2011 crime: 2 murders amongst major cases

Two murder investigations were among the hundreds of major cases handled by the Cowley County Sheriffs Dept., and police in Ark City and Winfield in 2011, according to annual crime statistics released by the three departments.

That number was up from 2010, a year in which no murders were investigated by any Cowley County law enforcement agency.

Last year, the Cowley Sheriff’s Dept. investigated the springtime death of 26-year-old TiOnna Bruno, who was killed when the vehicle she was in crashed on U.S. 77 near Strother Field. Kyndal Orange is awaiting trial on a charge of unintentional second-degree murder and is accused of causing the crash.

In Ark City, police investigated the June death of Terry Carson, 68, who was stabbed in the neck with scissors in her home.

Carson’s husband, Bill Carson, was charged with murder but recently found incompetent to stand trial in his wife’s death.

Winfield police did not investigate a murder in 2011.

Those crimes were among the major crimes investigated by local authorities for the year. Major crime categories include: murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, theft and auto theft.

Both Winfield and Cowley County authorities marked a rise in burglaries for 2011. Winfield recorded 103 burglary reports for the year, up from 81 the year before and over the previous recent high of 101 in 2006.

The sheriff’s department showed 78 burglaries for 2011, up from 70 the year before. An increase of just over 11 percent.

Burglaries fell sharply in Ark City, from 100 in 2010 to 67 in 2011, a decrease of 33 percent. Theft in Ark City was up about 3 percent, to 436 incidents compared to 423 the previous year.

Winfield recorded 536 thefts in 2011, its third-highest total since 2006. Thefts in Winfield peaked at 670 in 2007. In 2010, there were 441.

Numbers from the Sheriff’s department show that 144 incidents of theft were reported for 2011, up from 95 in 2010, an increase of more than 50 percent.

Burglary and theft are often a concern for local departments, because of the major crimes they are often among the most difficult to solve.

Of types of crimes reported 10 times or more, the sheriff’s department saw its biggest decrease come in the area of aggravated assault and battery. There were 17 such incidents in 2011, down from 30 in 2010.

In Ark City, the biggest drop came in the areas of burglary, as mentioned above, and rape. The number of rape investigations dropped from 12 in 2010 to 5 in 2011.

In Winfield, rape reports dropped to two reports in 2011 from six the year before and robberies were reduced to one from five.

Winfield saw an increase in all other major crime categories.

Major crime numbers for all three departments are shown below:

MURDER:

Ark City 1; Winfield 0; Cowley County 1.

RAPE:

Ark City 5; Winfield 2; Cowley County 3.

ROBBERY:

Ark City 2; Winfield 1; Cowley County 1.

AGGRAVATED ASSAULT/BATTERY:

Ark City 12; Winfield 34; Cowley County 17.

BURGLARY: