Have there been beheadings in Arizona desert?

As Arizona buzzes about Wednesday's gubernatorial debate between Jan Brewer and Terry Goddard, one of the topics getting a lot of attention is the subject of beheadings.

In the primetime debate, Democrat Goddard called on Republican Brewer to clear up "false statements" about people being beheaded in the Arizona desert.  Brewer had made the statements during a previous television interview.

"What is hurting us now economically are statements, false statements, made by Jan Brewer about how Arizona has become so violent that we are a place of fear that we have beheadings in the desert," Goddard said. "Those are false statements that cause people to think that Arizona is a dangerous place…and Jan I call upon you today to say there are no beheadings, that is a false statement, and it needs to be cleared up right now."

Governor Brewer responded with a side-step of the question, saying, "And you know Terry, I will call you out. I think you ought to renounce your support and endorsement of the unions that are boycotting our state."

The conversation went back-and-forth, but Brewer continued to side-step the question.

At the end of the debate, Brewer then cut short her own post-debate remarks to reporters when she was repeatedly asked about Goddard's request that she recant the statement.

Instead of answering the question from several reporters, she instead said thank you and ended the news conference.

"I'm astonished, frankly, everybody who studied this knows there are no beheadings," Goddard later said. "Arizona has the lowest violent crime rate we've had since 1983, our law enforcement has done a great job, and why the governor won't simply say I was wrong, there were no beheadings, Arizona is safe, I do not understand, this is hurting us incredibly."

On Thursday morning, ABC15 reached out to the Governor's office for further comment, but has not yet heard back.

Brewer did speak out on KTAR radio Thursday , saying the flap over the beheadings comment "is just getting blown totally out of proportion."

She told the news-talk station, "I think it's unfair when you come out of the debate, the first thing you're approached with is people yelling at you about beheadings, given the fact that we had a lot more important things to discuss...I'm human, we all have our levels of tolerance if you will...I'm moving on."

ABC15 also reached out to several state border and medical agencies to ask about beheadings in the Arizona desert. Here's what we've heard thus far:

Pima County Medical Examiner
Dr. Eric Peters, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner
“No we have never seen one single beheading in nearly 1,700 cases we have handled in the past decade of border deaths. In all the years, which is approximately ten, we’ve never seen one beheading.

Peters also said the issue could be born from confusion because animals often use decaying bodies as a food source, and that can erode the connection between a head and body.


Yuma County Medical Examiner’s Office
Robert Vigil, Medical Examiner Investigator
“Never had one.”


Maricopa County Medical Examiner
Mike Molzhon, Administrative Manager
“From our records we haven’t seen any cases of beheadings from our desert death cases”.

Cochise County Medical Examiner’s Office
Janice Fields, Business Manager
“I can’t tell you one way or another.”

"We haven’t found any fresh remains that have been beheaded.”

“We haven’t had a UDA in a couple of months now."

“It’s undetermined, there’s no way to tell."

Pinal County Medical Examiner’s
Joe Pyritz, Public Information Officer
“Pinal County Medical Examiner’s Office has relayed to me that they have never seen any beheadings.”

ABC15 also contacted multiple law enforcement agencies.

Sheriff offices in Pima, Pinal, Maricopa, Santa Cruz, Yuma, and Cochise all have said they have not come across any beheadings.

David Jimarez, a spokesperson for the Border Patrol, said the agency has not seen or experience that type of violence.

Arizona spokesman for Immigration and Custom Enforcement, Vincent Picard, also said he is not aware of any beheadings in the state.