San Tan resident Raelynne Simonin called Pinal County sheriff's deputies last week claiming to be a witness to her husband's murder.
Turns out, police think she had something to do with it.
Simonin was arrested this morning for accessory to murder after the fact by Pinal County sheriff's deputies and is awaiting extradition back to Oklahoma.
On July 27, 23-year-old Simonin called police from an Arizona hospital claiming to be a witness to her husband's murder and a victim of sexual assault.
But her story "didn't add up," PCSO spokesman Elias Johnson tells New Times.
"According to what she told our deputies, it looked suspicious," Johnson says. "She knew more than she led on."
After hearing Simonin's story, deputies called the
Sequoyah County Sheriff's Department in Oklahoma to assist with the case -- Simonin
and her husband Jack Purselley, 39, recently fled from Arizona to
Oklahoma to escape paying child support to one of Purselley's kids.
Based on Simonin's information, Sequoyah County deputies found Purselley's dead body, shot multiple times, inside the couple's Oklahoma home.
In addition to Simonin, police are linking three Oklahoma men to Puselley's homicide, charging them with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of impersonating a police officer -- one of the men posed as a U.S. Marshall in order to draw Purselley out of his home.
After talking with Sequoyah County deputies, Simonin admitted to lying about the sexual assault and that she was having an affair with one of the men allegedly involved in her husband's murder.
Authorities in Oklahoma would not release further details about the murder.
"They created a little love triangle," Johnson says. "We think that had something to do with the murder. [The three men] had made contact with the couple and had known them for a couple weeks."
After the murder, Simonin fled back to Arizona, using the hospital as a cover up for her involvement, police say.
She is currently in Pinal County Jail and will be extradited back to Oklahoma in the next few days.
