Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is pushing for answers in the death of an 82-year-old woman whose power was disconnected last year.
Mayes sat down to talk to ABC15 just days after she sent a formal letter to the Arizona Corporation Commission, requesting they update their disconnection rules and asking for an investigation into Kate Korman’s May 2024 death.
“It’s just tragic and frankly unacceptable that in this day and age, we are still seeing deaths related to utilities disconnecting people’s electricity and power,” Mayes said in an interview with ABC15.
The Sun City West woman was found dead in her home in May of last year. Arizona Public Service had shut off her power six days earlier due to missed payments. Temperatures were hovering around the triple digits at the time.
“This needs to be investigated. Number one, what happened?” Mayes said. “How did it happen?”
The commission regulates many of the state’s large utilities, like APS. In a statement, the commission told ABC15 earlier this week that it is now looking into the disconnection procedures that led up to Korman’s power being cut off.
“The only thing that would be adequate is a very full, rigorous investigation of what happened,” Mayes said. “It also needs to be public, and it needs to be in the form of a hearing.”
She said the commission needs to amend its rules related to disconnections. She favors a temperature-based approach, rather than the calendar-based approach used by the state’s largest utilities.
Right now, APS is prohibited from shutting off electricity from June 1 through October 15. Korman was found dead in her home in May after her son asked the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office to check on his mother. Korman’s two sons have recently gone public with her story.
Mayes said if the commission prohibited utilities from shutting off power when it hit 95 degrees or more, “then I believe that Kate Korman would probably still be alive.”
Mayes said changing the disconnection rules is especially important because of the rising average temperatures in the Phoenix area, especially in the spring.
“It gets to be 100 degrees in April now,” she said. “And it’s 100 plus in October.”
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Mayes said she also encourages the commission to consider special rules for people who are elderly, vulnerable and low-income.
A medical examiner’s report says Korman’s official cause of death is complications of chronic ethanolism. The report says “environmental heat stress” contributed, caused by exposure to high temperatures.
Mayes said she is “almost certain” there are “other Kate Kormans out there.”
“I think it’s almost a matter of time before it is discovered, and it probably is going to happen at other utilities as well,” she said.
In a statement, APS said its condolences go out to Korman’s family. They say they take extensive steps to communicate with customers who don’t pay their bills. The steps they take exceed what state regulators require, APS said.
In Korman’s case, APS said it made multiple attempts to reach her about the status of her account, including phone calls, emails and a hanger left on her door on May 8. They said she did not respond, and no one from APS made in-person contact with her.
The statement went on to say:
“We care about the safety and well-being of our customers. The disconnection policy was established following an extensive public process that included input from utilities, community members, and consumer advocates. We are committed to working with our regulators and other stakeholders to continuously improve our processes and programs to support our customers.”
ABC15 requested interviews with all five elected commissioners with the Arizona Corporation Commission. None agreed to go on camera. But the commission issued a statement after ABC15 asked for a response to the attorney general’s letter:
“The Commission received two inquiries: one from Adam Korman on May 1, 2025, and one from Jonathan Korman on May 2, 2025. The Commission Utilities Division is now looking into the disconnection procedures related to the May 2024 death of their mother, Kate Korman. This is an ongoing disconnection inquiry, and the Commission is in the process of reviewing the events that led up to the termination of service, as we would for any inquiry initiated by a customer. The Commission’s inquiry is limited to the disconnection of power, the Commission does not investigate deaths.”
The commission’s statement did not address the attorney general’s request to update its general disconnection rules.
Mayes said on Friday she has not yet heard back from the commission.
“I’m going to continue to bird dog this, bird dog the utilities and hold them accountable in every way that I have at my disposal to make sure that people don’t die,” she said.
Email ABC15 Investigator Anne Ryman at: [email protected], call her at 602-685-6345, or connect on X, formerly known as Twitter, and Facebook.
