Arizona pair who died in apparent murder-suicide identified

KINGMAN, Ariz. - Two people who died Monday in a suspected murder-suicide in northwest Arizona have been identified by the Mohave County Sheriff's Office.

Ronald L. Rixe, 55, of Golden Valley and Rhonda J. Knaak, 42, of Kingman died of apparent single gunshots to the head.

About 1:15 p.m. Monday, a man called the sheriff's office reporting that his neighbor might have shot his girlfriend at his Golden Valley home and was trying to load her body into a vehicle. Sheriff Tom Sheahan said Rixe withdrew into his house in the 4500 block of N Eloy Road when police arrived.

"Negotiators spoke with the male subject numerous times via the phone and he kept saying that he would be out in five minutes as he needed to call his relatives," sheriff's spokeswoman Trish Carter said. "Another instance he stated that he would be out in five minutes as he was finishing his beer."

Officers who established a perimeter around the house reported a possible gunshot inside about 4 p.m. Carter said deputies later entered the house and found the bodies.

Carter said a .40-caliber handgun and a 20-gauge shotgun were seized inside the house. She said that the victims are believed to have been in a relationship and that authorities had not yet learned what triggered the shootings.