CBS News
Arizona man leads authorities to missing wife’s body, pleads guilty to murder
Less than a week after an Arizona man reported his wife missing, launching an expansive search that quickly turned into a criminal investigation, he admitted to killing her and pleaded guilty to murder, authorities announced Friday.
As part of a deal with prosecutors in Coconino County, Daniel Paduchowski pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree murder in the death of his 45-year-old wife, Kelly. He also pleaded guilty to tampering with physical evidence, concealment of a dead body and possession of dangerous drugs, according to a copy of the plea agreement.
Details surrounding where Kelly Paduchowski’s remains were found weren’t immediately released, but the Flagstaff Police Department confirmed that her body was found around 10 a.m. after Daniel Paduchowski led authorities to Kelly’s remains, cell phone and the murder weapon, CBS affiliate KPHO-TV reported.
Flagstaff Police Department/KPHO
The plea agreement, reached earlier Friday before the Flagstaff Police Department held an afternoon news conference, marks a stunning and swift resolution to a homicide case that was opened just days earlier and that could have otherwise stretched for years as it made its way through the legal system.
At the news conference, Flagstaff Police Chief Sean Connolly emphasized that it had been just six days since authorities were alerted to Kelly Paduchowski’s disappearance.
“I was at the barber. I’ve been at the dry cleaners. I’ve been to restaurants and businesses, and this has been on everybody’s mind,” he said. “When communities are not indifferent, and they are engaged at this level, these are the outcomes that you have.”
Authorities didn’t provide any details about what might have led to the killing, nor did the plea agreement include information indicating a possible motive.
However, court documents obtained by KPHO-TV detail how neighbors reportedly heard a scream and saw Kelly Paduchowski lying face down in the yard, with her husband on top of her. Documents described that neighbors later saw Daniel Paduchowski spraying down the same area with a hose, the station reported, and investigators later found fresh blood at the residence.
Paduchowski’s attorney did not immediately respond to email and phone messages seeking comment.
Michael Tunink, a senior attorney at the Coconino County attorney’s office, said Daniel Paduchowski, 58, is expected to be sentenced to 16 years without the possibility of parole for the murder charge. His sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 10.
Authorities said Paduchowski called Flagstaff police on Sunday night, saying his wife never returned after leaving to go for a run and a swim at Lake Mary, southeast of Flagstaff.
Police said they quickly began to suspect Daniel Paduchowski had been involved in his wife’s disappearance, after the woman’s relatives found her car on the other side of town.
By Monday morning, police said, the missing persons case had turned into a homicide investigation. The Flagstaff Police Department announced Daniel Paduchowski’s arrest the next day.
As part of his deal with prosecutors, Daniel Paduchowski provided authorities with information about his wife’s remains and other evidence, including her cellphone, car keys and a weapon allegedly used to kill her, Tunink said.
Flagstaff police said they found Kelly Paduchowski’s remains on Friday morning but did not release the location, citing active “recovery efforts.”
Authorities said the search for Kelly Paduchowski was expansive, including local and federal agencies, nearly 50 search and rescue members who searched by foot, helicopter and on mountain bikes, as well as search dogs and drones. About 60 people from the community also volunteered for the search effort, police said.
Connolly, the Flagstaff police chief, said Friday that authorities have been in constant contact with the victim’s relatives, including her children.
“Since the moment I sat in the living room with Kelly’s family, I cannot tell you how impressed I have been with their strength and their resolve in handling this incredibly tragic situation,” he said.
Kelly Paduchowski’s family sent KPHO-TV a statement that reads in part: “…We feel a sense of resolve. We are immensely grateful to the law enforcement teams who have been working closely with us, the city of Flagstaff has been wonderful.”
Despite losing his boxing match to Jake Paul, Mike Tyson in a social media post Saturday said he had “no regrets” to getting “in ring one last time.”
The boxing legend was defeated by social media star Jake Paul in a highly anticipated fight on Friday night with an age difference of over three decades between the two contenders.
Netflix said Saturday that 60 million households worldwide tuned in to watch the match. The two fighters went eight full rounds, with each round two minutes long. Paul defeated Tyson by unanimous decision and the 27-year-old upset boxer and 58-year-old former heavyweight champion hugged afterward.
Paul was expected to earn about $40 million from the fight, and Tyson was expected to take around $20 million for the fight, according to DraftKings and other online reports.
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Tyson said on his social media that “this is one of those situations when you lost but still won. I’m grateful for last night.”
The fight almost didn’t happen after Tyson experienced an ulcer flare-up while on a plane in March. He addressed his illness Saturday, writing that he “almost died in June.” He said he had eight blood transfusions and “lost half my blood and 25lbs in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won.”
Tyson retired from boxing in 2005 after a 20-year career. He last fought in a 2020 exhibition match against former four-division world champ Roy Jones Jr.
“To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish 8 rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you,” he said.
Alex Sundby and
contributed to this report.
In their final meeting, China’s leader Xi Jinping told U.S. President Biden that his nation was “ready to work with a new administration,” as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take over.
