Link sought to second slaying

Cathy Scott

Thursday, Aug. 21, 1997 | 10:07 a.m.

Detectives are investigating whether two women whose bodies were found off an Arizona dirt road may have died at the hands of the owner of the Spy Craft store in Las Vegas.

The first body, found May 10 by hunters, was that of a 15- to 20-year-old female who was still listed today as a Jane Doe, said Detective Ron Pugliese of the Pinal County Sheriff's Department in Florence, Ariz. The woman was killed one to two weeks earlier, he said.

On Friday, a second body, believed to be that of 20-year-old Ginger Rios, a Las Vegas dancer and singer who has been missing since April 4, was found by deputies when the Spy Craft owner's wife led police to the shallow grave. Rios was killed inside the Spy Craft store on Maryland Parkway, according to homicide Sgt. Kevin Manning. Her body was later taken to Pinal County and buried, police said.

"(The bodies) were in different graves, in close proximity," Pugliese said today. "They could be related."

The cause of death of both women is not being released because of the investigation, police said.

Arizona investigators are going down a list of 300 Jane Does and 300 possibilities, Pugliese said. Metro Police also are reviewing their list of missing people to see if there is a match, homicide Sgt. Bill Keeton said. "We certainly went through our roster, but none has stood out."

Craig Leslie Jacobsen, who also went by John Joseph Flowers, was arrested Tuesday in Los Angeles by U.S. Customs agents. Metro Police have issued a murder warrant. Jacobsen, 26, was being held without bail on a probation violation in Los Angeles County Jail. Customs agents were investigating his business.

Rios was last seen at the Spy Craft store at 3507 Maryland Parkway at 4 p.m. April 4. Her husband of five months, 34-year-old Mark Hollinger, said that while he waited in their car, Ginger ran in to buy a book on how to clean up her credit report.

Pugliese said today of Jacobsen, "We would probably consider him a suspect" in the first case.

When the second body was found Friday, a red flag went up for the deputies, the same ones who had recovered the first body.

The bodies were buried off the Florence Calvin Highway, a 30-mile dirt road between Florence and the Riverside-Kearny area, not far from Tucson.

"It's a traveled road," Pugliese said. "The dirt highway is a timesaver and a milesaver."

Pugliese said the case of the first body was being reviewed and forwarded to the district attorney's office, and that Jacobsen may be charged with the first murder.

Ron Penning with the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office said today he's still waiting for X-rays and dental records on Ginger Rios from Metro before he can make a positive identification of the second body.

"They're in the mail, and we haven't gotten them yet," he said today. "We're working on (both cases) to see if they're connected."