Post by Scumhunter on Mar 24, 2015 0:38:04 GMT -5
(left: Rebecca Gonzales, right: Sophia Abril credit: fox10Phoenix.com)
It's a valley cold case that has a victim's family still waiting for justice more than a dozen years without any arrests.
Now Silent Witness is offering a reward, hoping to finally solve the case.
Rebecca Gonzales and Sophia Abril - just 18 and 22-years-old respectively number among the countless victims whose killers remain at large long after their tragic murders showed up in the headlines.
"She was a beautiful girl..she was joyful always laughing..she had a beautiful laugh," said Tillie Abril, Sophia's grandmother.
The Abril family still waits for the day they can have some kind of closure from Grandma Tillie to Christina Armenta, Sophia's cousin.
"I was in shock..I was 18..we were real close..we were together everyday and probably would have been together that night," said Armenta.
It was Thanksgiving weekend 1998 when two men opened fire for no aparent reason on the women in their west Phoenix apartment in the early morning hours.
Vague descriptions of the men exist, but no hard leads.
Now Silent Witness is giving the family new hope that this cold case can be solved and the men responsible thrown in jail.
"God knows what else they're doing, if they can take two lives, two women's lives for obviously nothing, they didn't take anything except their lives..then these people should not be on the street," said Carmen Abril, Sophia's mother. "It's just like it happened last week..it's still fresh and
I still miss her, I do think of her every day. She was a human being, not an animal you know, a beautiful girl..her life had to be taken at that age and she was at the prime of her life."
The Abril family believes someone must have seen or heard something.
There is a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest or indictment. TIPLINE: 480-WITNESS
Before I get to asking for thoughts the following are descriptions of the suspects:
Suspect #1 Hispanic Male, 5’6, 195 lbs, shaved head, goatee, and light complexion
Suspect #2 Hispanic Male, 5’7, 140 lbs, short black hair.
Ok, as far as thoughts, those vague descriptions are part of the problem. It is rather baffling why anybody would want to kill Rebecca and Sophia, making me wonder if this was a case of mistaken identity.
I am surprised that, to the best of my knowledge, this case was never been on AMW.
www.fox10phoenix.com/story/18126182/reward-offered-for-double-murder-information
www.silentwitness.org/Pictures/Abril,%20Sophia%20Homicide%201998.pdf
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