Border Interdiction Unit along with members of the Fugitive Investigative Strike Team has arrested a 21-year-old man early Wednesday morning after they found mountain lions eating the remains of his murdered victim.
In December 2019, the lifeless body of Steven Mark Brashear, 66, was located in a Pima Canyon hiking trail with three mountain lions feeding on it.
His alleged killer, Daylan Jacob Thronton, was recently apprehended without incident and charged with first-degree murder, according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.
“Mr. Thornton was booked into the Pima County Adult Detention Center for first-degree murder, abandonment of a dead body, fraudulent schemes and artifices, theft of a credit card and taking the identity of another,” police wrote on Facebook.
The lions were euthanized by the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
“We had a number of meetings with folks that were directly involved with the scene before the decision was made, we spent a tremendous amount of time working to make sure that our actions were justified,” assistant director of wildlife management, Jim DeVos, told reporters.
This decision of putting the animals down was contradicted by some animal protection associations.
