AZMEX UPDATE 29 AUG 2013
Note: Probably Rucker Canyon area. The Chiricahua corridor ( through and around Douglas ) is a important and successful route into the U.S. Sometimes personally supervised by upper level Sinaloa management. Disruptions are usually not appreciated. Would suggest extra caution over next few days if heading into AP, or outside of Douglas. Probable disciplinary actions coming. Prime whitetail country.
Aug 29, 11:16 AM EDT
Nat. park worker in Ariz. hurt in apparent assault
BISBEE, Ariz. (AP) -- A 60-year-old National Park Service employee was critically injured in an apparent assault in southeastern Arizona and her government-owned truck was later found in a border town about 40 miles away, authorities said.
A Park Service interpretive worker was found unconscious Wednesday afternoon in a picnic area restroom at Chiricahua National Monument, apparently suffering from a head injury, the Cochise County Sheriff's office said.
The woman was flown to a Tucson hospital where she was in critical but stable condition, but further information on her injuries was not immediately available, sheriff's spokeswoman Carol Capas said.
The woman's government vehicle was found several hours later in the city of Douglas by tracking the worker's cellphone, which was still inside.
No suspects have been arrested or identified, she said.
Capas said the worker's pickup was found in the middle of Douglas and there was no immediate evidence that whoever abandoned it had crossed the border into Mexico.
Douglas is about 40 miles south of the monument, which is in mountains and desert on the east side of a broad valley that runs north from the U.S.-Mexico border.
The region is used by drug smugglers as well as people entering the United States illegally.
"We do have significant foot traffic and vehicle traffic that's attributed to illegal activity," Capas said.
Deputies were working closely with federal and state law officers to " identify the suspect(s) who apparently seriously injured a federal employee," Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels said in a statement released by his office.
Perryn Collier, a spokesman for the FBI in Phoenix, said the agency was assisting in the investigation being conducted by the Sheriff's Office and Park Service law enforcement officials.
Capas said investigators gathered evidence where the worker was found and the places where her vehicle had been parked and later located.
The monument was the site of the still-unsolved 1980 disappearance of a Park Service ranger, Paul Fugate, who was last seen when he went on foot patrol.
Also in the region, the unsolved shooting death of a Douglas-area rancher, Rob Krentz, helped spur passage of a 2010 Arizona law targeting illegal immigration.
Krentz was gunned down in March 2010 while checking water lines on his property. Authorities believe - but have never produced substantive proof - that a scout for drug smugglers killed Krentz.
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down some parts of the law in 2012, including the requirement that immigrants obtain or carry immigration registration papers. But the high court upheld a requirement that Arizona officers question the immigration status of those suspected of being in the country illegally.
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Suspect sought in alleged assault of National Park Service employee
Posted: Aug 28, 2013 10:49 PM MST
Updated: Aug 28, 2013 10:50 PM MST
By Jackie Kent - email
TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) -
Cochise County Sheriff's Office officials are searching for a suspect connected to the alleged assault of a National Park Service employee Wednesday in the Chiricahua Mountains, south of Willcox.
An official discovered an unconscious 60-year-old woman in a picnic area restroom around 3:20 p.m. The official reported the woman appeared to have head trauma and it was unknown if she had fallen.
The woman was transported via air ambulance to a local hospital where she remains in critical but stable condition, according to officials.
A National Park Service employee later discovered the victim's government vehicle was missing. Sheriff's Officers tracked her cell phone, which was in the vehicle at the time it was reportedly stolen. The vehicle was located at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Douglas and is now being processed for evidence.
"We have all available resources dedicated to this case and we are working closely with our local, state, and federal partners to identify the suspects who apparently seriously injured a federal employee, before stealing her vehicle and fleeing the area," Sheriff Dannels said. "We will be diligent in our efforts to find those who are responsible for this senseless act and our thoughts and prayers are with her family in this very sad and stressful time."
Anyone with information is asked to call the Cochise County Sheriff's Office at (520) 432-9500.
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