We are headed west on day two of our 12 Nightmares Before Christmas. It was pitch black on a gorgeous night in the middle of the Arizona desert in October 2003. There was not a cloud in the sky, but billions of stars were observable by the naked eye because Bumble Bee Road is in the middle of nowhere. In every direction, there was nothing but 90,000 acres of rolling hills dotted with Saguaro cactus spikes. Brandon Rumbaugh, age 20, a personal fitness instructor, and his girlfriend, Lisa Marie Gurrieri, a nineteen-year-old secretary for the Salt River Project, were celebrating their one-year anniversary. They had initially wanted to go to Disneyland to commemorate the occasion, but it was too expensive. The couple had been discussing marriage, so they didn’t want to spend much money.  So, instead, they thought it would be romantic to go back to the Arizona desert and do some stargazing as they did on their first date. This time, though, they decided to camp out under the stars. Lisa had never been camping before, and the couple didn’t really have camping equipment either, so they asked Lisa’s mother, Paula, if they could borrow her brand-new white F-150 truck, and they would just sleep in the back of the vehicle with some sleeping bags. Paula wasn’t thrilled about them taking the truck since it needed an oil change, but in the end, she gave them permission. Lisa also borrowed her mother’s video camera. Then, Lisa made another request; she asked her mother not to tell her Uncle Mike where they were going because she knew that he’d be upset and worried about them. The area had become known as a “party destination. Unfortunately, it would turn out that Uncle Mike had every reason to worry.

Join Jen and Cam of Our True Crime Podcast on this episode entitled ‘The Bumblebee Road Murders: Brandon Rumbaugh & Lisa Marie Gurrieri.’


If you have any information about this case, please contact the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office or Silent Witness at 480–948–6377.

Thank you to our team:
Written and researched by Lauretta Allen
Listener Discretion by Edward October from Octoberpod AM
Executive Producer Nico Vitesse of The Inky Pawprint


Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watchv=Vy0TYqOo_sg&ab_channel=RachelShannonTrueCrime

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22764900/lisa-marie-gurrieri

https://www.newspapers.com/image/125512144/match=1&terms=Paula%20Gurrieri%20

https://www.newspapers.com/image/125512236/match=1&terms=Paula%20Gurrieri%20

https://www.newspapers.com/image/125513123/match=1&terms=Paula%20Gurrieri%20

https://www.newspapers.com/image/125454864/match=1&terms=Paula%20Gurrieri%20

https://www.newspapers.com/image/125254509/match=1&terms=Paula%20Gurrieri%20

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/205289317/brandon-keith-rumbaugh

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/azcentral/name/brandon-rumbaugh-obituary?id=27815392

https://www.newspapers.com/image/125516344/match=1&terms=Lisa%20Gurrieri%20

https://www.newspapers.com/image/125255612/match=1&terms=Lisa%20Gurrieri%20

https://www.newspapers.com/image/125503770/?terms=Lisa%20Gurrieri%20

https://www.newspapers.com/image/125503785/match=1&terms=Lisa%20Gurrieri%20

https://www.newspapers.com/image/125583182/?match=1&terms=Lisa%20Gurrieri%20 (Rusty Rankin)

https://www.newspapers.com/image/126708234/?match=1&terms=Lisa%20Gurrieri%20 (Sonoma Ca couple)

https://www.newspapers.com/image/125478691/?match=1&terms=Lisa%20Gurrieri%20

https://www.newspapers.com/image/361287432/?match=1&terms=Lisa%20Gurrieri%20 (14 years later)

https://www.newspapers.com/image/619647478/match=1&terms=Lisa%20Gurrieri%20

https://www.abc15.com/news/crime/nearly-20-years-since-the-murders-of-lisa-gurrieri-and-brandon-rumbaugh-in-yavapai-county

https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/murder-suspect-dies-after-police-standoff/73-344894944

https://darrensrides.blogspot.com/2011/09/crown-king-arizona.html

https://www.newspapers.com/image/125583750/?match=1&terms=%22Rusty%20Rankin%22

https://www.12news.com/article/news/crime/true-crime/scottsdale-couple-murdered-camping-trip-2003-unsolved/75-6cc84714-3ffc-49d5-9a06-5ba344db75f0  (image of the last photo taken on the camera)

https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/brandon-rumbaugh-lisa-gurrieri-cold-case-could-camera-hold-clue

https://www.newspapers.com/image/125496399/match=1&terms=Michael%20Villers

https://the-m-files.medium.com/double-homicide-on-bumble-bee-road-4fa16a21d71

https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/mortality-data.htm

https://www.newspapers.com/image/125503785/match=1&terms=Crime%20Bumble%20Bee%20