Man Arrested By AZ Police After Body Of Woman Found Inside Duffle Bag

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after police discovered a woman’s dead body in a duffel bag inside her storage unit.

On Friday, Brett Daniel Puett was arrested on charges that included second-degree murder in connection with the death of Debra Childers, police in the western Arizona city of Kingman reported.

Childers, 64, a Kingman-area resident who primarily lived out of her car, was reported missing. Investigators suspect Puett had been withdrawing money from her bank account over the last several months, CNN reported.

Childers’ son, who doesn’t live in the area, reported her missing to the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office on May 12. He said he had not heard from his mother in several months.

Authorities started investigating the bank withdrawals from the victim’s bank account and discovered the suspect was also driving her car.

On Friday, they searched two storage units belonging to Childers when they discovered a body concealed in a large duffel bag, according to police.

“(The body) appeared to have been inside the storage unit for several months,” police said in a news release Saturday.

Mohave County Medical Examiner’s Office must still confirm that the body is Childers.
However, police believe it is her body and that a gunshot killed her.

Detectives have confirmed Puett as the person driving Childers’ car and making the withdrawals.

“Puett has admitted involvement in the killing and subsequent money withdrawals, as well as transporting and concealing her body,” Kingman police stated in a news release.

“Childers was shot and killed sometime in November while Puett and Childers were sharing a room at a motel…in Kingman,” said police, who said the two were possibly in a platonic relationship.