The two leaders gathered Saturday on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Mr. Biden was expected to urge Xi to dissuade North Korea from further deepening its support for Russia’s war on Ukraine. It marked their first in-person meeting since they met in Northern California last November.
Without mentioning Trump’s name, Xi appeared to signal his concern that the incoming president’s protectionist rhetoric on the campaign trail could send the U.S.-China relationship into another valley.
“China is ready to work with a new U.S. administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-U.S. relationship for the benefit of the two peoples,” Xi said through an interpreter.
LEAH MILLIS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Mr. Biden, meanwhile, spoke in broader brushstrokes about where the relationship has gone and reflected not just on the past four years, but on their long relationship.
“Over the past four years, China-U.S. relations have experienced ups and downs, but with the two of us at the helm, we have also engaged in fruitful dialogues and cooperation, and generally achieved stability,” he said.
Mr. Biden and Xi, with top aides surrounding them, gathered around a long rectangle of tables in an expansive conference room at Lima’s Defines Hotel and Conference Center.
There’s much uncertainty about what lies ahead in the U.S.-China relationship under Trump, who campaigned promising to levy 60% tariffs on Chinese imports.
Bobby Djavaheri, president of Los Angeles-based Yedi Houseware Appliances — which manufactures its products in China — told CBS News in an interview this week that such tariffs “would decimate our business, but not only our business. It would decimate all small businesses that rely on importing.”
Trump has also proposed revoking China’s Most Favored Nation trade status, phasing out all imports of essential goods from China and banning China from buying U.S. farmland.
Already, many American companies, including Nike and eyewear retailer Warby Parker, have been diversifying their sourcing away from China. Shoe brand Steve Madden says it plans to cut imports from China by as much as 45% next year.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden administration officials will advise the Trump team that managing the intense competition with Beijing will likely be the most significant foreign policy challenge they will face.
It’s a big moment for Mr. Biden as he wraps up more than 50 years in politics. He saw his relationship with Xi as among the most consequential on the international stage and put much effort into cultivating that relationship.
Mr. Biden and Xi first got to know each other on travels across the U.S. and China when both were vice presidents, interactions that both have said left a lasting impression.
“For over a decade, you and I have spent many hours together, both here and in China and in between. And I think we’ve spent a long time dealing with these issues,” Mr. Biden said Saturday.
But the last four years have presented a steady stream of difficult moments.
The FBI this week offered new details of a federal investigation into Chinese government efforts to hack into U.S. telecommunications networks. The initial findings have revealed a “broad and significant” cyberespionage campaign aimed at stealing information from Americans who work in government and politics.
U.S. intelligence officials also have assessed China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for use in its war against Ukraine.
And tensions flared last year after Mr. Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States.
President-elect Donald Trump has selected Chris Wright, a campaign donor and fossil fuel executive, to serve as energy secretary in his upcoming, second administration.
CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Wright is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking, a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market.
Trump also said in a statement Saturday that Wright will serve on the newly-created National Energy Council, which will be chaired by North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s selection for secretary of the Interior.
Burgum will oversee a panel that crosses all executive branch agencies involved in energy permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation and transportation, Trump said in a previous statement.
Wright has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change and could give fossil fuels a boost, including quick action to end a year-long pause on natural gas export approvals by the Biden administration.
Wright also has criticized what he calls a “top-down” approach to climate by liberal and left-wing groups and said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight.”
Consideration of Wright to head the administration’s energy department won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm.
Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term.
Hamm helped organize an event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in April where Trump reportedly asked industry leaders and lobbyists to donate $1 billion to Trump’s campaign, with the expectation that Trump would curtail environmental regulations if re-elected.
The Energy Department is responsible for advancing energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States. The agency is in charge of maintaining the country’s nuclear weapons, oversees 17 national research laboratories and approves natural gas exports, as well as ensuring environmental cleanup of the nation’s nuclear weapons complex. It also promotes scientific and technological research.
Republican Sen. John Barrasso, who is expected to become chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Trump promised bold choices for his Cabinet, and Wright’s nomination delivers.
“He’s s an energy innovator who laid the foundation for America’s fracking boom. After four years of America last energy policy, our country is desperate for a secretary (of energy) who understands how important American energy is to our economy and our national security,″ Barrasso said of Wright, adding: “Wright will help ensure America remains committed to an all-of-the-above energy policy that puts American families first.”
Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, a conservative group that supports fossil fuels, said Wright would be “an excellent choice” for Energy secretary. Pyle led Trump’s Energy Department’s transition team in 2016.
Liberty is a major energy industry service provider, with a focus on technology. Wright, who grew up in Colorado, earned undergraduate degree at MIT and did graduate work in electrical engineering at the University of California-Berkeley and MIT. In 1992, he founded Pinnacle Technologies, which helped launch commercial shale gas production through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
He later served as chairman of Stroud Energy, an early shale gas producer, before founding Liberty Resources in 2010.
