Man Targeted by Ex in Murder-For-Hire Plot Suspected of Killing Wife
A Pennsylvania man previously targeted by his ex-wife in a murder-for-hire scenario has been arrested for allegedly murdering his new wife, WTAE reported. Arthur Eugene Guty Jr., 55, was reportedly carrying $100,000 in cash when he was arrested on Tuesday at a Las Vegas casino. He’s currently being held on charges of criminal homicide and aggravated assault in connection with the shooting death of his wife of less than a year, 26-year-old Franyerlys Nicold “Nicole” Zambrano Briceno.
Zambrano’s co-workers at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, where she was employed as a housekeeper, reported her missing on Dec. 24 after she failed to show up several days in a row. When officers arrived at Zambrano’s home on Dec. 29 to perform a welfare check, they were unable to make contact and opened an investigation into her whereabouts. A search warrant was obtained over the weekend, and on Monday authorities entered the house to find Zambrano’s decomposing body in her and Guty’s bedroom. A .357 Magnum was reportedly found in an adjoining room.
According to investigators, they were immediately suspicious about Guty’s involvement. “He couldn’t explain the whereabouts of his wife, [and] when he did give us information, it wasn’t accurate,” Uniontown police Lt. Thomas Kolencik said.
A few days before Zambrano went missing, Guty told friends and neighbors that the couple was leaving for an extended road trip. “Three days before Christmas and he disappeared and I don’t know where he went or what he was doing,” his friend Bob Luick told the outlet. Luick reportedly had a cryptic phone call with Guty after he vanished.
“I said, ‘Art, where are you?’ but we didn’t know about Nicole yet, and he said, ‘I’m in Kansas and we’re going up to Grand Canyon.’ He said, ‘We’re going up to Grand Canyon [sic].'"
“It’s an obvious homicide. And he was clearly not willing to come in to speak to us,” Fayette County, PA district attorney Mike Aubele reported to KDKA-TV. “He was on his way, we believe, out of the country, with a significant amount of cash and was going to try to avoid any responsibility for what happened here. So, I would say there’s absolutely a level of callousness here.”
Guty was arrested on Tuesday morning as he dined at the Mardi Gras Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. A photo taken by officers after his arrest shows Guty sitting on a bench with his hands behind his back, a cigarette dangling from his mouth.
The story is all the more bizarre because Guty was previously targeted by his first wife, Roxane Guty, in a murder-for-hire plot. Roxane was arrested in 2019 after she tried to bribe a hitman with half of her husband’s $50,000 life insurance policy. The “hitman” eventually reneged on the deal when he realized Roxane wasn’t joking about her proposition. She was sentenced to lesser charges and is still in custody at the Fayette County Prison.
Arthur Guty is expected to appear in court on Thursday.
This is a developing story. Check back later for more information.