Man extradited, arrested for murder of 15-year-old girl in 20-year-old cold case

PHOENIX — A man was extradited from Mexico and arrested for the alleged killing of a teenage girl exactly 20 years after she was found dead, the Phoenix Police Department said Wednesday.

Exactly 20 years to the day after the brutal killing of 15-year-old Elena Lasswell, cold case detectives with Phoenix PD arrested 37-year-old Sergio Reyes on Wednesday. Reyes was extradited from Mexico and booked into Maricopa County Jail for first-degree murder. pic.twitter.com/WPmJQRur8h

— Phoenix Police (@PhoenixPolice) July 11, 2024

Officers responded to the girl’s home near Interstate 17 and Thomas Road on July 10, 2004, just after 8 p.m. on a Saturday, where life-saving measures failed as she was pronounced dead in her room. The victim, Elena Lasswell, was 15 years old.

The case was turned over to detectives, who used Silent Witness to look for community support in finding a lead, but the case went cold.

A new development came in 2012, when detectives utilized DNA collection to build a profile of a suspect named Sergio Reyes. More DNA evidence later confirmed Reyes as the suspect in March 2013, Phoenix PD said.

A Maricopa County Grand Jury indicted Reyes for the murder of Lasswell in 2014, which would start the process of extradition due to him living in Mexico at the time.

The U.S. Marshals Service located Reyes and brought him back to the United States to be arrested Wednesday.

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