{"id":274210,"date":"2025-10-03T09:36:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T09:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/274210\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T09:36:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T09:36:21","slug":"man-accused-in-camping-teens-deaths-northeast-of-phoenix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/274210\/","title":{"rendered":"Man accused in camping teens&#8217; deaths northeast of Phoenix"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;right:0;bottom:0;width:100%;height:100%;z-index:2\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/84140789007-image-1.jpg\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"vidplayicon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/appservices\/universal-web\/universal\/icons\/icon-play-alt-white.svg\" alt=\"play\" style=\"height:40px;margin:auto 18px auto 27px;width:40px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Memorial honors slain teens Pandora Kjolsrud and Evan Clark<\/p>\n<p>Pandora Kjolsrud, 18, and Evan Clark, 17, were found dead with gunshot wounds off of State Route 87 near Mount Ord, north of Sunflower.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An arrest has been made in the case of two teens killed while camping northeast of Phoenix in May 2025.<\/li>\n<li>The Maricopa County Sheriff&#8217;s Office apprehended and booked Thomas Brown, 31, in connection to the deaths.<\/li>\n<li>Evan Clark, 17, and Pandora Kjolsrud, 18, were found with gunshot wounds near Mount Ord.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>An arrest has been made in the case of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/news\/local\/arizona-breaking\/2025\/05\/29\/investigations-into-the-deaths-of-two-maricopa-teens-began\/83923222007\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/news\/local\/arizona-breaking\/2025\/05\/29\/investigations-into-the-deaths-of-two-maricopa-teens-began\/83923222007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">the two Valley teens killed<\/a> in May while camping northeast of Phoenix, the Maricopa County Sheriff&#8217;s Office said.<\/p>\n<p>The Sheriff&#8217;s Office apprehended and booked Thomas Brown in connection with the deaths of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/news\/local\/arizona\/2025\/06\/03\/metro-phoenix-teens-camping-mount-ord-sunflower-az-when-killed-parents-say\/83999203007\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/news\/local\/arizona\/2025\/06\/03\/metro-phoenix-teens-camping-mount-ord-sunflower-az-when-killed-parents-say\/83999203007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Evan Clark, 17, and Pandora Kjolsrud, 18<\/a>, according to spokesperson Calbert Gillett.<\/p>\n<p>Clark and Kjolsrud were found with gunshot wounds just off State Route 87 near Mount Ord, north of Sunflower, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff&#8217;s Office, whose deputies found the bodies on May 27.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m elated,&#8221; said Clark&#8217;s mother, Sandra Malibu Sweeney, in a tearful interview Oct. 2 with The Arizona Republic. &#8220;It&#8217;s been a nightmare. He was my everything, Evan was my everything.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sweeney said she learned of the arrest in the case only a little more than an hour before the Sheriff&#8217;s Office posted the news on social media. She thanked Sheriff&#8217;s Detective Fernando De La Torre for his work on the case.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To have this is closure for me, and I don&#8217;t wish anything bad for the person that did this,&#8221; Sweeney said.<\/p>\n<p>Sheriff Jerry Sheridan will hold a news conference about the arrest on Oct. 3, Gillett said.<\/p>\n<p>On the morning of June 3, Pandora&#8217;s mother, Simone Kjolsrud, told The Republic that on May 26, the pair were victims of a double homicide while the teens were on a camping trip.<\/p>\n<p>Sweeney said in June that she did not want her son to take the trip because he would be &#8220;off the grid.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The trip was &#8220;to celebrate the start of summer vacation,&#8221; Simone Kjolsrud said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Bill Clark, Evan&#8217;s father, confirmed to The Republic on June 3 that the teens went on the trip. Evan left their Paradise Valley home to head to the campsite less than an hour away, Bill Clark said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/news\/local\/arizona\/2025\/06\/01\/evan-clark-killed-near-sr-87\/83979578007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Evan Clark<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/news\/local\/mesa-breaking\/2025\/05\/30\/authorities-declare-homicide-death-of-teens-state-route-87\/83946133007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Pandora Kjolsrud<\/a> were students at Arcadia High School.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/news\/local\/scottsdale\/2025\/06\/27\/evan-clark-memorial-scottsdale\/84344705007\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/news\/local\/scottsdale\/2025\/06\/27\/evan-clark-memorial-scottsdale\/84344705007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Friends of Evan gathered in late June<\/a> and remembered how he would help them with car trouble or stay on the phone if they felt unsafe.<\/p>\n<p>Simone Kjolsrud <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/news\/local\/mesa-breaking\/2025\/05\/30\/authorities-declare-homicide-death-of-teens-state-route-87\/83946133007\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/news\/local\/mesa-breaking\/2025\/05\/30\/authorities-declare-homicide-death-of-teens-state-route-87\/83946133007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">remembered her daughter<\/a> for being adventurous and someone who enjoyed being outdoors or playing the violin and cello.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She was a bright light in this world\u00a0who loved every single person she met and had a very unique ability to make every person feel special and loved,&#8221; Simone Kjolsrud told The Republic in late May.<\/p>\n<p>The Republic&#8217;s Rey Covarrubias Jr. contributed to this story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"exclude-from-newsgate\">(This story has been updated to add more information.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Memorial honors slain teens Pandora Kjolsrud and Evan Clark Pandora Kjolsrud, 18, and Evan Clark, 17, were found&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":274211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[90497,567,7285,691,5229,931,5643,141966,11307,1587,8746,8074,3059,4446,6004,23496,6006,5416,2693,8578,4447,2488,17353,10858,2487,15780,425,728,69771,28327,942,635,7233,50,940,1812,450,950,1589,10440,10444,23047,3060,40276,101,141967,3677,290,645,2490,3981,6003,646,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,16225,8572,8576,7223],"class_list":["post-274210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-90497","tag-abuse","tag-accident","tag-ai","tag-america","tag-and","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-state-route-87","tag-arrests","tag-az","tag-az-now","tag-camping","tag-county","tag-death","tag-death-and-dying","tag-death-investigations","tag-death-u0026-tragedy","tag-deaths","tag-disaster","tag-disaster-accident-and-tragedy","tag-dying","tag-enabled","tag-high","tag-high-schools","tag-highlights","tag-investigations","tag-local","tag-local-news","tag-maricopa","tag-maricopa-county-sheriffs-office","tag-neutral","tag-new","tag-new-visitors-az","tag-news","tag-now","tag-office","tag-overall","tag-overall-neutral","tag-phoenix","tag-prospects","tag-prospects-az","tag-route","tag-schools","tag-sheriffs","tag-shooting","tag-shooting-deaths","tag-shootings","tag-state","tag-story","tag-story-highlights-ai-enabled","tag-teens","tag-tragedy","tag-u0026","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-valley","tag-violence","tag-violence-u0026-abuse","tag-visitors"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}