I’ve interviewed thousands of people during my time as a journalist, but none more memorable than Ethel Marley. In November, we spoke by phone for more than an hour about the 1988 murder of her friend and neighbor Jeanne Tovrea. While she had some interesting things to say about the…

It’s the morning of July 3 at the Peoria residence of Gabriel Murrietta and Ramona Flores Seja. They are explaining what it’s like to lose their dream home to foreclosure. “We really expected to see that tree grow up and give us shade,” says Flores, pointing to a small tree…

The U S West Direct Yellow Pages dated March 1997-98 advertises the “low fees–expert service” of attorney Robert L. Devers. “Services limited to bankruptcy. Seventeen years experience. Over 5,000 cases handled,” the small ad says. A few pages later, there’s a quarter-page ad for attorney Anthony W. Clark, whose “Arizona…

Santa Rosa We will not be fainthearted in our search for the truth. I shall plant a rosebush of gentle radiant amber. I will patiently care for it until we find out what happened. For now the answer is denied by guilty silence. –Tascha Boychuk, 1996, on the unsolved death…

An examination of the Amber Bass case by New Times indicates it’s possible prosecutors could file charges under Arizona’s child-abuse laws. The crime? Hastening Amber’s death by failing to monitor and administer the child’s heart medications. To prove that occurred, prosecutors would have to follow the lead of county medical…

One night in March 1987, Mary and Manny Carbajal and several members of their family gathered around a kitchen table at their home in downtown Phoenix. It would be more than a year before their 19-year-old son Michael would become world famous, and his inspirational story had yet to be…

Descriptions that weren’t heard at a memorial service for Phoenix attorney Mike Scott last Saturday morning: Elegant. Subtle. Wimpy. Pompous. Mellow. Slick. Those who paid their respects at Phoenix’s St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church ran the gamut. Cowpokes wearing blue jeans and garish belt buckles mingled with barristers in Brooks…

James “Butch” Harrod contacted New Times through his sister, June Barney, a few months after his September 1995 arrest. Barney said her brother was unhappy at the time with his attorney, a Maricopa County deputy public defender. She said Harrod wanted to tell his story publicly, no holds barred. New…

Part 1 of this series established that animosity between Jeanne Tovrea and her stepchildren led to estrangement and litigation. It showed how James “Butch” Harrod, the man accused of killing her, continues to proclaim his innocence despite the damning presence of his fingerprints at the crime scene. Part 2 examined…

The lead news story in Arizona on April 1, 1988, was a grabber. “Socialite found slain,” the headline in a Phoenix daily blared. The crime could have been taken from a Columbo script–a millionaire heiress to a cattle fortune is executed as she sleeps in her home. Phoenix police had…

The cop and his prey faced each other in a quiet room at the Phoenix Police Department. It was the early evening of September 14, 1995. Veteran detective Ed Reynolds had craved this moment since 1992, when he’d taken on the task of revisiting one of Arizona’s most infamous unsolved…

Editor’s note: The names of the victims, their parents and the assailant — a relative of A. Melvin McDonald’s — have been changed. Some details of the crimes are intentionally vague so as to protect those identities. Everyone else named in this story is accurately identified. In 1990, Janet Brooks…

The time had finally come for Diane Keith to tell a judge about her murdered sister. On December 6, the Glendale resident stood before Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Armando de Leon and collected her thoughts. At hand was the sentencing of John Anthony Davis, a 22-year-old man involved in…

A few months ago, a telemarketer working out of a west Phoenix office made her pitch to an elderly Pennsylvania woman. “I’m calling from the American Indian Relief Council,” Sharon A. began, her accent straight out of New York City. “Currently, we are working on our food-baskets program. For $35,…

A state agency has concluded that ComCare failed dismally in its treatment of a mentally ill Vietnam veteran who died after collapsing on a Phoenix street. The investigation by the Division of Behavioral Health Services came in the wake of New Times stories about the life and death of Donald…

The State Bar of Arizona has asked a retired judge to investigate allegations of sexual harassment against Bruce Hamilton, the agency’s longtime executive director. On Monday, Bar officials confirmed rumors that have circulated widely in Arizona’s legal community since a heated Board of Governors meeting November 22: Hamilton is on…

A few Sunday mornings ago, Mary and Ernie Howard found a sitter for their three children and drove to American Legion Post 75 in north Phoenix. The Glendale couple didn’t know anyone at the Sunnyslope chapter, but had been invited to attend a flag-raising ceremony in honor of Mary’s late…

Late on the sizzling afternoon of July 25, two police officers saw a disheveled black man pushing a shopping cart along a south Phoenix street. He staggered a few steps, then dropped face first onto a sidewalk at 16th Street and University. The man, who carried no identification, had a…

Phoenix resident Donald Campbell was fed up with neighborhood dogs using his front lawn as their personal rest room. First, he posted a sign asking passers-by to pick up after their pets. When that didn’t do the trick, Campbell took more extreme measures. In February 1994, according to police reports,…

The Gang Squad team members of Dauer and Puskar introduce themselves to the driver of an illegally parked car. It’s almost midnight on a humid Saturday in September, in the mazelike, crime-heavy southeast Phoenix subdivision known as the Townhouses. The cops step out of their car–a ratty-looking Chevy with 115,000…