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EXTRADITED

Phoenix PD detectives arrest suspect in 20-year-old cold case murder

Posted 7/11/24

Twenty years to the day after a 15-year-old girl was found murdered at a Phoenix home and with the help of DNA testing, a man has been arrested as the suspect in the homicide, police said.

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EXTRADITED

Phoenix PD detectives arrest suspect in 20-year-old cold case murder

Posted

Twenty years to the day after a 15-year-old girl was found murdered at a Phoenix home and with the help of DNA testing, a man has been arrested as the suspect in the homicide, police said.

Sergio Reyes, 37, was extradited from Mexico on Wednesday and booked into Maricopa County Jail for multiple violent felonies, including sexual assault and first-degree murder, in the death of Elena Lasswell.

Lasswell was found just after 8 p.m. July 10, 2004, when Phoenix police officers responded to a house in the neighborhood of 2700 North 21st Drive. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officers interviewed several witnesses, and detectives took over the investigation, developing leads with no direct information as to who killed Lasswell, according to a Phoenix Police Department release.

Silent Witness was contacted, but detectives ran out of leads, and the case went cold.

In 2012, detectives used DNA collection techniques and were able to identify a profile that matched Reyes, police said. In March 2013, DNA evidence was processed and confirmed Reyes as the lead suspect.

A Maricopa County grand jury in 2014 indicted Reyes who was living in Mexico, prompting the the start of an extradition process.

Authorities, with the help of the U.S. Marshals Service, found an arrested Reyes.

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