The forensic psychiatrist found shot to death on Thursday was working on a case involving to murdered paralegals.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Steven E. Pitt was shot outside of his Phoenix-area office on Thursday evening, and the shooting suspect is still at large. Witnesses reported hearing a loud argument before the sound of gunshots.
Pitt consulted on the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation, and a number of other high-profile cases. JonBenet, 6, was found murdered just after Christmas in her family’s upscale Boulder, Colorado, home in 1996. The murder remains unsolved.
The next day, two female paralegals were fatally shot in the head at the law firm of Burt Feldman Grenier, just ten miles away in Scottsdate, the New York Times reports. One of the women was not killed immediately, and walked to a parked bus to ask for help. She was taken to a hospital and later pronounced dead.
Investigators reportedly followed “a blood trail” to the law office where they found the second victim. Authorities now believe the three murders are linked.
“Our investigation has determined that this double homicide is related to the shooting of Steven Pitt,” the Scottsdale Police said in a statement on Thursday.
The murdered paralegals have been identified as Veleria Sharp, 48, and Laura Anderson, 49.
A fourth person was reportedly murdered in the area on Saturday. Authorities have not identified the male victim, and are still working to determine if that homicide is related to the three that are linked.
Police have not disclosed the nature of the suspected link between Pitt’s murder and the paralegal killings, and law enforcement sources told the New York Times they have not determined if Pitt’s death was related to his work.