It was an unusually violent year in Fountain Hills in 2018 as nine people came to a brutal demise. Five of those individuals were pedestrians killed in vehicle collusions and the other four were murdered.

It was a particularly nice day March 13 when four winter visitors, two couples who did not know each other, were taking a morning walk around Fountain Park. As they approached the intersection at Saguaro Boulevard and Panorama Drive a speeding SUV went off the roadway and struck one couple on the sidewalk and then the second before turning back onto Saguaro and stopping facing the wrong direction in the northbound lanes.

The two women who were struck died at the scene while one of the men died on the way to the hospital. The fourth person, another man, survived until June when he passed away in a hospital at his home in Calgary, Canada.

The 27-year-old man driving the SUV was eventually charged with four counts of manslaughter as investigators say he was driving in a particularly reckless manner at the time of the accident.

In late May and early June the Valley was stunned by a series of murders in which psychotherapists and legal professionals were being killed. Between May 31 and June 4 people were on edge as several police agencies pieced together the puzzle. Late Sunday, June 3, Scottsdale Police asked the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office to check on the welfare of a Fountain Hills couple that the suspect in the homicides was believed to have visited. Deputies went to the home on Kit Fox Place and found the bodies of Mary Simmons and Bryon Thomas, the fifth, sixth and final victims in the murder spree of Dwight Jones. Police said Jones was incited by a divorce and child custody fight in which the victim psychologists and legal professionals were associated with.

Although it was determined that Jones knew Mary Simmons from tennis competition, it has not been determined why he singled out her and Thomas as his victims.

Jones died as police moved in on his hotel room the morning of June 4. It is believed he shot himself.

Just a month later, on July 2, deputies responded to a report of a shooting at a condominium complex at Saguaro and El Lago boulevards.

They found there a 72-year-old man had been shot and killed by his 92-year-old mother, Anna Mae Blessing.

A woman friend of the son was also on the scene and disarmed Blessing of two handguns she had in the pockets of her robe. The guns were owned by Blessing. The woman friend called the police.

Blessing admitted to the shooting and said it was because her son was talking about moving her to an assisted living facility.

The fourth homicide happened just across the street from the Blessing incident at a Fountain Hills hotel. It did not involve local residents.

Just before midnight Friday, Aug. 3, deputies received a 911 call of a shooting at the Centerstone Plaza Hotel on Saguaro Blvd. Fire personnel also responded and the subject was pronounced deceased at the scene.

The victim was a male subject and his ex-wife was detained as a suspect in his shooting. Deputies investigated the shooting as a domestic violence incident.

The fifth pedestrian died the morning of Oct. 17, as he was struck on Palisades Boulevard just across from the high school.

William McNeal was walking along the eastbound lanes of Palisades Boulevard and was at Hampstead Drive, across from the high school, when he was struck. It was about 7:30 a.m. when the collision occurred.