The family of Elena Lasswell is finally getting answers.
Two decades to the day after the 15-year-old was murdered in Phoenix, Arizona, Sergio Francisco Reyes has been arrested Phoenix Police Department said in a July 11 press release shared with E! News July 11.
Reyes was extradited from Mexico where he had been living on July 10 and booked into Maricopa County Jail on six charges, including sexual assault and first-degree murder, as well as criminal trespass, burglary and kidnapping.
The 37-year-old’s arrest comes on a particularly poignant day as exactly 20 years ago on July 10, 2004 Phoenix police officers “responded to a house in the neighborhood of 2700 North 21st Drive” just after 8 p.m. and were directed to a room where they found Lasswell.
“Emergency lifesaving measures were attempted,” the press release read, “but Lasswell did not survive her injuries and was pronounced deceased on scene.”
At the time, detectives were unable to name a suspect, but in 2012, cold case detectives say they were able to use a DNA collection technique that identified a profile matching Reyes. The following year he was confirmed as the lead suspect and in 2014 he was indicted by the Maricopa County Grand Jury, although he was living in Mexico at the time.
