By: Chris Caraveo
Twitter: @ChrisCaraveo31

The living family of a man killed in El Mirage 17 years ago finally have some closure now that authorities arrested a suspect due to the technology of today.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety announced a breakthrough in the Richard Lucero cold case Thursday morning.

DPS and the Fresno Police Department in California were the main investigating agencies after the former discovered their prime suspect, Frank Gallas Mendoza, was living in the latter’s jurisdiction.

A fingerprint and DNA later analyzed this year led to the suspect’s identification.

DPS and Fresno authorities arrested Mr. Mendoza Sept. 24. He is currently in custody in California and awaits extradition to Arizona.

What happened?

On Dec. 20, 2001, El Mirage police conducted a welfare check at the residence of Richard Cacero Lucero at the request of a family friend. When officers entered his home they found him dead.

Authorities have not said how Mr. Lucero died.

El Mirage police at the time asked DPS to take over the death investigation due to the latter’s available staffing and resources.

The Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office determined Mr. Lucero’s death was a homicide. The case eventually went cold after DPS exhausted all leads and investigative techniques available at the time.

New technologies arise

Recently, DPS officials reviewed their nine homicide cold cases to determine whether additional evidence could be developed utilizing new technology, such as familial DNA testing.

However, before using that method, detectives determined Mr. Lucero’s case was a prime candidate for current DNA and latent print analysis techniques. Authorities had located latent prints at the murder scene and entered them into the FBI’s Next Generation Identification system.

The find: a record bearing the name of Frank Gallas Mendoza.

An arrest is made

DPS tracked his whereabouts to Fresno. Along with detectives there, DPS zeroed in on Mr. Mendoza’s residence earlier this week and arrested him without incident.

DPS would not say whether Mr. Mendoza had been a suspect in the case at any point in the 17 years since the death.

However, his fingerprints were registered in the national database due to prior arrests.

Mr. Mendoza is expected to be extradited to Arizona to face murder charges.

Family gets closure

Now 17 years later, Mr. Lucero’s mother and sister have since died. His mother had always wanted the case to come to a close.

Felix Jimenez, Mr. Lucero’s brother-in-law, doesn’t appear to have relinquished hope in the case being solved.

“I’m a Catholic. There’s always faith,” he said at a news conference Thursday. “You have to have faith and you have to have hope. And there is always a will. That’s what we stayed with. Justice would be served one way or another.”

Reporter Chris Caraveo  can be reached at ccaraveo@newszap.com.