Tuesday,  April 29, 2014 • Vol. 16--No. 285 • 19 of 29

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• More often than not, homicides on the Navajo Nation are not a result of gun violence.
• In one case, a man told authorities he beat his girlfriend to death with an electric cable and his fist after she told him she cheated on him. He then buried her in a shallow grave in Red Valley in March 2013. The man pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and is serving a 20-year prison sentence. Other killings involved a broken beer bottle and an ax as weapons.
• In 2013, the number of homicides on the reservation about the size of West Virginia topped Boston's 40 and Seattle's 32, both cities with more than 600,000 residents. Cities with populations similar to that of the Navajo Nation logged far fewer homicides in 2012. According to the FBI's data reporting site, Tempe had 11; Amarillo, Texas, had 10; Tallahassee, Fla., had 12; Columbus, Ga., had 17; and Oceanside, Calif., had eight.
• Rominger said authorities typically identify a suspect in reservation homicide cases and find the victim's body within 48 hours. Common factors in a majority of crimes stemming from the reservation are alcohol and domestic violence.
• Most defendants enter into plea agreements with federal prosecutors, avoiding trials that take place far off the reservation in major cities like Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Albuquerque, N.M., Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Schneider said. Not all homicides will result in prosecution, such as domestic violence cases with an element of self-defense that make a murder conviction tough to achieve.

2 hunters missing in western South Dakota

• RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) -- Search and rescue teams are looking for two hunters missing in western South Dakota.
• The Pennington County Sheriff's Office says 74-year-old Gary Wipf and 83-year-old Clifford Wipf were last seen turkey hunting in the Deerfield Lake area Sunday afternoon.
• Authorities are asking residents who may have information about the hunters' whereabouts to contact the sheriff's office.
• Gary Wipf is described as 5 feet 6 inches tall, 190 pounds, bald with blue eyes. Clifford Wipf is described as 5 feet eight inches tall, 160 pounds, bald with blue eyes. Their vehicle is a red Toyota SR5 shortbed pickup truck with topper and South Dakota license plates.
• Weather conditions have complicated the search. Many roads are only accessible by snowmobile and authorities haven't been able to search for the hunters by air.

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