Authorities have executed search warrants on properties associated with a powerful Imperial Valley farming magnate whose wife was found shot and killed in her Arizona home last month.
Detectives with the Navajo County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday served warrants on the El Centro, Calif., home of Mike Abatti, as well as multiple structures and properties associated with Abatti’s family and their business operations, the sheriff’s office said in a news release. Abatti and his family members run some of the biggest farming operations in the Imperial Valley, growing onions, cantaloupes, broccoli, lettuce, sugarbeets and hay, according to the website of Mike Abatti Farms.
Investigators also served warrants on two camp trailers and two vehicles belonging to the Abatti family, the release said.
“These warrants were obtained and executed based on the results of the ongoing homicide investigation and evidence developed by detectives,” the release said. It did not state what evidence investigators were seeking or if they recovered anything. Authorities declined to answer follow-up questions.
Abatti’s wife, Kerri Ann Abatti, 59, was found fatally shot inside her home in Pinetop, Ariz., on Nov. 20 in what investigators have confirmed to be a homicide. No arrests have been made, and the investigation remains ongoing, according to the sheriff’s office.
Kerri Ann Abatti was living separately from her husband amid divorce proceedings that began in October 2023, when she cited irreconcilable differences in petitioning to end her marriage of more than 31 years, according to court records first reported by the Arizona Republic. She expected to seek at least $30,000 in monthly spousal support, but she was first working with experts to assess the couple’s extensive income from farms, rentals and other sources, as well as the value of their properties in California, Arizona and Wyoming, court filings state. In the meantime, the court had awarded her $6,400 in temporary monthly support.
Mike Abatti Farms did not immediately return messages seeking comment. In addition to his farming business, Abatti has won millions of dollars in publicly funded energy contracts and is known to exert outsize influence over local elected officials, according to reporting by the Desert Sun. He and his wife also donated more than $50,000 to San Diego State University, which offers a scholarship in their name, the paper reported.
