Body identified as missing Sun City murder suspect

PHOENIX — The Sun City, Ariz., man who escaped house arrest Sunday was found dead in his vehicle Tuesday in Peoria, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio said his detectives tracked Howard Allen Rudolph’s monitoring device’s activity for the last 10 day to establish a pattern of his behavior.

This led them to an apartment complex near 99th Avenue and Deer Valley Road on Tuesday evening, where the 79-year-old man’s car and his body were found.

“He was slumped over in the front seat and evidently shot himself a couple times with a gun,” Arpaio said.

A warrant was issued Monday for Rudolph, who was on house arrest in the shooting death of his 73-year-old wife last August in what was called a mercy killing.

“The safety of our citizens should matter more [than the financial impacts of putting someone in jail] and that’s precisely why I have opposed home monitoring of convicted criminals. There will always be room in my jails,” Arpaio said in a Tuesday statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.