BARKING MAD

Woman Gets Life in Prison for ‘Carnival Mafia’ Murders

Kimberley Younger, 55, was convicted of posing as a “carnival mafia” boss and sending texts ordering the deaths of a couple who often sold their trinkets on fairgrounds.

A Texas woman has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for her part in the murders of a Kansas couple killed as an initiation ritual into a fictitious “carnival mafia.” Kimberley Stacey Younger, 55, was sentenced for capital murder earlier this week in the deaths of Alfred “Sonny” Carpenter, 78, and Pauline Carpenter, 79. The couple’s bodies were found in an Arkansas forest after having worked at a Kansas county fair in July 2018. They regularly traveled to carnivals and fairs to sell crafts, jewelry, and trinkets, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Van Buren police said in 2018 that Younger had posed as a “carnival mafia” boss named “Frank Zaitchik” and texted at least two other suspects to kill the couple. Three others had been previously convicted over the Carpenters’ death. A 56-year-old Florida man, Michael Fowler, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life for first-degree murder and theft. Rusty Frasier, a 37-year-old Texas man, was sentenced to life without parole last year on each of two counts of first-degree murder. Christine Tenney, 40, was handed nearly six year for aggravated robbery and eight months for obstructing apprehension.