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 house, she was Kerri Ann Penrod: a gifted and beloved member of Arizona’s tight-knit Pinetop-Lakeside neighborhood.
“She was a type of individuals who radiated mild,” mentioned her cousin Cathy Penrod. “I don’t understand how else to explain her. She was love and he or she was mild.”
Cathy Penrod exhibits a photograph of her cousin Kerri with Kerri’s brother Blue and sister Karen.
(Caitlin O’Hara / For The Occasions)
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 house 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 major 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 a giant wave” when she drove down the quick, gravel-dirt highway referred to as Bruin Method and handed by her neighbor Rebecca Lopez, a retired highschool administrator. “She even requested her visitors to maintain their pace down so that they wouldn’t cowl my vehicles and home with mud after they drove by. She was only a very nice woman.”
Kerri, who was discovered lifeless from a gunshot wound the night time 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 japanese 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 Occasions)
In line with Cathy Penrod, Kerri mentioned little about her marriage or the divorce when she returned. However “it should have been unhealthy” 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 should have felt a lot disgrace,” she mentioned, describing her personal expertise of being a divorced girl on this city — the place customized and conference are supreme, and purposeful familial destruction is abhorrent.
“However she additionally should have recognized how deep her household’s love was for her. That it doesn’t matter what, this was her house,” Cathy Penrod mentioned.
Whereas information stories 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 — no less than 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 date resisted any whiff of genteel urbanity.
A pair eats at Darbi’s restaurant in Pinetop-Lakeside, Ariz.
(Caitlin O’Hara / For The Occasions)
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 lot of others, colonize the Little Colorado River Valley — an space that stretches south and east by way of the White Mountains towards the New Mexico border. After cobbling collectively carpentry work within the cities of Snowflake and Present Low throughout the early Eighteen Eighties, the Penrods determined to strike out on their very own and in 1886 settled on a subject close to a saloon — a spot referred to as Pinetop — the place they lived out of their lined wagon till they may construct a log cabin of their very own.
The geography and atmosphere of Pinetop is harsh. The soil is skinny, sandy and gravelly and stands of Ponderosa pine bushes are thick — creating a virtually 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 mild of the day at Woodland Lake Park in Pinetop-Lakeside, Ariz.
(Caitlin O’Hara / For The Occasions)
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 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 College yearbooks from 1983 and 1984 — her junior and senior years — present a smiling and completed younger girl, surrounded by buddies, participating in one in every of her many golf equipment, receiving honors or performing. She was a member of the varsity orchestra and the Nationwide Honor Society. Throughout her senior 12 months, she was promenade queen and pupil 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 group’s scorekeeper. Within the orchestra she was first violin, and was a member of the All-State Band and All-State Orchestra. There are practically 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 check music training and studio efficiency, which she delay for a semester so she might serve her duties representing the county.
Divorce filings present she didn’t graduate from school. Nevertheless, in 1989, she acquired an Arizona actual property license. She had an EMT firefighting license too, in response to the paperwork.
Cathy Penrod shares tales about her cousin Kerri in Pinetop-Lakeside, Ariz.
(Caitlin O’Hara / For The Occasions)
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 small print of their courtship.
In line with an April 15, 2024, declaration for spousal help, 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 youngster 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 spotlight on elevating our younger household.” She mentioned her husband supported this resolution.
Penrod Method, named for the founding household, in Pinetop-Lakeside, Ariz.
(Caitlin O’Hara / For The Occasions)
Court docket filings present she was given a $1,000 month-to-month allowance from Abatti and the pair vacationed all over the world — in locations similar to Italy, Switzerland and Hawaii — with their youngsters, household and buddies. They traveled top notch, stayed at five-star lodging, and frequented four- and five-star eating places. The household additionally spent cash on fishing gear, tenting gear and weapons, amongst different gadgets.
Her youngsters attended non-public colleges, had non-public tutors and got new vehicles — all debt-free.
Within the Imperial Valley lately, no less than 5 individuals who had been requested in regards to the Abatti household declined to talk to The Occasions on the file out of concern 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 Occasions)
“Everyone’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’d be shunned in political or social circles, citing the household’s file 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 Occasions)
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. In line with declarations submitted by Mike Abatti, she left their California house 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 non-public Penrod household cemetery in Pinetop, the place six generations are buried. Her mom, Sue Penrod, had inherited the function of graveyard maintenance. However Kerri assumed duty upon her return — working with dedication to establish the scores of graves scattered all through the sector, work out all of the familial relationships, clear the stones, clear the grass and ensure contemporary 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.”
Occasions employees author Alex Wigglesworth contributed to this report.
