In the pre-dawn hours of April 1, 1988, a security alarm pierced the quiet of an exclusive, gated Phoenix community. Responding officers discovered a gruesome scene at the home of Jeanne Alryn Gunter Tovrea. The 55-year-old female socialite was found in her bed, having been shot five times in the head. The intruder had entered the house through a kitchen window, seemingly knowing how to bypass the alarm system upon entry, and went directly to her bedroom.
To create the appearance of a robbery, costume jewelry was scattered, and her purse was emptied, though valuable jewelry in another room was left untouched. The killer triggered the alarm upon exiting, a detail investigators theorized was a deliberate act to signal that the paid killing had been completed.
The initial investigation into the death of the well-known widow of cattle baron Ed Tovrea Sr. quickly focused on the theory of a contract killing. Suspicion fell upon her stepson, Edward 'Hap' Tovrea Jr., who, along with his sisters, stood to inherit a significant fortune from a trust upon their stepmother's death. Investigators learned that in the weeks leading up to her death, Jeanne had been stalked by a man calling himself Gordon Phillips, who claimed to be a magazine writer. Despite collecting numerous fingerprints at the scene, the case went cold for years as detectives could not identify the prints or find a direct link to any suspects.
Years later, the cold case was reopened, and a crucial break came in 1994 from an anonymous tipster who had watched a television program about the murder. The caller identified the voice of 'Gordon Phillips' from Jeanne's answering machine as a man named James 'Butch' Harrod. This new lead allowed investigators to finally match Harrod's fingerprints to 18 prints found at the crime scene. The investigation then uncovered a trail of evidence linking Harrod to Hap Tovrea, including numerous phone calls between the two in the days surrounding the murder and significant financial transactions. Harrod's ex-wife later testified that he had told her he was hired by Hap Tovrea to coordinate the murder for $100,000.
James 'Butch' Harrod was arrested for Jeanne Tovrea's murder on September 14, 1995. During his trial in 1997, prosecutors presented the evidence of the fingerprints, the financial trail, and his ex-wife's testimony to argue that this was a murder for hire. On November 18, 1997, a jury convicted Harrod of both premeditated and felony murder. He was subsequently sentenced to death. While Harrod was the only individual ever charged and convicted for the crime, the belief among investigators and prosecutors has long been that Hap Tovrea orchestrated his stepmother's death, though he has always denied any involvement and was never charged.
