The hunt for a murder suspect in the Verde Valley was a waste of time and resources Thursday. Prescott Police Lead Officer Dave Fuller says they responded to a home on Southview Drive Thursday for a welfare check and found 66-year old Jay Freeman dead inside. He says the welfare check was at the request of DPS who found 57-year old Sharalyn Stura of Prescott tied to the steering wheel of a car near the I-17/Highway-179 junction. She claimed a man had kidnapped her and forced her to drive to the area where she eventually escaped. Stura indicated that the suspect that kidnapped her was armed and fled on foot in the area around Montezuma’s Well and the Beaver Creek area just north of Rimrock. This information resulted in an extensive, coordinated search effort for the suspect involving several law enforcement agencies. Fuller says the investigation determined the story Stura gave was false. He says Stura admitted her involvement in the homicide and was booked into jail on a charge of 1-st degree murder. How and why Freeman was murdered has not been released.
