Kingman, Arizona: Is a Serial Killer Dumping Victims in Rural Desert Town?

Could a serial killer be active in the town of Kingman, Arizona? Over the course of the past 20 or more years, multiple people have vanished from the small desert town — and what’s worse: a handful of unidentified bodies have been located in the region. Could these disappearances and deaths be connected to someone local?

According to the NAMUS database, Five people have vanished from Kingman, Arizona over the past 20 years. None of these people have been located. Among those five missing people is a woman by the name of Kimberly Lynn Varela, who disappeared in 2002. Her boyfriend was the last person to see her, and an investigation of a home where she was last seen returned possible evidence of a crime. Nonetheless, her boyfriend was never charged and Varela has never been found. According to the missing Kingman woman’s boyfriend, at the time of her disappearance, she had a history of leaving for brief periods of time. Another missing woman in this area, Michelle Rene Segura, disappeared in 2008. She was last seen in Kingman, but seemed to have vanished without a trace. This disappearance also remains unsolved.

Aside from the unsolved cases of missing people, there are multiple unidentified bodies that have been located in the area of Kingman. Many of those unidentified remains have been discovered just in the past decade — and some of them as recently as the past couple of years. The NAMUS database reports that the remains of three unidentified women have been located in the area just since 2017 alone. In 2017, the remains of a young woman were discovered by ATV riders in the area. The body, which was found in a cave, has not been identified. A year prior, the body of a young African-American girl was found in a shallow grave in a ditch in Kingman. The Jane Doe was laid to rest in 2020 without an identity, but by 2021 she was identified as a teenager from California named Kimberly Jones. Her cause of death isn’t known, but her case is being considered a homicide due to the fact that her body was found nude.

In 2021, the body of an unidentified woman was found inside a residence in Kingman, Arizona. The details surrounding this strange discovery aren’t publicly available, nor is it known if the decedent was a victim of a homicide. The body was reportedly unidentifiable to the point that an age couldn’t be determined. While NAMUS doesn’t specify, there are media reports from the time that indicate the body was found with another body inside a burning home.

Just this year the unidentified body of a woman was found near downtown Kingman around the Monolith Garden Trail. The woman’s remains were unidentifiable due to prolonged exposure to the elements in the desert environment, indicating that she might have been where she was found for quite a while. Her death is being investigated as suspicious but there really aren’t any publicly known clues to indicate who this woman was or how her body ended up where it did.

Kingman, Arizona is home to numerous cold cases

There are several unsolved murders and disappearances in Kingman — and even more throughout the county of Mohave. Some sources claim that there are over 84 unsolved cold cases in Mohave County alone, while others conservatively claim there are over a dozen. These numerous unsolved murders range in victims from children to elderly people — all in the rural towns that surround Kingman. One of these unsolved cases is the murder of Arlica Dendy, whose body was found in 2015. The young Kingman woman was found shot to death, but no other evidence has led to a resolution in her case. Arlica is just one of many victims who have gone without justice in the area of Kingman, Arizona. Several years prior to the murder of Arlica Dendy, a woman named Letha James was found shot to death in her Kingman, Arizona residence. Her case, like Dendy’s remains unsolved. By the year 2011 there were at least 15 unsolved murders in Kingman — and all of those cases remain unsolved a decade later, with more cases added to the pile.

What is going on in Kingman, Arizona?

Could the number of missing people, unidentified bodies and unsolved homicides be attributed — at least in part — to a serial killer? Or could the seemingly high rate of unsolved murders simply be caused by the town’s close proximity to Las Vegas while being rural enough to attract opportunistic criminals? Anything is possible, but with so many unsolved cases collecting dust perhaps it is time for authorities in Mohave County to consider the possibility that someone local to them is preying on people — and getting away with it.