Phoenix police announced this week an arrest in a two-decade old slaying of a 15-year-old girl.
Wednesday marked 20 years to the day that Elena Lasswell was “brutally” murdered inside her home, police announced in a short video statement.
Sergio Reyes, 37, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of first-degree murder. He was extradited from Mexico and is being held at the Maricopa County Jail, police said.
“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 said in the video statement. “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.”
Court records list Reyes as having a public defender. His lawyer was not immediately reached for comment on Reyes’ behalf on Friday afternoon.
Court and jail records indicate Reyes is being held on $1.5 million bond. Reyes is in jail on multiple homicide charges, two counts of sex crimes, kidnapping and a count of criminal trespass and burglary, jail records said.
Police did not immediately respond Friday afternoon to questions about the case, including how Reyes, who was 17 in 2004, knew Elena.
In a separate statement about the case, police said Elena was found injured and unresponsive in a bedroom in her home on July 10, 2004. She was pronounced dead on scene, police said.
Investigators had few leads or any direct information of who killed Elena and the case went cold, police said. But in 2012, detectives used “DNA collection techniques” and identified a profile that matched Reyes, police said.
In March 2013, DNA evidence was processed and confirmed Reyes as the ‘lead suspect,” police said. The following year, a county grand jury indicted Reyes, who was living in Mexico, police said.
The indictment prompted an extradition process. Phoenix police credited the U.S. Marshals Service authorities for locating Reyes and arresting him.
NBC affiliate KPNX, of Mesa, Arizona, spoke with Elena’s father, Steve Lasswell, who told the outlet he was not optimistic his family would ever see justice for his daughter.
“After 20 years, to be truthful, I really wasn’t expecting any further progress on the case,” Lasswell said. “Having him arrested would prevent him from doing any other things like that. That was the primary hope.”
Lasswell thanked police and detectives for never giving up on the case, which will help his family gain some closure.
“We all continue to miss Elena and we think about what she might have been today,” he told KPNX. “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.”
