This Mormon farming community has always been the kind of place where porch lights have been left on and doors left unlocked for kinfolk.
But now, those lights are left on all night out of fear.And that's the least of the security measures taken by many women in the aftermath of the most vicious crime since settlers came here to cultivate the Gila River Valley in the 1880s.
In the wee hours of July 9, Mary Ann Holmes, 29, a single mother of two small daughters, was killed in the bedroom of her pioneer adobe-style home in a quiet area of large pecan and cottonwood trees on Church Street.
For the record, Thatcher police said Holmes died of "trauma to the head from several choppinglike blows by a large knife or hatchet."
Then, other details began to surface, neighbors said. Holmes' nude body had been bound. She also had been sexually mutilated.
Police won't comment on the rumors, but Thatcher police Sgt. Gary Cleland said, "Whoever did this couldn't be human."
In the 21/2 months since the crime, a virtual paralysis has gripped women of the twin communities of Thatcher and Safford. All conversations on the street quickly turn to the subject of whether there's any news in the Holmes case.
That part has been extremely frustrating, said police Sgt. Gary Cleland, who is heading the investigation.
"We've interviewed over 75 people and there's still no suspect that we can point to," Cleland said. "There's a lot of stress on our officers, and we've really been putting in the overtime to try to get this cleared up."
Cleland said a special unit has been called in from the state Department of Public Safety to assist in the investigation because of concerns for the public welfare.
There has been little to go on, Cleland said. A bloody print of a large shoe was found at the site. Money that Holmes had earned from a yard sale at her house the morning before her death had been stolen.
Kaye Turner, a neighbor and friend of Holmes, said she thinks there is some connection between the yard sale and murder.
"Mary Ann was talking rather loudly about what a good idea the sale was and how much money she was making," Turner said. "I think the wrong person heard her talking about that."
Cleland said that also was one of the main areas of the police investigation but that nothing had turned up.
Police thought they had received a break in the case early on, Cleland said, when it was discovered that Holmes had filed a report weeks before her death that she feared a former boyfriend in Florida, who had contacted her by phone and was thought to be en route to Thatcher.
But police interviewed the man two days after Holmes' death in Florida, and his alibis checked out.
Now, there's a fear that the killer might remain in the midst of the community. That consternation was heightened when Eastern Arizona College, only two blocks from the murder scene, recently entered its fall session.
Kathy Mullenaux, who lives across the street from where Holmes lived, said the murder is the most traumatic thing she can remember happening to the town. Mullenaux, whose great-grandfather, Christopher Layton, founded Thatcher, said Thatcher's last murder happened about 30 years ago when a schoolmate of hers was killed by the woman's husband.
Mullenaux said she seldom locked her door in the past, but that since the July 9 murder, "The kids are all complaining because they have to go through so many locks to get to me.
"We even have been running to the car if we have to go anywhere at night."
Turner said she also had seen a lot of changes in the habits of her friends in the nearby city of Safford, including the purchase of Mace, guns, outdoor lights and guard dogs.
Gawkers, Mullenaux said, still come by to stop and peer through the 4-foot-high weeds at the murder site.
"She (Holmes) was such a beautiful woman," Mullenaux said. "She was growing all of these beautiful snapdragons for my daughter's wedding. I keep hoping that we get some closure for this nightmare."