PINETOP-LAKESIDE, Ariz. — Earlier than Kerri married Mike Abatti in 1992, earlier than she moved to California and raised three youngsters within the Imperial Valley, earlier than she left her husband of 31 years and earlier than she was shot and killed in her 7,000-square-foot Arizona mountain dwelling, she was Kerri Ann Penrod: a gifted and beloved member of Arizona’s tight-knit Pinetop-Lakeside neighborhood.
“She was a kind of individuals who radiated gentle,” mentioned her cousin Cathy Penrod. “I don’t understand how else to explain her. She was love and she or he was gentle.”
Cathy Penrod reveals a photograph of her cousin Kerri with Kerri’s brother Blue and sister Karen.
(Caitlin O’Hara / For The Instances)
Native, state and federal legislation enforcement are investigating Kerri’s dying. Earlier this month, they expanded their investigation from the couple’s 14-acre Pinetop dwelling to their shared properties and companies in Imperial County. A go to to Pinetop — the city the place Kerri was born and which is greater than 400 miles from the couple’s main residence in El Centro — leaves the impression that she got here right here not solely to flee from an sad marriage, however to rediscover the acquainted pleasure and luxury this place as soon as offered her.
Kerri “all the time had a smile and an enormous wave” when she drove down the brief, gravel-dirt highway often called Bruin Approach and handed by her neighbor Rebecca Lopez, a retired highschool administrator. “She even requested her visitors to maintain their pace down in order that they wouldn’t cowl my automobiles and home with mud after they drove by. She was only a very nice girl.”
Kerri, who was discovered useless from a gunshot wound the evening of Nov. 20, had returned to her hometown — a spot her ancestors discovered and settled within the Eighteen Eighties. Her divorce filings say she returned to Pinetop to assist her ailing mother and father, however the hardscrabble city 7,000 toes excessive in Arizona’s jap White Mountains can be the place she was as soon as thought-about a rising star, the place tradition is steeped in custom and faith, and the place familial bonds are staked in blood ties.
The house the place Kerri Abatti was discovered after being shot and killed in Pinetop-Lakeside, Ariz.
(Caitlin O’Hara / For The Instances)
Based on Cathy Penrod, Kerri mentioned little about her marriage or the divorce when she returned. However “it will need to have been dangerous” for her to have walked away and are available again to this deeply conventional neighborhood constructed by pioneers and missionaries within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and nonetheless closely populated by their descendants.
“She will need to have felt a lot disgrace,” she mentioned, describing her personal expertise of being a divorced lady on this city — the place customized and conference are supreme, and purposeful familial destruction is abhorrent.
“However she additionally will need to have recognized how deep her household’s love was for her. That it doesn’t matter what, this was her dwelling,” Cathy Penrod mentioned.
Whereas information studies about Kerri’s dying have portrayed Pinetop as an unique, mountain neighborhood crawling with transplants from Southern California, the city — now formally known as Pinetop-Lakeside, after it merged with its neighbor in 1984 — will not be Sedona, Flagstaff or Prescott. You received’t discover a Complete Meals, Sprouts or REI inside 100 miles. And though the city’s mayor, Stephanie Irwin, described the world as a draw for outdoor-loving Phoenix-area flatlanders, you’d be hard-pressed — at the least within the winter months — to search out anybody sporting a label like Patagonia or North Face. It’s an off-brand, pioneer city that has to this point resisted any whiff of genteel urbanity.
A pair eats at Darbi’s restaurant in Pinetop-Lakeside, Ariz.
(Caitlin O’Hara / For The Instances)
The city was settled by Kerri’s Mormon ancestors, Polly Ann and William Lewis Penrod, who’d been known as by Brigham Younger to uproot their 9 youngsters from Utah and, with a whole bunch of others, colonize the Little Colorado River Valley — an space that stretches south and east by the White Mountains towards the New Mexico border. After cobbling collectively carpentry work within the cities of Snowflake and Present Low in the course of the early Eighteen Eighties, the Penrods determined to strike out on their very own and in 1886 settled on a area close to a saloon — a spot often called Pinetop — the place they lived out of their coated wagon till they may construct a log cabin of their very own.
The geography and setting of Pinetop is harsh. The soil is skinny, sandy and gravelly and stands of Ponderosa pine bushes are thick — creating an almost everlasting cover of shade over a carpet of acidic and poisonous needles not conducive for rising vegetation or feeding livestock.
Ponderosa pines catch the final gentle of the day at Woodland Lake Park in Pinetop-Lakeside, Ariz.
