A suspect in a Twentynine Palms double-murder has been arrested aboard the Twentynine Palms Marine base. Sheriff’s investigators say a 911 call was placed at 12:03 a.m. Friday morning March 24th, stating that two people had been killed in the 7700 block of Bedouin Avenue. Arriving deputies found that Christy McKissic, 32, and her mother, Renee Metcalf, 62, had been shot multiple times. A 10-year-old child was at the home and was unharmed. Since Friday, investigators from the Sheriff’s Homicide Detail have worked to identify the person responsible for what they called “the senseless murders” of the mother and daughter. Detectives from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said that during week, they identified Rafael Ari Aikens, 22, a lance corporal stationed with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment as a machine gunner aboard the base, as a person of interest in the murders. Thursday, March 30, at about 6:50 p.m., homicide investigators, assisted by investigators from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, contacted Aikens at his assigned housing aboard the base. At the conclusion of the contact with Aikens and the service of several search warrants, Aikens was booked into the Morongo Basin jail for investigation of the murders of McKissic and Metcalf. Investigators said The investigation is ongoing and no additional information will be released at this time. Anyone with information should call the Sheriff’s homicide division at 909-387-3589.
