Arizona homicide suspect takes own life after giving DNA sample to cold case investigators

The suspect in a 1987 Glendale homicide took his own life just days after providing cold case investigators with a DNA sample, authorities announced Tuesday.

A subsequent analysis matched Gary Wayne Billups’ DNA profile to evidence collected during the initial investigation into the death of Orison James “Jim” Chafin, according to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.

Chafin, 54, was found dead at the Resthaven Cemetery in Glendale on Aug. 8, 1987. The Navy veteran, who lived alone at a West Valley trailer park, had his throat cut and was wearing only socks, prosecutors said.

“For over 39 years, Jim Chafin’s murder went unsolved,” Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a news release. “He was a veteran who served his country, and he died alone in a cemetery. For a long time, it seemed the person responsible would never be named.”

How did cold case investigators connect suspect to 1987 homicide?

Chafin spent the afternoon before his body was found at a Glendale bar, where he was seen with three other men, prosecutors said.

Detectives collected beer bottles and cigarette butts from the bar and used the evidence to produce DNA profiles of three males, but they were unable to match the profiles to any individuals.

The Attorney General’s Office Cold Case Unit reopened the case in 2025 and interviewed witnesses who connected Billups to Chafin’s death. Billups lived in Glendale in 1987 but was not interviewed by police at the time, prosecutors said.

Investigators reached out to Billups in March 2026, but he refused to meet with them, prosecutors said. Billups, 68, was living in the West Valley community of Wittmann.

Investigators then tracked him down on June 19, and he agreed to be interviewed at the Surprise Police Department.

He denied knowing Chafin or living in Glendale at the time of the crime, even though arrest records showed that he lived there in 1986-87. He was released after providing a DNA sample.

On June 24, Billups died by suicide. The lab results matching his DNA profile to the 1987 evidence came back Aug. 6.

Two other people connected to Chafin’s death are also dead, so prosecutors and the Glendale Police Department now consider the case closed.

“Today, we can say who was involved in his death,” Mayes said. “That is possible because Glendale detectives preserved the evidence in 1987 and because our investigators refused to let this case stay cold.”

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