Arizona Torso Murder #1

Valerie Pape was a French-born hairdresser who ran an upscale salon and art gallery in Old Town Scottsdale, Arizona. In 1995 she married Ira Pomerantz, who owned bars in Chandler. In January 2000, Pape shot Pomerantz, then 60, during a domestic dispute.

Early on January 28, 2000, a witness behind a grocery store in Mesa watched a woman take a heavy, plastic-wrapped bundle from a Jaguar and heave it into a dumpster. He reported what he had seen, and police found a man’s torso inside. The head, arms and legs were missing. The Jaguar led investigators to Pape, and she was arrested that same day. A receipt found at the couple’s home showed she had bought an electric saw weeks earlier. Detectives suspected someone had helped her, but no accomplice was ever identified.

In August 2002, Pape pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 16 years in prison. An arrangement to let her serve part of the term in France was later reversed after Pomerantz’s daughters objected. She never told investigators where the rest of her husband’s remains were, and they were never recovered. Pape was released from prison in January 2016 and deported to France in March of that year.