Sierra Vista man strangles roommate, stores body in suitcase | Local News Stories

SIERRA VISTA — A man has been arrested for murder after admitting to police he strangled his roommate and hid his body in a suitcase in the bedroom closet.

Keith Allen White, 50, was charged with second-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence after police responded to Garden Plaza Apartments at 100 E. Golf Links Rd. on Monday night.

Sierra Vista Police received a call at 9:13 p.m. Monday from a resident of the apartment, who reported that White had admitted to killing his roommate, Brian Cook, who is also a relative of the caller.

Officers responded to the scene and spoke with the caller before making their way to White’s apartment on the north side of the complex.

When they arrived, “he’s got the windows down and a fan blowing the odor of human decomposition out of the apartment,” said Sierra Vista Sgt. Sean Brownson, a detective with the Special Operations Bureau.

Through the open windows of the apartment, officers could see multiple empty liquor bottles, White sitting inside and a smeared trail of bodily fluid leading from the bedroom closet to a suitcase near the front door of the apartment. With their guns drawn, the officers ordered White outside and he complied without incident.

Brownson was the first detective to arrive on scene and speak with White, who Brownson said spoke openly about what he had done.

“He kept calling it a faux pas,” Brownson said.

Based on interviews with the suspect and the relative, as well as evidence at the scene, investigators began to piece together the moments surrounding the incident.

White and Cook began sharing an apartment about a month ago in order to reduce expenses. Both were mostly unemployed and suffered from alcoholism. The two had spent Saturday evening drinking in the apartment when a prolonged argument began.

“They argued all Saturday night,” the detective said. Then, between 2 and 3 a.m. Sunday, White lunged at Cook, wrapping his hands around his throat.

“He said the victim didn’t offer any resistance. They were both very intoxicated because they had been drinking a lot of vodka. He said the guy wouldn’t quit running his mouth,” Brownson said.

White told Brownson that he tried to revive Cook, but it was too late.

“He described it as he overstepped his bounds. He wanted to try to bring him back but he couldn’t, so he had to come up with a plan to get rid of the body,” Brownson said.

White stuffed Cook’s body inside a suitcase and hid it in a bedroom closet. The next day, the detective said, he invited Cook’s relative and another person over to his apartment for a barbecue.

“The relative came over for the barbecue, not knowing where (Cook) was. The whole time, he was dead in the closet with the door closed,” Brownson said.

Later that evening, after the third person had left, White asked the relative if he could trust him. He then confessed to strangling Cook on the couch and told the relative that Cook’s body was inside a suitcase that he then pulled out from the bedroom closet, according to the probable cause statement submitted with White’s arrest.

He told the relative that he planned to bury Cook’s body somewhere in the desert. The relative told police he continued to talk to him in an attempt to keep him calm, and eventually, they both went to the relative’s apartment and watched a movie. The relative waited for White to fall asleep, then called police.

The 17-year veteran of the police force described the case as “heinous” and “gruesome.”

“It’s certainly something you don’t see every day,” Brownson said.

A search of the apartment found empty liquor bottles strewn about, as well as evidence of methamphetamine use.

In an interview with investigators at the Sierra Vista Police Department, White accused Cook of often stealing items from him, such as batteries and flashlights.

Cook’s body was transported to the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office, where an autopsy is scheduled to take place Wednesday.

White had his initial appearance before a judge in Sierra Vista Justice Court on Tuesday morning. He remains booked in the Cochise County Jail.