A two-decade-old girl’s homicide was reported to have been solved this week by Phoenix police.
In a brief video statement, police said that Wednesday was the 20th anniversary of Elena Lasswell’s “brutally” murder inside her house.
It was suspected that Sergio Reyes, 37, was the first person to be killed on Wednesday. Police say he was jailed at the Maricopa County Jail after being extradited from Mexico.
“It’s a big day, not only for the Phoenix Police Department, but more importantly, Elena’s family. They’ve been waiting twenty years for justice,” Phoenix police Det. Dominick Roestenberg stated. “It took a while, but through perseverance and hard work and dedication, we’re able to get Sergio Reyes back to Phoenix to face charges.”
Reyes is listed as having a public defender in court documents. Reyes’s attorney was not immediately available for comment on Friday afternoon.
Reyes is reportedly being held on a $1.5 million bond, according to court and jail records. According to jail records, Reyes is being held on several counts of homicide, two counts of sex offenses, kidnapping, and one count each of criminal trespass and burglary.
When asked questions about the case, including how Reyes, who was 17 in 2004, knew Elena, police did not immediately reply on Friday afternoon.
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According to a police statement regarding the case, Elena was discovered in her home’s bedroom on July 10, 2004, injured and not responding. According to authorities, she was declared dead at the spot.
The case was abandoned because investigators had no leads or concrete information about Elena’s killer, according to the police. However, according to authorities, in 2012, detectives employed “DNA collection techniques” to find a profile that matched Reyes.
After processing DNA evidence in March 2013, authorities declared Reyes to be the “lead suspect.” Reyes, who was residing in Mexico, was indicted by a county grand jury the following year, according to authorities.
An extradition procedure was started by the indictment. The U.S. Marshals Service agents were praised by Phoenix police with finding and apprehending Reyes.
“After 20 years, to be truthful, I really wasn’t expecting any further progress on the case,” Lasswell stated. “Having him arrested would prevent him from doing any other things like that. That was the primary hope.”
To provide his family some closure, Lasswell commended the police and detectives for never losing up on the case.
“We all continue to miss Elena and we think about what she might have been today,” he stated. “I’d really sincerely like to thank the Phoenix Police Department and everyone who was involved in this for hanging in there for this long and having success.”
