Great Falls man charged in homicide case involving missing veteran

A Great Falls man has been charged with deliberate homicide in connection to a veteran reported missing earlier this year.

A $1 million arrest warrant was issued for Brandon Lee Craft on Wednesday morning. He is accused of killing 28-year-old Adam Petzack, who was reported missing by his mother.

Police say Craft is currently in custody in Washington state.

Court documents say Petzack was a veteran on full disability because of a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Officials seek help finding missing person

According to court records, detectives with the Great Falls Police Department were investigating Craft for suspicious financial activity involving Petzack’s VA benefits. Documents indicate Petzack lived in a rental unit on Craft’s property in Great Falls.

The amended charging affidavit, also filed Wednesday, says Craft agreed to an interview with detectives. The document says the interview was conducted in Washington state.

The report says Craft told the detectives he found Petzack in the Craft family’s trailer in the middle of the night.

Craft told the detectives Petzack was masturbating, and he told Petzack to go back to the outbuilding where he lived. Craft said Petzack complied, the report says, but Craft noticed his young daughter was lying in bed naked.

Craft told the detectives he “lost it” and grabbed his .22 rifle and went outside. The report says Craft admitted to shooting Petzack in the back of the head and burying him in the “barn” on his property.

The report says Craft also admitted to pawning the rifle he used, selling Petzack’s truck and abandoning the veteran’s service dog somewhere on the way to Valier.

Court records show a $10,000 arrest warrant for exploitation of older person, incapacitated person or person with developmental disability was issued Aug. 10. Another version of the warrant was issued five days prior.

Craft faces three charges in total, deliberate homicide, evidence tampering and the exploitation charge, all felonies.

GFPD Sgt. Jim Wells issued the following statement in a news release Wednesday:

“For the past five months, detectives with the department have been diligently conducting a complete investigation, exhausting all known leads. As the investigation unfolded it became increasingly possible Petzack’s disappearance may have involved foul play.”

The statement says new information in the case was received Tuesday.

Court documents say Craft drew a map for police of the location of Petzack’s body on his now former rental property in Great Falls.

The 27-page charging document details the GFPD investigation, including the solicitation of Petzack’s financial and cellphone records, Craft’s financial records and multiple interviews.

The document says Craft’s wife, Katelyn, opened a Square account allowing them to swipe Petzack’s debit card, which was linked to the bank account where Petzack received his VA benefit payments via direct deposit. The Square service transferred the payments to an account in Brandon Craft’s name.

The records show the Craft’s Square account received debits from Petzack’s account of $1,400 each corresponding closely to the days the VA deposited funds in Petzack’s account. Records say Brandon Craft also charged a hotel room to Petzack’s account.

Through interviews, documents say detectives learned Petzack last contacted friends on Feb. 9 of this year.

Phone records showed Brandon Craft as the last person Petzack spoke to on his cellphone Feb. 11.

The records show that Craft called Petzack at 8:11 a.m. and the call lasted more than four minutes; that Petzack’s phone called a “card services” number at 2:22 p.m.; that Craft called Petzack at 3:23 p.m. and the call lasted less than two minutes; that Petzack sent a call from Craft to voicemail six minutes later; and that 10 minutes after that Petzack called Craft’s phone and the call lasted nearly 30 minutes.

The documents cites cell record information showing that text messages were sent from Petzack’s phone Feb. 12, but investigators could not obtain the content of those messages.

The case’s lead detective also found a Facebook post by Petzack saying that in two years he would have the $30,000 he needed to live “off grid.” The post date is not noted in the report.

Friends of Petzack told the detective Petzack spoke of living off the grid, and had scoped out land near Choteau that he wanted to buy.