SILENT WITNESS

Tattoos could be key to 2016 Phoenix murder; child molestation case from that year also unsolved

Oct 9, 2024, 1:00 PM

Tattoos silent witness...

Three suspects in a 2016 Phoenix murder case concealed their faces but they didn't disguise their tattoos. (Silent Witness Photo)

(Silent Witness Photo)

This article originally appeared Oct. 10, 2016.

A surveillance video may be the key to solving a murder.

“It’s so rare in a homicide that we have evidence like videos or photos,” Phoenix Police Sgt. Jamie Rothschild said. “We know that three armed suspects tried to get into a home near 21st Street and Indian School Road.”

It happened just after 2 a.m. on Aug. 11, 2016. Michael Walls, 60, was home and tried to stop the intruders from getting inside. It cost him his life. He was shot.

All three suspects were concealing their faces but they didn’t disguise their tattoos.

“One of the suspects had a distinctive sunburst style on the right shoulder, a possible tribal band around his right bicep and a distinctive tattoo of some kind on his right elbow,” Rothschild said.

“That’s where we need the public’s help identifying the tattoos which will lead us to the suspects.”

Read more about this case here.


Our next case involves a child molester.

His victims, a 5-year-old and a 7-year-old, were playing in their backyard near 11th and Dunlap avenues on Sept. 27, 2016 at 3:45 p.m.

“He started to talk to them then ended up jumping over the wall,” Rothschild said. “He exposed himself and hugged one of the victims before jumping back over the wall and fleeing on a bicycle.”

He’s a dark-skinned white male between 25 and 35. He’s about 6 feet tall and has a thin build and dark, curly hair, a mustache and goatee. He also wears eye glasses. He had a black backpack with him.

Police want this guy caught so your kids are safe to play in their own yard.

Read more about this case here.

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Tattoos could be key to 2016 Phoenix murder; child molestation case from that year also unsolved