A Murrietta Murder Leads to Arrests of a Filipina Ex-Girlfriend and Three Men
By J. J. Ghosh | 29 Mar, 2026

Four people across three states have become linked in a murder-for-hire scheme to kill a Southern California father of two young children.

Ex-girlfriend Ignacia Cadaos Perkins is believed to have paid men to kill Parr.

Grasping the full extent of what occurred here requires understanding that Murrieta, California is not the type of place where these things typically happen.

The town — a suburb in Riverside County in Southern Califronia — generally has a crime rate about 2.2 times lower than the national average.

It's the kind of place that people move to for the schools, the space, and the relative quiet.  Which is part of why Murrieta police themselves described what unfolded there as "unusual."

That might be the understatement of the year.

The late AJ Parr and his children Christopher and Diana. 

The Victim

On January 13, 2026, at approximately 9:13 a.m., Murrieta Police Department officers responded to a call at The Arbors at California Oaks apartments on Jackson Avenue.  Upon arrival they found an adult male deceased inside an apartment.

The victim was later identified by family as 30-year-old Aaron "AJ" Parr.  Police immediately treated the death as a homicide.

According to his obituary, Aaron "AJ" Jacob Parr was "a beloved son, brother, friend and father whose life was marked by quiet strength, steady perseverance, and a deep capacity for love.  He carried a mild demeanor and a quick, understated wit."

He left behind two young children, Christopher and Diana.

"Everything in his life revolved around them.   If you stepped into his apartment, you would see it immediately: drawings and notes taped and featured on poster boards, toys scattered across the floor, small reminders everywhere of what mattered most to him.  He gave every ounce of himself to being present, dependable, and loving, and his children always came first," the obituary read.

Funeral services for Parr were held on January 24, 2026, at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mansfield, Ohio.   During the service, family members choked up as they recalled their loved one.

The Arrests

Suspect James Petri

Five days after the funeral, on January 29, police arrested Parr's ex-girlfriend, 40-year-old Ignacia Cadaos Perkins, in Murrieta.  But that wasn't all.

That same day, in Birmingham, Alabama, authorities arrested James Lawrence Petri, 43, described as an acquaintance of Perkins.

Both were charged with murder and special circumstance allegations of lying in wait and killing for financial gain.

Petri is additionally charged with sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations.  In other words, prosecutors allege Petri was the one who pulled the trigger.  They described the slaying as "planned with sophistication and professionalism" and involving "great violence and bodily harm."

Both were held without bail — Perkins at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside, and Petri at the Jefferson County Detention Center in Bessemer, Alabama, pending extradition to California.

The conventional wisdom here is that Parr's ex-girlfriend wanted him dead but wasn't prepared to carry out the act herself, so she hired Petri.

But as it turns out, he wasn't the only one on her payroll.

Suspect Kenneth Maxwell

Since the initial arrests, Murrieta Police detectives continued to diligently examine a substantial volume of physical evidence, digital evidence, and investigative leads.  That work led them across state lines — again.

On March 18, a month and a half after the initial arrests, Kenneth Maxwell, 39, of Midfield, Alabama, and Jerry Wheeler, 34, of Brookhaven, Georgia, were arrested in connection with the case.

Maxwell was arrested without incident near his home by FBI agents executing a warrant on behalf of the Murrieta Police Department.

Suspect Jerry Wheeler

Wheeler was taken into custody the same day by local police executing the out-of-state warrant at his residence.   Both men are being held without bail at detention facilities in their respective counties, awaiting extradition to California.

Along with murder, prosecutors filed special circumstance allegations against both Maxwell and Wheeler of lying in wait and killing for financial gain.

The Scope of the Investigation

What makes this case remarkable beyond the crime itself is the sheer breadth of law enforcement resources it required.

The Murrieta Police Department coordinated with the Riverside County Sheriff's Office, the Birmingham Police Department, the Washoe County Sheriff's Office, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, the Brookhaven Police Department's North Metro SWAT team, and the FBI's Birmingham SWAT and Safe Streets task force — all to solve a murder in a Southern California suburb.

Murrieta Police Captain Jeremy Durrant put it plainly:  "Detectives worked tirelessly to gather evidence and pursue all available leads to identify those responsible, and because of their investigative efforts … the individuals were arrested in connection with this murder."

Police noted that Parr and Perkins were involved romantically at one time, but there was no word on the duration of the relationship or how it ended.

The motive, per prosecutors, was financial gain.  The specific nature of that financial interest has not been disclosed.

A Hollywood Ending?

Four suspects.

Three states.

Two months of investigation.

One man dead in his apartment surrounded by his children's drawings.

And a number of other things we still don't know.

Police have not released Parr's cause of death beyond confirming that Petri allegedly shot him.  They have not disclosed how the four suspects allegedly knew each other, how the plot was arranged, or what the precise financial arrangement between them looked like.

The specific roles of Maxwell and Wheeler — beyond the allegation that they participated in a murder for financial gain — have not been detailed publicly.

It's also unclear what Perkins' relationship, if any, was to Parr's two young children.  Given that she was his ex-girlfriend and he was a father of two, the answer to that question may end up being among the more consequential details of the case.

The investigation, police say, remains active.  The focus is now shifting toward building the case for trial.

To state the obvious, horrible things happen in this country and world every day.  With several wars raging on simultaneously, it's not uncommon to become numb to a killing.

But every so often, a story comes along — like this one — that even the most hardened consumers of news have to stop and take note of.

In an age where true crime has become one of the most popular genres of entertainment, it's hard not to pay attention to a Hollywood-esque mystery playing out before our eyes.

Like with any plot, we want to know the ending.

But I hope we can all remember that this is not, in fact, television.  And Christopher and Diana are not characters.  They're children without a father.

Learning the ending of this story may bring us some satisfaction, but it will never change that fact.