(Caitlin O’Hara / For The Instances)
To make a life right here, pioneers needed to depend on religion, fortitude and household. Greater than a century after the Penrods first arrived, the identify is seen on highway indicators, a graveyard, and a great variety of enterprise playing cards, cellphone listings and highschool 12 months ebook entries.
Earlier than she left for California, Kerri Ann Penrod was a stand-out amongst this hardworking, community-oriented clan.
Blue Ridge Excessive Faculty yearbooks from 1983 and 1984 — her junior and senior years — present a smiling and achieved younger lady, surrounded by mates, collaborating in considered one of her many golf equipment, receiving honors or performing. She was a member of the college orchestra and the Nationwide Honor Society. Throughout her senior 12 months, she was promenade queen and scholar physique president, in addition to the band’s drum main, and first-place winner of the expertise present. She was a Lady Scout, cheerleader and the wrestling staff’s scorekeeper. Within the orchestra she was first violin, and was a member of the All-State Band and All-State Orchestra. There are almost three dozen accomplishments listed by her identify within the 1984 yearbook.
That very same 12 months, she was named Miss Navajo County and acquired a $1,000 scholarship to the College of Arizona to review music training and studio efficiency, which she postpone for a semester so she might serve her duties representing the county.
Divorce filings present she didn’t graduate from faculty. Nonetheless, in 1989, she acquired an Arizona actual property license. She had an EMT firefighting license too, based on the paperwork.
Cathy Penrod shares tales about her cousin Kerri in Pinetop-Lakeside, Ariz.
(Caitlin O’Hara / For The Instances)
When and the way she met Mike Abatti will not be clear. Her household didn’t reply to requests for remark. Her cousin Cathy — who’s 11 years her senior — additionally didn’t know the main points of their courtship.
Based on an April 15, 2024, declaration for spousal assist, filed by Kerri within the years following their marriage, she let her actual property and firefighting licenses lapse, however labored as an workplace supervisor for a third-party firm and as a bookkeeper for the Abatti household’s firm, Abatti Farms, LLC.
When her second baby was born, she stopped her work as an workplace supervisor, however continued doing the household’s bookkeeping. In 1999, she stop each jobs to focus her “time and a focus on elevating our younger household.” She mentioned her husband supported this choice.
Penrod Approach, named for the founding household, in Pinetop-Lakeside, Ariz.
(Caitlin O’Hara / For The Instances)
Courtroom filings present she was given a $1,000 month-to-month allowance from Abatti and the pair vacationed all over the world — in locations reminiscent of Italy, Switzerland and Hawaii — with their youngsters, household and mates. They traveled firstclass, stayed at five-star lodging, and frequented four- and five-star eating places. The household additionally spent cash on fishing tools, tenting gear and weapons, amongst different objects.
Her youngsters attended personal colleges, had personal tutors and got new automobiles — all debt-free.
Within the Imperial Valley lately, at the least 5 individuals who had been requested in regards to the Abatti household declined to talk to The Instances on the document out of worry of retaliation for themselves or their enterprise.
The house of farm proprietor Mike Abatti on Aurora Drive in El Centro.
(Hayne Palmour IV / For The Instances)
“All people’s afraid to speak,” mentioned one. The Abattis personal a few of the greatest agriculture operations within the Imperial Valley, and a few residents mentioned that in the event that they spoke with reporters, they might be shunned in political or social circles, citing the household’s document of charitable donations and marketing campaign contributions.
Mike Abatti’s identify in entrance of an workplace constructing in El Centro.
(Hayne Palmour IV / For The Instances)
Mike Abatti couldn’t be reached for remark. His divorce declarations counsel he was shocked by Kerri’s departure.
What drove Kerri Abatti to depart the wedding will not be recognized. Based on declarations submitted by Mike Abatti, she left their California dwelling in August 2023 whereas he was away on a fishing journey.
Cathy Penrod mentioned within the final two years, her cousin had been spending time on the personal Penrod household cemetery in Pinetop, the place six generations are buried. Her mom, Sue Penrod, had inherited the position of graveyard maintenance. However Kerri assumed accountability upon her return — working with dedication to determine the scores of graves scattered all through the sector, work out all of the familial relationships, clear the stones, clear the grass and ensure recent flowers had been laid in remembrance of those that had handed.
Cathy Penrod mentioned within the days earlier than her dying, her cousin had positioned poinsettias on the graves of William and Polly Penrod’s sixth technology descendants — her technology.
“I understand now that was what she was craving: a bond, a connection to her household. It’s what she wanted to do,” Cathy Penrod mentioned. “She got here again as a result of this was the middle of her universe. It’s the place her soul belonged.”
Instances workers author Alex Wigglesworth contributed to this report.
