Former restaurant owner charged with stabbing, dismembering and burning body of Nebraska teenager

Parker League, 18, was on a trip to Arizona when he was murdered and burned beyond recognition in June 2023

A 38-year-old Arizona business owner has been charged with fatally stabbing and dismembering a teenage boy before burning his body beyond recognition last year.

Arizona prosecutors charged Anthonie Ruinard, a former restaurateur, with the second-degree murder of Nebraska teenager Parker League in June 2023. Mr Ruinard also faces a charge of abandonment or concealment of a dead body.

League, 18, was visiting friends in Arizona last summer when he met Mr Ruinard. Security footage from 11 June showed League and his suspected murderer leaving a Chandler, Arizona gas station together.

Police found his dismembered, stabbed and charred body in Arizona’s Tonto National Park on 12 June — the same day he was set to return home. Officials had to use dental records to identify League, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

League’s brother told local outlet ABC15 the family reported him missing to the Tempe Police Department on 15 June, as they were not aware police had found his body.

Anthonie Ruinard, pictured, was arrested last year and faces charges for the murder of 18-year-old Parker League (Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office)

“It’s hard to accept because he was the nicest kid in the world,” Hunter League told ABC15 last year.

“I got a call from my dad telling me to come home. I asked him ‘why’ about three times and the third time he tried to explain it, he just started breaking down,” he continued.

Mr Ruinard entered a not guilty plea on 21 March, according to Maricopa County records. His trial will begin in July.

Parker League’s body was found in Tonto National Forest (Getty)

The 38-year-old suspect also previously owned a restaurant in Tuscon, Arizona. However, Tucson’s Pastiche Modern Eatery has been closed since February 2023 due to a fire, the Arizona Daily Star reported last year.

Police first arrested Mr Ruinard in July 2023 after identifying surveillance footage that showed him using League’s bank card after his death. Police searched Mr Ruinard’s vehicle and found traces of League’s DNA, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities then charged Mr Ruinard with drug possession, weapon possession, theft, murder and concealment of a body.

However, those charges were dismissed after a grand jury indicted him for murder and concealment last month, according to Maricopa County records.