Identification still pending
KINGMAN – A Kingman couple who reportedly admitted killing a woman in a child custody dispute was indicted by a Mohave County Grand jury last month. Carrie Vanover, 23, and Mark Baldonado, 31, are charged with first degree murder in the death of Vanover’s mother.
The defendants whose confessions are detailed in court records were upset that 62-year-old Shawn Vanover had custody of her granddaughter, Carrie’s five year-old daughter. The probable cause affidavit said Carrie was late term pregnant when they decided to kill her mother because she allegedly had threatened to seek custody of her son after his birth.
The document indicated that the victim moved in with the couple within days of the April 14 murder. Baldonado told investigators he gave Vanover two Seroquel pills, hoping she would become drowsy and vulnerable to attack.
Baldonado told the case detective that the plan didn’t work because Shawn was up and down all night and made coffee the next morning at about 6:00 a.m. Carrie told the detective that she got a cup of coffee from her mom and was going back to her bedroom when she spotted Baldonado in a bathroom, clutching a hammer.
“While in the bedroom she heard Shawn screaming. Mark came into the room stating Shawn was still breathing,’’ the affidafit stated. “He grabbed a black gun from the night stand and headed back to the kitchen. Carrie stated she heard two gunshots.”
Baldonado told the detective he didn’t recall striking her, but remembered standing over Shawn with the hammer before shooting her twice with the .380 caliber weapon. Carrie said she cleaned up blood in the kitchen while Baldonado stuffed her mother’s body in a 55-gallon drum that was buried in the backyard of the property of the 4500 block of Glenn Road in north Kingman.
The barrel and its body were recovered on July 17, five days after an investigation began when an unidentified party indicated Vanover had been murdered and was buried on the parcel. Positive identification and cause of death determinations are pending at the Medical Examiner’s office.
The confessed defendants are also charged with kidnapping for unlawfully taking custody of the five-year-old girl at the time of the murder. The sheriff’s office said Carrie gave birth to a boy about a month after the killing and that both children were placed in care of the state.
The defendants are also charged with abandonment of a dead body and theft counts associated with the victim’s vehicle and credit cards. They are held at the Adult Detention Center in Kingman on $1-million bond while awaiting an August 27 pretrial conference.
