BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com

The FBI Albuquerque Division has announced that at approximately 12:30 p.m. Friday, members of the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force executed a federal arrest warrant in a remote area in Tonopah, Ariz. for Leonard Francis Kieren, 60, a fugitive wanted for homicide in Santa Fe County.

As members of the VCTF attempted to make the arrest, Kieren fired at the officers/agents who returned fire. He was shot and pronounced dead at the scene. No federal agents or law enforcement personnel were injured in the incident.

The arrest warrant was for the murder of Los Alamos native Kathleen Lorraine Vigil, 57, also known as Kathleen Jaramillo November 20 at her home in the San Ildefonso Pueblo.

Kieren grew up in Los Alamos, attended Pinon Elementary School, Cumbres Junior High School and Los Alamos High School, graduating in 1978. He had known Kathleen Jaramillo since high school.

At about 7 a.m. November 21, Santa Fe Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to an address on Little Bird Road in San Ildefonso Pueblo after a 911 call was placed by a male caller who indicated he had shot and killed Jaramillo and claimed that she was his girlfriend. When the deputies arrived on the scene and entered the residence, they found the body of Kathleen Lorraine Vigil also known as Kathleen Jaramillo.

The Sheriff’s Office traced the 911 call back to a number held by Kieren and believed he fled to Arizona. He was believed to be in the Graham County, Ariz. area

According to court records, Kieren first called 911 at 6:52 a.m. saying he came home to pick up his girlfriend to leave town for Thanksgiving, found she had been cheating on him and that she “pulled a 9 mm on him”.

“The male says he knocked the 9 mm out of her hands, slammed her on the bed and shot her in the head. In the recording (the dispatcher) is heard asking the male for his name to which he responds, ‘You will find that out’,” the affidavit for arrest warrant states. Kieren allegedly named Kathy Jaramillo as the victim and said the incident happened the previous night at around 11 p.m.

The affidavit states that Kieren again called 911 at 9:52 a.m. saying he needed to make it clear that he hit the victim in the face, put the gun back in her hand, covered her up with a blanket and left the residence. The affidavit also says two friends of Kieren also called 911 around 7:15 a.m. saying Kieren told them he shot his girlfriend with a .357.

The affidavit indicates that deputies spoke to another man who arrived at the secured residence and told them he had been dating the victim for about a month and that when they arrived at her residence around 6 p.m. and was “glaring him down”. He man said Kieren called the victim and told her he was back in town, did not have a key to get into the residence and was going to break in. The affidavit states that the man noted that the victim had told him in the past that she had a roommate named Leonard that she allowed to live at the residence while he was getting back on his feet.