Nearly five months later, investigation into Krentz murder continues

DOUGLAS, Ariz. — Nearly five months after Rob Krentz was shot to death as he worked on his ranch 30 miles northeast of Douglas, investigators have released little information about ongoing efforts to find his killer.

Krentz, 58, was killed March 27, his body found 12 hours after he failed to meet his brother for lunch as planned. His dog, Blue, was also shot and had to be euthanized.

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Carol Capas, spokeswoman for the Cochise County Sheriff’s Department, told Catholic News Service in early August that two investigators remain assigned to the case and that no announcement about progress was expected anytime soon.

In congressional testimony three weeks after the murder, Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever said the investigation is focused on drug smugglers.

Testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee April 20, Dever said that on the remote, 35,000-acre Krentz Ranch, “there’s jackrabbits, rattlesnakes, a few cattle grazing on barren pasture, illegal aliens and drug smugglers out there and that’s it. This wasn’t somebody walking to Wal-Mart or something to go shoplift something.”

Dever said they were eyeing a suspect who is known to be a scout for drug smuggling operations. The next day the Sheriff’s Department released a photo of a “person of interest” in various burglaries around Portal, Ariz., not far from the Krentz Ranch.

The Arizona Daily Star newspaper noted that such a “wanted” notice is unusual for burglaries and that the “person of interest,” Alejandro Chavez Vasquez, of Agua Prieta, Mexico, just across the border from Douglas, has a record of convictions for sex crimes, auto theft and has been deported from the United States for aggravated felonies.

Arizona daily newspapers have alternately reported that investigators have a suspect in the United States, that the suspect is in Mexico, and that the murder was not random. The day before the murder, eight drug smugglers had been caught on the Krentz ranch with 250 pounds of marijuana.

Krentz’s widow, Sue, told Catholic News Service that at the family’s request, local professional trackers followed footprints from where her husband’s body was found into Mexico, more than 20 miles away.

Beyond that, she hasn’t paid much attention to discussion about who murdered him, she said.

“We have chosen not to know much about the investigation,” she said. “I would prefer to know that that person isn’t around to injure somebody else. I would prefer if people would make better choices to begin with.”