Corey McGarrahan and his wife were watching TV in their rural Arizona home shortly after 9 p.m. when they heard what sounded like a propane explosion outside.
“We stopped at the TV and looked at each other and said, ‘Did you hear that?'” McGarrahan told The Times in a phone interview Monday.
As the couple would later find out, that explosion was a gunshot. Their neighbor Kerri Ann Abatti, a daughter of Pinetop, Arizona, had been killed.
At a news conference Monday, detectives from the Navajo County Sheriff’s Office and Pinetop Police Department shed light on the investigation into Abatti’s slaying and what led them to arrest her estranged husband, powerful Imperial Valley rancher Michael Abatti, on suspicion of murder.
Kerri Ann Abatti was murdered on the night of November 20th. Authorities said Monday that the investigation has led them to focus on her husband’s whereabouts that day and the next. And while they did not disclose what evidence they gathered, Navajo County Sheriff David Clouse told reporters that his detectives “have good reason to believe that Mr. Abatti traveled from El Centro, California, on November 20 to Pinetop, Arizona, committed the homicide and returned to California.”
According to Michael Abatti’s San Diego attorneys, Danielle Iredale and Owen Roth, Abatti plans to plead not guilty.
The team said he turned himself in to Imperial County and “is now awaiting his day in court in Arizona.”
Abatti cannot post bail until he has been extradited.
According to Clouse, Kerri Ann Abatti was found by her grandson in her home on the night of Nov. 20.
Michael Abatti, pictured in an Imperial County Sheriff’s Office photo, is awaiting extradition to Arizona. (Imperial County Sheriff’s Office)
At the time she was shot, Abatti, 59, was embroiled in a bitter divorce with her 63-year-old husband, with the amount of financial support owed to him at the center of the disagreement, according to the couple’s divorce filings.
Kerri Ann Abatti’s nephew, who lived on the property, found his aunt on the living room floor near the kitchen counter, bleeding from the head and face and unconscious, according to the Navajo County medical examiner’s investigation report. He thought she had fallen from the height of the counter, according to the report. Law enforcement agencies were tied up with other calls in the area, so there was an extended wait for an officer, the report said.
First responders showed up 10 to 15 minutes after the loud sound that may have been a gunshot, Corey McGarrahan said. Casa Abatti is on 14 acres and hidden from the road where it is not visible to cars or emergency vehicles.
According to the autopsy report, emergency crews noted that Kerri’s injuries were consistent with a gunshot wound to the head. She was pronounced dead in the emergency room, the report said.
When investigators searched the home for clues, they found a broken window and determined the fire had been fired from outside in the backyard.
A bystander also called police that night to report a boom consistent with a large-caliber firearm, and Abatti’s nephew told police he heard a loud noise before finding his aunt, the report said.
Once it was clear a crime had been committed, investigators from the Navajo County Sheriff’s Office and Pinetop police secured the scene, obtained a search warrant and canvassed the neighborhood, according to Clouse.
“We looked for any eyewitnesses, anyone who was home at the time,” he said. They collected evidence from home surveillance technology such as doorbell cameras and interviewed her friends and family – including her three adult children – to build a timeline of her activities in the days leading up to her death.
McGarrahan said he doesn’t have a room in the house. He also said he did not hear any cars on the street until emergency vehicles arrived.
According to court documents, Kerri Ann Abatti moved to the 7,000-square-foot property in her hometown in the eastern White Mountains in 2023 after leaving her husband and filing for divorce.
As part of their homicide investigation, detectives “looked for anything out of the ordinary” during the woman’s slaying, Clouse said. They soon found out about the contested divorce.
On Nov. 23, Clouse said the investigation moved to the Imperial Valley, where they executed search warrants at three different locations, including the Abattis’ El Centro home and Michael Abatti’s commercial properties.
In the Imperial Valley, the name Abatti carries weight. Michael Abatti was a board member of the Imperial Irrigation District from 2006 to 2010 and once sued the district in a water rights dispute. He owns a large agricultural holding growing sugar beet, alfalfa and melons and is one of the largest operators in the area.
The sign outside Michael Abatti’s farm shop in El Centro bears his late father’s name. (Hayne Palmour IV / For The Times)
Divorce records show Kerri Ann Abatti accused her husband of denying her attempts to learn the full picture of their income and real estate while he made changes to their finances without consulting her or her attorney. Meanwhile, she claimed, she struggled to stay afloat on the several thousand dollars in monthly spousal support the court temporarily awarded her as the proceedings dragged on for more than two years.
As part of their investigation, detectives interviewed the Abattis’ friends, family and business associates in Arizona and Southern California.
Once enough information was gathered, the team cross-referenced all of their information, looking for inconsistencies and flags, and provided the findings to the Navajo County District Attorney’s office, Clouse said.
On December 23, this information was presented to a Navajo County grand jury and an arrest warrant was issued for Michael Abatti.
The Imperial County Sheriff’s Office arrested Abatti in El Centro that same day. He is awaiting extradition to Arizona.
“We received orders for a pickup, it was placed in our shipping queue … and the date and time will be announced once it returns to Navajo County,” Clouse said. “We’ll let everyone know … once he’s secured back in the Navajo County Jail.”
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.