KATHY McCORMACK
Police Probe Possible Link Between Arizona Deaths
FILE - In this March 2, 2011 file photo police investigate the scene after a gunman fired shots at U.S. soldiers on the bus outside Frankfurt airport, Germany. Prosecutors are asking for a sentence of life in prison for the alleged Islamic extremist who has admitted killing two U.S. airmen at the Frankfurt airport last year. The dapd news agency reported that Prosecutor Jochen Weingarten told the Frankfurt state court in closing arguments Monday Jan. 9, 2012 that Arid Uka deserved the maximum possible sentence due to the brutal nature of the crime. The 21-year-old ethnic Albanian from Kosovo confessed as the trial opened to killing two men at point-blank range before wounding two more airmen and taking aim at a third before his gun misfired. Under German law the court still has to review all the evidence. A verdict is expected on Jan. 19. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)(Credit: AP) FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Authorities are expected to release more information Tuesday about a possible link between the fatal shooting of a deputy sheriff near Phoenix and a New Hampshire couple found dead in their car in northern Arizona.
Maricopa County Sheriff’s Deputy William Coleman was gunned down Sunday at a north Phoenix medical building while answering a burglary call. A man got out of a van and opened fire.
On Friday, James Johnson of Jaffrey, N.H., and Carol Raynsford of Nelson, N.H., were found dead in a sedan at a remote highway turnout near Sedona.
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.
Police: No explosives on bus in NH bomb scare
Police say case is not terrorism-related
No explosives were found on a Greyhound bus after a daylong bomb scare and standoff that ended peacefully, police said Friday.
David Rabitor, a police dispatcher, said early Friday that the bus had been taken from the scene, and that all nearby roads and buildings were reopened. The bus wasn’t impounded.
The odyssey involving the Maine-to-New York bus began Thursday around 11:15 a.m. with a 911 call about a man on a bus with a bomb, police said. Authorities evacuated buildings and streets and called the bus passengers out, but one man refused to leave.
Continue Reading CloseBomb threat aboard bus shuts down N.H. city’s heart
Emergency call was "based on someone's observations"
Someone aboard a Maine-to-New York bus carrying 18 people called 911 to report an explosive device on board Thursday, leading police to evacuate buildings and streets, call the passengers out under the watch of a sharpshooter, and question the last person left inside.
The 911 call came after the Greyhound bus arrived in the seaside city of Portsmouth around 11:30 a.m. and was “based on someone’s observations,” Police Capt. Mike Schwartz said. He had not heard of any threat being made.
Continue Reading ClosePolice: 1 bus passenger being questioned in N.H.
All travelers on Greyhound bus involved in a bomb scare were safely evacuated.
All passengers but one on a Greyhound bus involved in a bomb scare were safely removed Thursday, with the one remaining person staying aboard and being questioned, police said.
Police say someone aboard the bus carrying 17 passengers called 911 and reported an explosive device on board, leading police to surround the vehicle and evacuate nearby buildings and streets.
The 911 call came after the bus’ arrival in Portsmouth around 11:30 a.m. and was “based on someone’s observations,” Police Capt. Mike Schwartz said. He had not heard of any threat being made.
Continue Reading Close1913 Lincoln movie found in barn cleanup
Restored film starring John Ford's brother will be screened at Keene College in New Hampshire this month
A contractor cleaning out an old New Hampshire barn he was about to demolish has found the only known copy of a 1913 silent film about Abraham Lincoln.
Francis Ford stars in “When Lincoln Paid.” He’s the brother of John Ford, director of “The Grapes of Wrath,” and “The Quiet Man.”
Peter Massie gave the nitrate reels to Keene State College, which determined that the film didn’t exist in film archives. It was one of eight silent films starring Francis Ford as Lincoln; there are no known surviving copies of the others.
A Colorado lab has since restored the film about the mother of a dead Union solider requesting that Lincoln pardon a Confederate soldier whom she had initially turned in. The college is holding an April 20 screening.