Focus Changed: Calif. Husband Arrested for Murder
Missing since Feb. 2, cops now believe Ryann Bunnell Crow is dead.
Feb. 17, 2010— -- The investigation into the disappearance of a California woman is no longer a missing persons case, but a homicide, police said today.
Jesse John Crow, 33, was arrested Tuesday night and booked for the murder of his wife, 23-year-old Ryann Bunnell Crow who was reported missing on Feb. 2. The district attorney has not filed any charges as of this report.
Jesse Crow had been cooperating with police throughout the search for Ryann, police said, but then something changed.
"He was definitely cooperating with the investigation -- almost daily contact with our detectives the whole time," Salinas Police Department officer Lalo Villegas told ABC News. "The only thing I can tell you is during that time it was a missing persons case. Our focus was finding Ryann. At some point in the investigation, that changed. Now he's arrested for her murder.
"Obviously, we feel she's dead."
Villegas said he did not know what prompted the change in focus in the investigation and would not comment on whether the police had found Ryann's body.
Crow is the only suspect in the case and police are not currently looking for anyone else in connection with Ryann's disappearance, Villegas said. He is being held on $3 million bond.
Though Ryann's family organized two major searches for the missing woman in the days since she disappeared, Jesse did not participate, according to ABC News' Sacramento affiliate KCRA.
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