KINGMAN – A Kingman man has reportedly admitted shooting and killing his friend, stashing her body in a storage unit and looting her bank account while driving her vehicle for months. Kingman Police Chief Rusty Cooper said Brett Daniel Puett, 35, was arrested Friday, May 28 and booked into the Adult Detention Center for the murder of Debra Lynn Childers, 64.
Childers’ son lives out of state and reported his mother missing to the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office on May 12 after not hearing from her for several months. Cooper said the son indicated his mom lived mostly in her vehicle.
Cooper said that an unknown male subject had been withdrawing money from Childers’ bank account was established during the MCSO investigation. He said there was immediate concern for Childers’ welfare when the Kingman Police Department (KPD) learned that the man making the withdrawals was also driving her vehicle.
Detectives executed warrants and searched two storage units Childers had been renting in the 3100 block of Harrison St. The body of a woman believed to be Childers was recovered inside one of the units.
“The body had been concealed in a large duffel bag and appeared to have been inside the storage unit for several months,” Cooper said. “Investigators believe the body to be Debra Lynn Childers, however official identification must be made by the Mohave County Medical Examiner’s Office.”
Cooper said investigators identified Puett as the suspect and he was arrested without incident when he arrived at a residence in the 2500 block of Northfield Ave while driving the victim’s vehicle.
“Investigators learned that Puett and Childers met each other last summer, while both had been living out of their vehicles,” Cooper said. “Childers was shot and killed sometime in November while Puett and Childers were sharing a room at a motel in the 3200 block of E. Andy Devine Ave. in Kingman.”
Cooper said Puett admitted involvement in the killing, transporting and concealing the victim’s body and withdrawing from her account. Puett is initially charged with second degree murder, abandonment and concealment of a dead body and fraud.
Dave Hawkins