Audio By Carbonatix
Keep Phoenix New Times Free
We’re aiming to raise $10,000 by April 26. Your support ensures New Times can continue watching out for you and our community. No paywall. Always accessible. Daily online and weekly in print.
Tempe police announced today that they’ve made an arrest in last week’s murder of 64-year-old Bonnie Raudman.
Raudman was found dead inside her Tempe home in the 2700 block of West Minton Drive on Friday morning by a friend who’d gone to her house to check on her.
According to the Tempe Police Department, the cause of death was “blunt and sharp” force injuries to the neck.
In addition to finding Raudman dead, police found that her car, a 2010 Hyundai Elantra, was missing from her garage.
Police scoured the area around Raudman’s home and found her vehicle about a mile away.
During the murder, several items were taken from Raudman’s home,
including two replica pistols and display plaques. Those items were
recovered from a dumpster not far from Raudman’s house.
Crime scene technicians managed to lift a print from the pistols. That
print was a match to 33-year-old Tempe resident Michael Lee Franklin.
Franklin was picked up yesterday and questioned by police.
During the interview, Franklin admitted to being in Raudman’s home and
stealing things, like her ATM card, but claims he never hurt Raudman.
Regardless, Franklin was taken into custody and booked into the Tempe
City Jail on one count each of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and
burglary.
