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39 YEARS
Suspect arrested in Phoenix PD’s oldest cold case murder
(Courtesy Phoenix Police Department)
Lachelle “Shelly” Waite
Posted
INDEPENDENT NEWSMEDIA
Thirty-nine years after the murder of 18-year-old Lachelle “Shelly” Waite, a suspect is under arrest.
On Feb. 20, while serving a sentence on an unrelated case, Alfred Earl Green,70, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder after detectives submitted the case to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.
It is the Phoenix Police Department’s oldest cold case homicide arrest, according to a release.
The victim was found dead on Jan. 16, 1986, in her home near 59th Avenue and Thomas Road. Investigators found no forced entry into the house “and believed she knew the suspect to some degree,” the department’s release stated. Personal property was stolen from the home at the time of the murder.
Although police said detectives “had a strong investigative lead at the time,” they didn’t have enough evidence to make an arrest, and the case went cold.
In 2016, detectives with the Phoenix Police Department’s Cold Case Homicide Unit completed a review of the investigation and identified a piece of evidence collected at the scene that could not be processed at the time of the homicide.
The evidence was processed, and after additional advancements in technology, it was submitted for advanced DNA testing in 2022, police said.
“After not giving up on this case for nearly a decade, attempting to locate witnesses, identifying evidence and collecting data, detectives identified . . . Green as the suspect in the homicide,” the release stated.
Lachelle Waite worked in the Maryvale area and was a recent graduate of Maryvale High School where she participated in dance, choir and tutored students.
“I’ve gotten close with Lachelle’s family over the years, and I’ve learned what an amazing person Shelly was,” Detective Dominick Roestenberg. “She was beautiful inside and out. She was caring, kind and had an amazing future ahead of her.”
“Being able to finally let the family know, and also let the community know that after 39 years, we're still working on these cases, trying to get justice for them, for the victims and their families, speaks to what this unit is all about,” Roestenberg said.
We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.
