Yuma, Arizona (KYMA, KECY) – Yuma County still has four murders unsolved after 2022.
News 11’s Samantha Byrd tracks last year’s unsolved murders and tries not to get cold feet.
2022 was the year of murders in Yuma.
Lt. Sam Pavlak, Commander of Investigations for the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office (YCSO) said:
In 2022, the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office investigated nine murders.
“A total of 10 people were killed in the nine murders. Currently, only two cases remain unsolved,” Pavlak said.
Both unsolved cases are triple murders that occurred on September 22nd last year.
Yuma County lawmakers are investigating three murders, all three of which were discovered on the same day.
In Mojave Lane, one person was found with a gunshot wound just off 8th Avenue.
The victim was later identified as 45-year-old Juan Luna Montijo.
And within 10 minutes of the shooting, across town near Somerton, the YCSO received a call that two bodies had been found shot on the side of the road near 13th Avenue F in the county.
The victims were identified as Christine Carrillo, 28, and Daniel Herrera, Jr., 31.
It has been unclear for months whether the two cases are related.
“The murders on Mojave Lane and the county’s 13th Street and Avenue F were very closely related at the time the sheriff’s office received the call. but it was later determined that they were indeed related,” Pavlak said.
Five months later, both investigations are still ongoing.
Meanwhile, in the city, the Yuma Police Department (YPD) will commit four murders in 2022 with five victims.
Two of them are still open.
“One was a woman who was shot in the back seat of a pickup truck, and the other was Sutton, who was riding a bicycle,” said Sergeant Lori Franklin of the Yuma Police Department.
Yuma Police Department identified the man as Guillermo Sutton, 41, on 12th and 6th Avenues.
The day after Sutton’s death, his mother posted this photo on Facebook.
She then sent us a statement saying she felt her son needed justice.
And now, almost a year later, Sutton’s death remains a mystery.
But why is that?
“You can’t really tell how many are resolved or unsolved. A lot of it depends on whether there are witnesses. Will they come forward and tell us? It’s kind of a problem and people are afraid of retaliation,” Franklin said.
Both the YPD and YCSO say witnesses do not need to speak to them.
It makes these cases much more difficult to solve.
“Sometimes friends and family really believe they know something, but they don’t,” says Franklin.
But it’s never too late to solve one of these cases.
“Even if you don’t think it matters and you’re in the area where something happens, call us and let us know what it is. We look into every little thing that comes in. Your tips I don’t know if it helps, and it might,” Franklin said.
This is in memory of one of the victims of last year’s unsolved murder.
If you have information that could lead to the resolution of any of these cases, please call the Yuma Police Department or the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office. If you prefer to remain anonymous, please dial 78-CRIME.
