Investigators declined to reveal the suspected motive in the shooting death of a prominent California farmer’s estranged wife in eastern Arizona, but they said the couple's prolonged divorce case arose in nearly all interviews with family and friends. Michael Abatti, 63, was arrested last week in El Centro, California, in the shooting death of Kerri Ann Abatti, 59, at her family’s vacation home in Pinetop, Arizona, where she moved after splitting with her husband. Investigators, who discussed the case at a news conference Monday, say Michael Abatti traveled from El Centro to Pinetop on Nov. 20, carried out the killing and returned to California early the next morning.

Investigators declined to reveal the suspected motive in the shooting death of a prominent California farmer’s estranged wife in eastern Arizona, but they said the couple's prolonged divorce case arose in nearly all interviews with family and friends. Michael Abatti, 63, was arrested last week in El Centro, California, in the shooting death of Kerri Ann Abatti, 59, at her family’s vacation home in Pinetop, Arizona, where she moved after splitting with her husband. Investigators, who discussed the case at a news conference Monday, say Michael Abatti traveled from El Centro to Pinetop on Nov. 20, carried out the killing and returned to California early the next morning.

Investigators declined to reveal the suspected motive in the shooting death of a prominent California farmer’s estranged wife last month in eastern Arizona.

California farming tycoon Michael Abatti is accused of murdering his wife in an Arizona mountain town as the two were in the midst of a divorce.