Slaying of Arizona rancher is still a mystery

Rob Krentz

by Dennis Wagner

    On a breezy spring morning, a red ATV rolled across southeastern Arizona’s border badlands beneath the mystical Chiricahua Mountains.
    A gray-haired rancher in classic cowboy attire — jeans, boots, denim vest and shirt — was at the wheel accompanied by his dog, Blue.

    Robert Krentz, 58, was checking stock ponds and waterlines on the 35,000-acre spread not far from where Apache leader Geronimo surrendered to the U.S. cavalry. The Krentz clan began raising cattle there more than a century ago, shortly before Mexican Revolution leader Pancho Villa prowled nearby.
    In modern times, the sparsely populated San Bernardino Valley bordering New Mexico and Sonora became a magnet for bird-watchers and a haven for smugglers.
    Krentz pulled to a stop as he noticed a man apparently injured. The rancher made a garbled radio call to his brother, Phil — something about an illegal alien ... hurt ... call Border Patrol.
    It was about 10:30 a.m., March 27, 2010. What happened that morning, as shots echoed across the grassy range, would roil Arizona politics and fuel the U.S. immigration debate for years to come.
    One day earlier, Phil had put Border Patrol agents onto a group of suspected drug runners on the family’s land, resulting in eight arrests and the seizure of 200 pounds of marijuana.
    After Krentz’s broken radio transmission, family members almost immediately launched a search, and enlisted help within hours.
    Rob was found just before midnight, his body lying on the ground with his feet still inside the all-terrain vehicle. Two 9 mm slugs had fatally penetrated his lungs. Another bullet wounded his dog, which had to be euthanized.
    Krentz carried a rifle and pistol in his Polaris Ranger, but apparently never got a chance to use them. After being shot, he managed to drive about 1,000 feet before collapsing.
    The only immediate sign of an assailant was a set of footprints. Trackers followed them nearly 20 miles south to Mexico, where the trail vanished.
    ...Yet, after almost four years of investigation, Cochise County sheriff’s homicide report No. 10-05099 fails to identify a perpetrator, let alone establish motive or nationality of the killer.
     Newly released documents offer multiple theories, identify possible suspects and expose allegations of a sordid smuggling culture along America’s border with Mexico. But they fail to answer the anguishing question from family, friends and the nation: Who killed Rob Krentz?

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