"On Nov. 20, sheriff's deputies were called to Bruin Way in Pinetop, a tiny Arizona resort town. Off the main road, onto a dirt driveway, deputies arrived at the home of Kerri Ann Abatti. The 59-year-old had recently moved back to her hometown after separating from Mike Abatti, her husband of over three decades. Inside the residence, deputies found Kerri dying of a gunshot wound; she was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced deceased."
"The Abattis are no ordinary family. For over a century, they have been one of the dominant players in California's Imperial Valley. The area was once one of California's most unlivable regions, but everything changed when the Hoover Dam was finished in 1935, bringing water to it. Five years later, the Abattis helped facilitate the opening of the All-American Canal, an aqueduct that funnels water from the Colorado River into the valley."
Michael Abatti, 63, is in custody in an Imperial County lockup awaiting extradition to Arizona on suspicion of killing his longtime partner during their divorce. On Nov. 20, deputies found 59-year-old Kerri Ann Abatti dying of a gunshot wound at her Pinetop, Arizona home; she was taken to a hospital and pronounced deceased. The Abatti family has been a dominant agricultural force in California's Imperial Valley for over a century after helping facilitate the All-American Canal, which brought Colorado River water into the valley. Mike and Kerri married in 1992, owned Mike Abatti Farms in El Centro, and Kerri filed for divorce in October 2023 with ongoing family court proceedings thereafter.
Read at SFGATE
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