Boyfriend Shot Phoenix Woman in Murder-Suicide Due to Jealousy

A woman is dead after being shot by her boyfriend, who then turned the gun on himself, the Phoenix Police Department said.

Sgt. Mercedes Fortune says officers responded to a westside neighborhood in the area of 91st Avenue and McDowell Road in Phoenix, Arizona at approximately 10 p.m. Wednesday after reports of a shooting. Police arrived to find a man and woman, both with gunshot wounds. The man, later confirmed by police as 26-year-old Cristian Galvez Chairez, was pronounced dead at the scene. The woman, confirmed by police as 26-year-old Stephanie Saldana, died at the hospital.

The family of Saldana is still trying to come to grips with the reality that she is no longer here. “Because she didn’t want to unlock her phone, some type of jealous rage came over Cristian,” Stephanie’s older brother Jonathan Esparza said.

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Saldana’s older sister Denise Hermann says Saldana and Chairez had relationship issues. But Denise says Saldana kept most of those issues to herself. “We tried everything with her,” Hermann said. “And it honestly got to the point where it felt like, what more could we do?”

Her loss is another blow to a family that just lost their mother to breast cancer in November. “I can’t explain the pain that we’re feeling right now,” Hermann said. “And it doesn’t feel real. Honestly, I feel like I’m dreaming.”

Denise wants people to remember Saldana as someone who was starting to get her life on the right path. “I just want everybody to remember Stephanie by the loving person that she was,” Hermann said. “She was kind-hearted, always joking, and just wanting to live life to the fullest.”