The murder suspect was locked up 26 years after the murder

INDEPENDENT MEDIA

Phoenix Police Department detectives have arrested a man after years of investigating the 1998 homicide of a 28-year-old woman.

On July 9, 1998, Phoenix police officers responded to the shooting of a woman at a home near 14^thousand Street and McDowell Road. Police found Sarah Carr with a gunshot wound in the house. Carr died from her injuries and the case was turned over to homicide detectives.

According to a release from the Phoenix Police Department, the first detectives working the case had a nickname for the suspect, but his identity was unknown.

The homicide investigation was closed until 2016, when detectives from the case were able to identify the suspect as Javier Lorenzano-Nunez, now 58, the release said.

Detectives learned that Lorenzano-Nunez had spent years in California after the murder and had lived in Mexico for the past decade. Working with the Maricopa County District Attorney’s Office, investigators were able to turn the case over, resulting in Lorenzo-Nunez being charged and an arrest warrant issued for murder.

Detectives contacted the US Department of Justice’s Office of Internal Affairs, which worked with law enforcement officials in Mexico to locate and arrest Lorenzano-Nunez. According to the release, the Department of Justice and the U.S. Marshals Service were working to finalize Lorenzo-Nunez’s extradition to Phoenix on Oct. 23.

Phoenix police took Lorenzano-Nunez into custody Wednesday night and he was later arrested on an outstanding warrant for murder, police said.

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