Couple planned to kill officers during suicide

YUMA, Ariz. – An Arizona couple who committed suicide last month planned to lure sheriff’s deputies to their remote desert home and kill as many as possible before ending their own lives, a top local law enforcement official said, as a series of eerie videos the couple made was released this week.

Yuma County investigators found elaborate plans, both in writing and in video, in a blast-protected area after Jesse Lee and Diedre Firestone’s Dome Valley home exploded on Dec. 23 while surrounded by officers.

They had planned to blow up the house as a SWAT team entered, Capt. Eben Bratcher told the Yuma Sun. The couple’s bodies were found in the home two days after the explosion. One deputy suffered minor injuries when the blast knocked him down.

“The motive behind their plan is not known, but it was clear they fully intended to murder as many deputies as possible prior to taking their own lives,” Bratcher told the newspaper. “These people absolutely had a plan, and I think they wanted to die and make as big of a scene as they could possibly make.”