This is a two part series. In our first story, we will look at an abbreviated synopsis of a complex and dynamic criminal investigation conducted by the U.S. Border Patrol and Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, Arizona. In our second story we will look at an abridged version of Ed Nordskog’s analysis of the case for the Pima County District Attorney’s Office. This case depicts a fast-moving criminal investigation using modern techniques and multiple public resources. The Lead Investigator for this case was Detective Shawn Wilson of Pinal County Sheriff’s, Arizona.

By Ed Nordskog, SWAIT Contributor

Part 1: Case Synopsis

Case Linkage

Case Linkage is a modern investigative concept using multiple forms of evidence to link various criminal events together. Linkage is often seen in serial arson cases (or other serial crimes) where investigators attempt to connect a single serial arsonist to multiple fire scenes within a series. The following case is not a serial crime, but is a single violent event, which involved multiple crime scenes and including wildland arson.

The investigators used linkages to connect the offender to the victim, both the victim and the offender to a murder scene, the offender to a vehicle, the vehicle to the murder scene, the vehicle to multiple scenes where a body was dumped and a clean-up occurred, and other scenes where evidence of the murder was discarded, hidden or destroyed. The various forms of forensic and direct evidence used to create these links included cell phone records, social media posts, eyewitness testimony, detailed interviews, tire impression evidence, footwear impression evidence, tool impression evidence (rake marks, shovel marks), blood/serology transfer, firearms evidence, fire scene fuels analysis, and accelerant evidence.

This case is an excellent example of conducting a criminal investigation in a rural/wildland setting where eyewitnesses are rare or non-existent.

Scene #1 - The Murder Site:

In September of 2016, a female named “Paige” reached out via multiple social media platforms and contacted a group of people with similar friends or followers. Two of the people contacted by “Paige” were a woman named Nataly, and her boyfriend named Cody Virgin. Cody was a 25-year-old prison guard He and Nataly had a “casual and open” relationship.

During the same time, “Paige” had also sent social media requests to another female named Lisa, and her boyfriend. “Paige” asked Lisa and her boyfriend if they wanted to come out into the desert to a campfire to party. The pair declined.

By January 16th, 2017, “Paige” contacted Nataly on Facebook and asked her if it was okay to date her boyfriend Cody Virgin. Meanwhile, “Paige” had been in regular social media contact with Cody.

On January 23rd, 2017, several friends of Cody Virgin began receiving vulgar and pornographic Snapchat images and messages from Cody, which was uncharacteristic of him. When they contacted him, he immediately denied sending these messages and determined his Snapchat account had been hacked in some manner. Investigators later determined the hacked messages originated from an account controlled by a local man named William Randolph.

By late January, “Paige” had convinced Cody Virgin to meet her for the first time at a remote location in the desert to hang out at a “bonfire”. Prior to the event, she told Cody she was aware he was a prison guard, but she was very afraid of guns. She asked him not to bring any firearms with him when they met at the bonfire. Cody agreed and the two arranged to meet at the remote location on the night of January 30th, 2017.

Cody drove out to the desert to meet “Paige” at 2130 hours in his red Dodge Dart. He did not come home that night. The next morning, US Border Patrol agents, conducting routine patrol along smuggling corridors, found Cody Virgin’s unlocked and open Dodge in the desert. They noticed there was some blood spatter on the vehicle, and after searching the area, found several locations near the vehicle where there was blood on the ground. They also found tire tracks from a truck-type vehicle, and shovel marks and footwear impressions where someone had removed soil near the blood. Lastly, they found where tire impressions from the unknown truck had been raked and obliterated in several areas.

Cody Virgin was not around, but the agents believed a violent incident had taken place at this scene, and an unknown suspect had fled in some sort of truck after removing bloody soil and raking over vehicle tracks. The suspect also took the extra step of removing the victim’s body from this scene.

The Border Patrol immediately contacted Pinal County Sheriff’s who started a Critical Missing-Possible Homicide investigation. At this point they did not know if Cody Virgin was alive or dead.

The Investigation

Pinal Sheriff’s investigators immediately contacted Cody Virgin’s family and learned he had driven to the desert to meet a girl named “Paige” he met on social media. Investigators contacted Cody’s girlfriend Nataly, and she said she had been having problems with her ex-husband William Randolph who also lived in the area. She told investigators she too had been contacted on social media by a girl named “Paige” two weeks earlier. A social media inquiry showed Randolph and “Paige” were friends on Facebook. It later emerged William Randolph’s ex-girlfriend was “Lisa”, the same person “Paige” had previously invited out to the desert for a bonfire.

