Offbeat | Retired policeman’s hunch leads to suspect in six killings

Emergency personnel surround a hotel where a suspect wanted in multiple killings was staying

A hunch from a retired detective helped lead police to a man suspected of shooting six people to death in the Phoenix area, some of whom were connected to his divorce, authorities said after the assailant killed himself with officers closing in.

A round-the-clock investigation that began late last week led police yesterday [Macau time] to an extended-stay hotel in suburban Scottsdale where 56-year-old Dwight Lamon Jones was staying. As officers approached, they heard gunfire and found his body.

Jones’ victims included a well-known forensic psychiatrist who testified against him in court in 2010, two paralegals who worked for the law office that represented the suspect’s wife, a marriage-and-divorce counselor who was apparently targeted in a case of mistaken identity and another man and woman who have not been identified, authorities said.

In an unexpected twist, the suspect’s ex-wife, Connie Jones, said her current husband, a retired police detective, made the connection between her divorce and the crime scenes and notified police of his suspicion Saturday night.

Connie Jones said in a statement that her ex-husband was a “very emotionally disturbed person.”

Jones was arrested in May 2009 at his family’s Scottsdale home on a domestic violence charge after his wife said he backed her against a wall, hit her in the face and threatened to kill her, according to court records. The arrest was cited by his then-wife when she filed for divorce.