Former NFL player, Arizona resident suspected of wife’s murder in Utah
Nov 3, 2017, 6:34 PM | Updated: Nov 4, 2017, 3:15 pm
(Flickr/vxla)
(Flickr/vxla)
PHOENIX — A former NFL player and Arizona resident was suspected of murdering his wife in a Utah condominium on Thursday, one day before he was charged in a child kidnapping case.
Anthony McClanahan was accused of stabbing his wife, 28-year-old Keri McClanahan, to death at the Park Regency condominiums in Park City, Utah, according to the Summit County Attorney’s Office.
Police believed the cause of Keri’s death was “knife wounds to her throat.”
According to the Phoenix Police Department, officials had an “open and ongoing case” involving McClanahan for parental kidnapping and are working with Park City homicide detectives.
McClanahan, a 46-year-old former Dallas Cowboys player, was charged with first-degree felony child kidnapping in a Utah district court on Friday, after he allegedly took his son from a Maricopa County school last month.
Prosecutors have alleged that McClanahan took his 8-year-old son from a school property in Maricopa County on Oct. 3.
According to The Salt Lake Tribune, the mother of McClanahan’s son — who is not Keri — dropped her son at the school but was later told that he left with his father.
On Oct. 4, the boy’s mother located McClanahan in Las Vegas and requested her son’s return, but the football player refused.
He was presented with an emergency court order by the mother through email on Oct. 7, but again refused, according to the publication.
McClanahan was located in Salt Lake City on Oct. 12 and was arrested on a fugitive warrant in the child kidnapping case, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. The boy was then returned to his mother.
He posted the $150,000 bail on Oct. 19 and was released from the Salt Lake County jail while he awaited extradition to Arizona. He has not yet been charged in Keri’s murder.
Keri’s sister Heather Gauf told The Salt Lake Tribune that McClanahan and his wife had a history of domestic violence since they first got married in January.
According to Gauf, Keri had left her home with McClanahan in Arizona and “sought refuge” in Utah.
