Arizona man found guilty of manslaughter after living on missing man’s property

PHOENIX — An Ash Fork man was found guilty of manslaughter after confessing to killing a missing man and then moving onto his property.

A jury found Terry Welfenberg, 77, guilty of manslaughter, abandonment or concealment of a dead body and tampering with physical evidence, according to a Yavapai County Attorney press release.

How did Yavapai police find the remains of the missing man near Ash Fork?

A local Ash Fork postmaster tipped off Yavapai police that 65-year-old John McCabe’s mail had been piling up for more than a year. This prompted the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office (YCSO) to conduct a welfare check in April 2023 at McCabe’s home in the southwest area of Ash Fork called Juniper Woods, where they found Welfenberg staying on McCabe’s 30-acre property, according to the release.

When police questioned Welfenberg, he claimed that McCabe had given him permission to stay on the property and stated that McCabe had been missing for more than a year and he had no idea about his whereabouts.

Yavapai police recruited search-and-rescue volunteers to look for McCabe. One of the volunteers happened to have an archeological background and found “a piece of a human skull a little smaller than a business card” that appeared to be in a burn pit next to a trailer belonging to Welfenberg, according to authorities.

YCSO dug up the burn pit and found more pieces of human bone, a charred wallet with fragments of McCabe’s vehicle registration and a medical bracelet with McCabe’s information. No DNA could be recovered due to the state of the burnt bones meaning that no cause of death could be determined.

Detectives interrogated Welfenberg about the remains and again he told police he didn’t know where McCabe was before he ultimately confessed to killing McCabe. Welfenberg told police he did so in self-defense before admitting to setting the remains on fire inside a burn pit, according to the release.

Welfenberg is scheduled to be sentenced on March 24 and could face anywhere from 7 to 21 years in prison for manslaughter. He could face an additional up to 1.5 years in prison for each additional charge.

“Crimes like these shock the conscious and will be vigorously prosecuted in Yavapai County. I hope the sentence that will be imposed in this case will deter anyone else from committing such shocking crimes as these,” Yavapai County Attorney Dennis McGrane said in the release.

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