SILENT WITNESS
Phoenix police looking for leads in two 2017 murder cases
Jul 25, 2022, 1:00 PM
Michael Randall, left; Josh Jackson (Silent Witness Photos)
(Silent Witness Photos)
This article originally appeared Dec. 11, 2017.
A 75-year-old man was found murdered in the southwest Valley.
“Nobody really knows why he was killed,” Phoenix Police Sgt. Jamie Rothschild said. “That’s why investigators are asking people in the community to help solve this.”
On Oct. 7, 2017, at about 5 a.m., Michael Ray Randall was found dead near his car, a maroon PT Cruiser. Randall was working as a security guard at a construction site near 63rd Avenue and Broadway Road.
“We’re not aware of any other crimes in the area at that time or any motive behind this,” Rothschild said.
Next, we head to north Phoenix where another man’s body was found.
“Josh Jackson’s body was found in a tunnel or culvert near 31st Avenue and Deer Valley Road,” Rothschild said. “He’d been shot several times.”
Jackson, 40, was killed sometime between the evening of July 3 and the afternoon of July 4, 2017.
It’s possible witnesses mistook the gunshots for fireworks.
Jackson lived in the neighborhood and people who knew him described him as kind and helpful.
He had no known enemies.
