Undercover Yuma deputy turned cop killer: the 4th of July murders that stunned Arizona

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — It’s a true crime story involving stolen evidence, an undercover cop gone bad, and two law enforcement officers gunned down while trying to get help. It happened in 1995 —28 years ago in Yuma, and the holiday is still difficult for the families who lived this and lost their own.

Yuma Police Lt. Dan Elkins was used to responding to 911 calls, not making them.

“Hurry up! Hurry, he’s shooting guns…he’s firing rounds…hurry up!” you can hear in his 911 call. That audio is haunting and heartbreaking because just moments later, Elkins was shot and killed along with Department of Public Safety Sgt. Mike Crowe. The convicted killer? A Yuma County Sheriff’s deputy: Jack Hudson.

Hudson had been on the South Border Alliance narcotics task force with Elkins and Crowe and had been working undercover. Days before the shooting, authorities discovered items were missing from the evidence room, so they installed a video camera. On the 4th of July, Elkins, Crowe and another law enforcement official went to the building to account for all the evidence room keys and, once inside, found safes broken into and destroyed and multiple offices ransacked. That’s when police said the three ran into a fellow undercover deputy, who began firing a 9 mm weapon. The officers were not armed.

Video from inside the task force office shows bloody shoe prints left behind moments after Hudson went on his deadly rampage. Hudson was arrested in the parking lot by a deputy who served as a role model to others in the department, according to the sheriff at the time.

“I wish I could get in his head; wish I knew what he was thinking. And I wish I knew why. I don’t,” said former Yuma County Sheriff Ralph Ogdon at the time.

At Mike Crowe’s service, his two daughters were just 12 and 14 years old as they walked behind his casket. His wife, Stephany, told Arizona’s Family on the phone Tuesday that even 28 years later, this holiday doesn’t get easier for her and their two daughters, who are now in their 40s.

She described him as an amazing husband and father, and the impact he left on Arizona was felt by all he worked with, even the top leader in our state. “Sergeant Michael Crowe, you gave us strength and courage. For us you gave your life. We love you for it, we honor you, we will meet again,” said the then Governor Fife Symington at Crowe’s service.

Crowe’s wife said it’s still hard for her and the girls to talk about but that he would have loved to see the wonderful women his daughters grew up to be. That he would have loved to play with his grandkids, which makes the 4th of July very bittersweet now.

Jack Hudson was convicted in 1997 of murder and sentenced to life in prison. For years he denied remembering anything he did — that he was high on drugs at the time. He died in prison in 2017.

Late Tuesday night, Arizona’s Family spoke on the phone to former DPS trooper Steve Trethewy, who ended up interviewing Jack Hudson eight times while he was in prison. And it was on Hudson’s deathbed, the final interview when he finally revealed more than he ever had before.

“He looked up and said ‘well, well, well look who’s here.’ I said, ‘Can you talk?’ and he said he would,” Trethewy said. “I started piecing through that 7 deadly minutes where he killed both officers. I said, ‘Jack, do you remember — do you remember the shooting? Do you remember the sound of the guns going off?’ and he thought a little bit and he said, ‘yeah, I remember. I remember the guns going off.’ So, there were a couple pieces like that in that 7 minutes where he said he remembered something which he had always denied previously,” Trethewy said. “He lived for almost three more weeks and then he passed away.”

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