This is the 1000th episode of Silent Witness on KTAR News 92.3 FM. It began with then-Phoenix Police Sgt. Paul Penzone, who is now Maricopa County’s sheriff.

“I feel like that’s where my roots are when it comes to working with the community to solve cases on a much broader scale,” Penzone said when discussing Silent Witness this week. “I think it’s the purest form of what public safety should look like.”

Penzone said public safety is “far more impactful, far stronger” when the community has a chance to help.

He also said victims of unsolved crimes should never be forgotten.

“There is no more pure place to exist than when you sit in a living room with a family member who has lost a loved one, maybe their son or daughter was murdered, or a woman who’s been the victim of a sexual offense, and they are pleading for justice. They’re pleading to know that someone cares,” he said.

The sheriff hasn’t forgotten about many of the cases he helped bring attention to, like the Lynsey Chainhalt murder from 2003.

“She was murdered in just a random violent crime,” he said. “She was driving on the freeway with friends and was gunned down by a car that just chased them through the blocks late in the night.

“The case was never solved. So, I think of her mom and her sister and it still leaves a void because you want to make sure that you’ve done everything you can to help solve that case and bring that terrible person to justice.”

He added, “We’ve solved a lot of cases together, but I think the ones we didn’t solve are the ones that stick with me.”

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