Don Bolles case detective Jon Sellers was "a part of history"

• He didn't want recognition or honors as a retired police detective, preferring to keep a low profile at the end of his life, his stepdaughter Marnee Kling and his wife told Axios.
• "He didn't want to have the whole shebang," Kling told Axios.
• As a result, many people, including those who knew him from the Bolles case, were unaware until recently that he'd passed a year and a half ago.

Flashback: Sellers, then a homicide detective with Phoenix PD, was one of about 20 officers who responded to the Clarendon Hotel on June 2, 1976, after the bombing of Bolles' car.

• The next day, Sellers interviewed Bolles in his hospital room. The reporter couldn't speak but was able to answer questions by nodding his head or motioning with his arm and finger.
• Sellers investigated Bolles' murder until he retired from Phoenix PD in 1978, then continued his work on the case at the state attorney general's office.

Zoom in: Sellers' "style was country," Kling said, and he was known for his black Stetson hat.

• He was a country music singer who made several albums and once sang for Sandra Day O'Connor, his wife recalled.
• He loved racing motorcycles and continued racing under an alias at Manzanita Speedway even after his captain at Phoenix PD told him to stop. He was inducted into the Arizona Motorcycle Racing Hall of Fame in 2022.
• He was involved with the Arizona State Fair for 45 years, serving as the promoter for motorized attractions and events like the demolition derby and figure-eight race track.

What they're saying: "He was a part of history here because of that case. I think that was a major accomplishment for him. But I think his whole career was an accomplishment," Kling said.

• She described Sellers as kind, patient and nonjudgmental, while his wife called him easygoing, telling Axios, "He was a great guy, a very fabulous husband and father."
• George Weisz, who led the Bolles investigation at the attorney general's office in the late 1980s and 1990s, called Sellers a "hardnosed, exceptional detective" who lived and breathed his cases and had an "exemplary career as a dedicated police officer."