Police are investigating if a Maricopa couple was murdered doing meth with their neighbor who then used a backhoe to skillfully dig a double grave for them.
Slain former pilot, Michael Careccia, 44, and his accountant wife Tina Careccia, 42, were exhumed this week from a 6-foot-deep pit on their purported meth mate’s land, just a few blocks from their own home.
That find marked the conclusion of a desperate search for the two that began on June 22d with an unexplained disappearance and the discovery of their abandoned vehicle.
Investigators are now waiting on toxicology tests to confirm a claim by the suspected killer, 38-year-old Jose Valenzuela, that the Careccias were drug abusers and the three were using methamphetamine on the day they allegedly quarreled and he shot them both to death.
Meth has reached epidemic levels in the past decade -- in major cities as well as rural America -- and, because it can be cheaply made from common household products in home laboratories, poses a serious challenge for law enforcement.
Frequent use of the highly addictive chemical substance has been associated with bizarre behavior police have dubbed Excited Delirium, as well as Sudden Rage Syndrome, either of which can result in deadly confrontations.
