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TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) - Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu is responding to criticism that he was too quick to blame drug cartel violence for five bodies found burned in the desert south of Phoenix, saying that all information at the time pointed to that scenario.

Babeu told The Associated Press on Wednesday that those criticizing his actions are on their "high horse," when all he was trying to do was be transparent.

Babeu had pointed to violent cartels as the likely culprit after the bodies were found burned beyond recognition inside an SUV in his county.

On Tuesday, police in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe said that the vehicle belonging to a missing family of five whose disappearance was being investigated as a murder-suicide was the same vehicle that the bodies were in.