Authorities in Arizona have arrested a suspected murderer after a car sale turned deadly on Friday night.
Phoenix police found the body of 27-year-old David Navidad-Parra lying on the ground near 43rd Avenue and McDowell at around 9:15 p.m. on Dec. 16. He had been shot to death.
The 27-year-old had been reported missing earlier that night after he was last seen giving a man a test drive of his vehicle during a car sale, police said.
Meanwhile, Glendale first responders responded to a car fire near 91st Avenue and Rose Lane early Saturday morning.
“Preliminary information suggests the found vehicle was involved in the homicide investigation,” police said.
On Dec. 18, Phoenix Police announced that 29-year-old Abel Uribe was arrested in connection to Navidad-Parra’s murder.
Uribe faces first-degree murder and kidnapping charges.
“The fire department was having a really hard time putting out the flames. It looked like obviously the car was tampered with because normally fires go out pretty easy, but this one looked like it was pretty hard to fight,” said a neighbor named Kyle.
He says he stood outside his house and took video of the car engulfed in flames around 4 a.m. Saturday.
“When I heard a noise, it sounded like a popping sound. I stepped out just to make sure somebody wasn’t fumbling in the back of my truck,” he said.
Other neighbors say they saw the car pull up late Friday night and they saw someone sitting inside it for hours.
“We even heard an alarm going off, but we didn’t think anything of it because there’s always cars parking down here, so we didn’t think anything of it,” a neighbor said.
She says she didn’t call police last night, but she wishes she did, after discovering that Phoenix Police and Glendale Police believe the homicide and the burning vehicle are intertwined.
“My son just saw somebody walking in the field and my other son saw him get out. They don’t know who it was. They couldn’t see anything. It was really dark,” she said.
Family and friends were mourning and placing candles and flowers in Navidad-Parra’s memory where he’s suspected to have died.
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