GUILTY AZ - Robin Satinsky, 89, Sahuarita, 30 Oct 2007

Salem said:

Maybe my browser doesn't like Arizona news?????

Neither link works for me. I'm thinking it might be my pop up blocker, but its not giving me the usual message. Oh well.

Because the bones were in a plastic bag, I'm thinking this could be anyone that disappeared along the I-19 route?

Salem

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Trial begins in Sahuarita murder
By Philip Franchine, Green Valley News
Published: Friday, September 25, 2009 8:38 AM MST


The evidence will show that the man who took Robin Satinsky’s life was the man who took her car. And that man was Edward Terrazas Villa, Deputy County Attorney Richard Wintory told a Superior Court jury on Tuesday.

Public defender Kyle Ipson told the jury during opening arguments that Villa is innocent and did not kill the elderly Sahuarita woman, nor did he kidnap her or steal her car. Ipson said he would show that Villa, 64, a day laborer and handyman, had no motivation to steal the car and that prosecution witnesses cannot say for certain that Villa stole the car.

Satinsky, a collector of rare books and an expert on the history of illustrations, died in late 2007 at age 89 after being abducted from her home, authorities said. Her skeletal remains, wrapped in a plastic garbage bag, were found in summer 2008 off Interstate 19 in Sahuarita, with duct tape on her mouth and feet.

Villa, of Tucson, faces murder, kidnapping, burglary and auto theft charges in connection with Satinsky’s death.

He met Satinsky on a golf course in late 2003 or early 2004, he took golf lessons from her and they remained friends even after he was arrested in 2005 for stealing her car. He said he had borrowed it with her permission but kept it a few days longer than he was supposed to, Ipson said.

During opening statements Tuesday, both sides agreed there were no witnesses to Satinsky’s disappearance from her home around Oct. 30, 2007, when she failed to call her daughter, Ruth Satinsky-Sieber, on Ruth’s birthday. Satinsky’s home was locked and there was no sign of a struggle or other disturbance, Wintory said.

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The case remains active, with Detective Steve Bunting, among others, working the investigation. Stories from various friends and neighbors and personal information have been gathered. There are those who remember seeing an older, white-haired woman standing at the Interstate 19 and Sahuarita Road overpass, asking directions from passing motorists on how to get to Tucson.

“We have been working intensely with family, friends and all of the community to discover what happened to Robin Satinsky,” Bunting said. “We are requesting anyone who may have stopped to assist this person found on the northbound off-ramp on Oct. 31, to please contact the Sahuarita Police Department.”

This traffic incident began and ended between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Halloween morning. A passing off duty Border Patrol officer was among those that saw this woman, and decided to double back to see if he could help. By then, the woman was gone from the busy highway interchange. Could it have been Satinsky?

Robin Satinsky moved to Sahuarita in 1998, after her husband died. Robin and her daughter, Ruth Satinsky, are on the title of the home, which sits on a good-sized lot that backs up to the copper mine hills. Neighbors are close, but not that close.



The Satinskys were serious collectors of fine art and rare books. The rare book collection was so well-known that Robin was a continuing reference point for the University of Arizona library, helping them build their own collection, as well as offering her own rare pieces for various library exhibitions. It was the good friendship Satinsky had with a woman from the University of Arizona library that began this narrative that has not yet ended.

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My aunt was a very intelligent, loving, giving woman. She was an art historian, an avid golfer probably till her dying day,” Satinsky’s niece, Jan Laurito, wrote in an e-mail interview from New Jersey.

“She led a most interesting life. The loss is great. My heart aches to think of what has happened to someone so strong and independent.”



Satinsky was last seen in October 2007. Her body was found in a wash near Interstate 19 almost two miles north of Sahuarita Road on June 6, 2008, by a motorcyclist waiting for a tow truck. She was 89.

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