Investigators learned Randolph owned a Dodge truck with off-road tires and possessed a .12-gauge Mossberg shotgun. He was described as jealous, and a bit of a stalker, and very active on social media. Investigators went to Randolph’s home, but he was not there. However, they noted truck tire impressions in his driveway were consistent with the tire impressions found at the murder site. At this point William Randolph was now considered a possible suspect in Cody Virgin’s disappearance.

Late on January 31st, Randolph contacted investigators and denied involvement in the case, although he admitted he knew “Paige” and was aware Cody Virgin was dating his ex-wife Nataly. At the same time, Detectives found his Dodge truck and photographed the tires. The tires on the truck were the same size as the ones at the murder site, but the tread pattern was different. They observed the bed of the truck was wet and appeared to have been freshly washed, but the rest of the truck was still dirty.

Immediately after investigators interviewed Randolph, the Facebook page for the woman named “Paige” was removed.

On February 1, 2017, Detectives served a search warrant on Facebook for the account of “Paige”. They determined the account had been created on September 16, 2016, by William Randolph. The picture of the female and the name “Paige” on the account were both fictitious.

Scene #2 - Randolph’s Home

Detectives interviewed Randolph’s family and learned the following. On the night of January 30th, he had borrowed a gun and a shovel from a neighbor. He had also purchased a spotlight and had placed a gas can and a large amount of dried tree branches into his Dodge truck. The next day (31st) he took his Dodge truck to a car wash where he cleaned out the bed, but not the rest of the vehicle. He told his family he wanted to bleach his truck.

Randolph was re-interviewed by investigators on February 1st and eventually admitted to luring Cody Virgin into the desert but denied killing him. Detectives served a search warrant at Randolph’s home and found a pair of tennis shoes matching the footwear impressions at the murder site.

Scene #3 - The Location Where Randolph Dumped the Tires

On February 3rd, 2017, a friend of Randolph’s contacted investigators and told them Randolph had dropped off a set of used truck tires at his home. Randolph told the friend he wanted to “hide” the tires from his girlfriend. The friend was aware Randolph was a suspect in a serious case, so he called the police. These tires were examined and were a match to the tire impressions found at the murder site.

Scene #4 - The Clean-up Site

Another friend of Randolph’s called the investigators and told them Randolph had hidden his Dodge truck for a day (Jan 31st) behind her home near a “party spot” in the desert. Investigators examined the location on February 3rd and found the same tire tracks from a truck were found at the murder site. They also found cut tree branches, blood, soil that came from another location, a chew/spit bottle, and expended .12-gauge shotgun shells. It appeared someone had set a small bonfire to burn up all these items, but the fire did not grow large.

Scene #5 - The Body Dump Site/Cell phone exploitation

On February 2nd, 2017, an exigent circumstances cell phone request for Randolph’s phone was sent to Verizon by Pinal investigators. On February 3rd, investigators received the results of the request. They learned on the night of January 30th, William Randolph’s phone had visited the murder site at 2300 hours. Randolph’s vehicle then drove 25 miles to a second remote spot in the desert near a small airfield. He stayed in the area until about 0100 hours on January 31st. Randolph then drove to the area known as the “clean-up” site before returning to the murder site. He eventually drove home.

Pinal Sheriff’s searched the desert area near the small airfield. At 1600 hours an aerial observer found a charred body in the desert within the search area. They had found Cody Virgin.

Tire tracks and footwear impressions near the body were like those found at the murder and clean-up sites. Fresh soil from the murder site and blood was found near the body. The body had burned for a significant period, and the fire self-extinguished. Gasoline was recovered from under the body. Sticks not belonging to the dump site were found around the body.

Scene #6 - William Randolph’s Truck

On February 4th, a search warrant was served on William Randolph’s truck which was in a police impound yard. The bed of the truck had been cleaned by Randolph prior to this. In the bed of the vehicle they located bloody dirt, .12-gauge shotgun shells, bleach and other cleaning products, sticks and twigs that were consistent with those found at the dump site and the clean-up site, and, through the use of luminol, multiple blood transfers in the interior and bed of the truck. Those blood transfers were later forensically matched to Cody Virgin.

Scene #7 - The Shotgun Disposal Site

Investigators conducted further cell phone exploitation and found Randolph, shortly after the murder, had stopped at a remote intersection for several minutes. They believed he had dumped the shotgun nearby. Search teams were unable to locate the gun. Weeks later, a homeless man found a badly weathered shotgun under a bush in the area and sold it to a drug dealer. Months later police recovered the weapon from the drug dealer. This is believed to be the murder weapon disposed of by William Randolph.

Check out Part 2 of this series to see Ed Nordskog’s Analysis of this case for the Pinal County District Attorney’s Office.

Part 1: Murder, Arson, and Case Linkage in the Wildlands

Part 2: Murder, Arson, and Case Linkage in the Wildlands

What Our Cellphones Track, Even When Location Services Are Turned Off