaths a tragic accident and said he took all the necessary precautions and immediately tended to the ill.

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On the Net:

James Ray International: http://www.jamesray.com