Tempe cop admits killing 13 year old gay lover and slicing him up : AZ IMC

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0806confess06.html

Ex-officer going to prison for sex crimes admits killing AJ boy

Brent Whiting
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 6, 2005 12:00 AM

As Kraig Robert Clark was preparing to be sent to prison on sex charges, the former Tempe police officer dropped a bombshell: He admitted the murder and dismemberment of a 13-year-old Apache Junction boy, according to Surprise police reports released Friday.

Clark, who turns 39 on Monday, apparently wanted to get the slaying off his chest after he was found guilty May 31 of multiple sex crimes involving other boys.

During a voluntary interview with authorities, Clark confessed to strangling Jamie Jarosik on Feb. 19, 2004, after engaging in sexual acts with the boy at Clark's apartment in Surprise, police said.

Clark also confessed to purchasing an electric saw,which was used to dismember the boy in a shower and put the parts in plastic bags. The parts were placed in a refrigerator and a large plastic cooler with wheels while Clark scouted for a place in the desert to get rid of the body.

Later, he drove the body parts to 219th Avenue, north of the Sun Valley Parkway, where he burned the remains with pallets before burying them.

Clark and his lawyer, Daniel Patterson, a deputy Maricopa County public defender, made the confession on June 29.

Two weeks later, Clark pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death and was sentenced to life in prison, officers said. Clark also was sentenced to in 162 years in prison on more than a dozen sex crimes, according to Superior Court records.

During the sex-crimes investigations, Jarosik's name came up, but nothing could be established about what happened to the boy, who police described as a runaway.

After the confession, Clark took investigators to the area where he buried the remains in a failed attempt to find them, said Officer Marci Darrow, a Surprise police spokeswoman.

"There has been so much rain and new vegetation that he couldn't find the right spot," Darrow said. "Even cadaver dogs haven't been able to discover the right spot."

Two days before Clark pleaded guilty, police went to the Apache Junction home of Michael Jarosik, the father, to inform him about Clark's confession.

Neither Jarosik nor Patterson, Clark's attorney, could be reached Friday for comment about the case.

In their report, police said Clark was a pizza deliveryman when Jamie Jarosik was killed, but has previous employment as a police officer.

He was a Tempe officer from May 1987 through July 1991 and a Mohave County sheriff's deputy from August 1991 to September 1992.

Clark resigned from the Tempe job amid allegations of sexual contact with a boy, but Maricopa County prosecutors declined to file charges, Surprise police said.

Police said Clark lost the Mohave County job after the 14-year-old son of another deputy accused Clark of molestation.

A Mohave County grand jury indicted Clark on 10 counts of child molestation, but prosecutors dropped the case after the boy was killed in an accident.

Prosecutors struck a deal in which they dismissed the case in return for Clark's surrender of his Arizona peace-officer license, thus barring him from getting another job as a police officer.

Clark later obtained employment with a civilian contractor as a security guard at Luke Air Force Base, police said.

Reach the reporter at (602) 444-6937.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=45715

Ex-cop admits slaying A.J. boy, 13
By Kristina Davis, Tribune
August 6, 2005
A former Tempe police officer, just convicted on several molestation charges, admitted to the brutal slaying of an Apache Junction boy he molested who has been missing since last year, Surprise police said Friday.

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Kraig Clark pleaded guilty July 15 to strangling and then dismembering 13-year-old Jamie Jarosik in February 2004 after the teen ran away from home, according to police records.

The admission comes as part of a plea agreement after Clark was found guilty of molesting and having sex with several boys during the year. The agreement called for Clark to show investigators where the teen’s remains were buried.

Clark told detectives that Jarosik ran away from home on Feb. 2, 2004, and came to stay with Clark at his Surprise apartment. Clark said he had molested Jarosik several times in the past.

After a few weeks, Jarosik left Clark’s apartment to stay somewhere else, but then called Clark begging to come back to the apartment, according to the report. Clark told police that Jarosik even threatened to go to police about their sexual relationship if he couldn’t come back.

Clark said he strangled Jarosik on the morning of Feb. 19 as the two were lying in bed together, the report said.

He then bought a reciprocating saw and extra blades at Wal-Mart later that morning and dismembered the teen’s body in the shower, the report stated.

Afterward, he cleaned the saw, replaced the original blade, and returned it to Wal-Mart.

Clark burned the body parts in a desert area near 219th Avenue and Sun Valley Parkway that night and buried the ashes, the report stated. He showed investigators the desert area on July 6, but there were no signs of the remains.

Clark was sentenced to life in prison on the molestation charges.

Contact Kristina Davis by email, or phone (480)-898-6446