December 19, 2010

George Camacho says his big sister Laura was a practical joker.

“She was funny, she was pretty loud, she used to play a lot of pranks on my little brother,” he said.

The 15-year-old, one of five children being raised by a single mom, had lots of friends and loved to have a good time.

“She just loved to go down to to my mom and my other sisters,” George said.

Laura had a serious side, too.

“She wanted to finish high school as fast as she could and get a job and help my mom with the house payments and everything,” George said.

She was hoping to be a model and and already done some runway and photography work. Unfortunately Laura’s dreams would never be realized.

“December 10th of 2002, it actually happened right after school,” Phoenix Police Sergeant Darren Burch said, adding that Laura, who went to Summit High School, her sister, brother and her sister’s brother were on the I-10.

“The driver of her car got into a road rage type situation with a suspect vehicle, which was filled with older males,” Burch said, “Twenties up to forties.”

The other car followed them as they exited the freeway at 43rd Avenue and stopped at a light at McDowell.

“The driver stopped, the passenger rolled down the window and fired seven shots, killing Laura Camacho,” Burch said.

Yes, it was back in 2002, but detectives are still hopeful this case can be solved.

“People talk,” Burch said. “That suspect vehicle was filled with four people. Each of those talked to each other, they talked to their friends, their girlfriends, ex-friends, ex-girlfriends.

“So we have seven year’s worth of intelligence out there in our community about this crime.”

George says his sister’s murder devastated the family.

“My mom, for like three to four years straight was in depression,” he said. “She didn’t want to see anybody, talk about anything or nothing, she just wanted to be locked in her room.”

But now she started a Spanish-speaking support group for other parents in similar situations.