Arrest made in connection with 2023 murder of Tempe woman

PHOENIX — An arrest has been made in connection to the murder investigation around Mercedes Vega, a 22-year-old Tempe woman who was killed in April 2023.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office announced on Monday they arrested 22-year-old Sencere Hayes in connection with the homicide. 

Hayes was arrested on November 11 in Tennessee. The MCSO says it’s working with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office to get Hayes extradited back to Maricopa County.

What else is known about the Vega investigation?

Vega’s body was located in a vehicle on fire outside of Tonopah on April 17, 2023 at around 12:30 a.m., according to a Silent Witness poster.

Media accounts citing the medical examiner report said the cause of death was smoke inhalation and burns. But there also were signs of blunt force trauma, a gunshot injury and bleach in her throat.

Vega’s family has been seeking answers since the loss of their daughter. Very little other information about Vega’s death had been released but the family believed it had some knowledge prior to the event.

Pillsbury joined KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Chris and Joe Show on July 16 and said she believed her daughter’s murder could be connected to a robbery she endured three years before her death.

The robbery took place in October 2020 outside a Phoenix apartment complex where Vega was living.

“She was held at gunpoint and shoved to the ground and her life was threatened,” Pillsbury said.

Pillsbury said Vega was so traumatized by the incident she refused to return to the her apartment.

“I couldn’t even walk behind her without her falling to her knees and crying because she was so terrified,” Pillsbury said.

Pillsbury mentioned the potential robbery connection to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, but investigators told her there was no link.

“When the police came to our house and asked us three or four questions … they said, ‘Did Mercedes own a gun? Was she right- or left-handed? Did she have any reason to be in Tonopah, Arizona? And they took her address. That was it,” Pillsbury said.

Another agency recently reached out to Vega, but not about the murder case.

“I received a call from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, about a month ago, asking to speak to my dead child, who’s been dead for over a year, and — to tell her that the man who held her at gunpoint is going to trial,” Pillsbury said.

The investigation into the murder remains ongoing.