Episode Transcript
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Hey, True Advocates. Melissa herefrom Navigating Advocacy and this week we are
guest hosting for Eric. Today wewill be discussing the story of Fiona.
You. I am Whitney and thisis True Consequences. We are traveling to
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the town of Tempe, Arizona totell you about the hurri murder of a
college student by the name of Fionau. Tempe has about one hundred and
eighty thousand people in it and thatis according to the twenty twenty census.
It is located in what is knownas the East Valley section of the Phoenix
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metropolitan area. The main campus ofArizona State University is located here, and
the town is described as a densearea that is very urbanized. Tempe Center
for Arts is a state of theart museum that was opened in two thousand
and seven and it has attracted somany tourists. This place has a six
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hundred seat theater, a two hundredseat studio theater, a picturesque two hundred
seat multi purpose space, and athirty five hundred square foot art gallery.
So it's pretty massive. Yeah,this picture you have of timpeelown in this
valley. It looks like it's veryVegas esque if you throw in some trees
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exactly. Yeah, Vegas is veryflat without very many trees, but you
can tell in this picture. It'sscattering of trees with a big hub in
the center but mountains in the background. And what I was thinking though,
is more it's kind of flat,and then there's just these random high rises
in the middle, which is exactlylike the Las Vegas Strip is just these
super tall buildings in the middle ofa desert exactly. This town is larger
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than I thought it would be.I knew of a couple cities within Arizona,
but this one is pretty large.I would think this town is actually
getting their first professional sports team thisyear, and I think it may have
already started. We're getting close tothe end of the year. But it
is the Arizona Coyotes and they movedinto what is called the Mullet Arena.
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Oh gosh. Yeah, Chris andI had went to a mullet festival at
one point in our lives. Andthat's the story for another time. That's
a meet and greet story. Comesee us for at an event and we'll
tell you about them all. Atfestival. Ask me about it. It
was crazy. So just for anyof you sports people out there and had
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not heard of the Coyotes before,they are a National Hockey League team,
which is exciting. But go TampaBay Lightning because that's my faith. Go
Mighty Ducks because that's the only hockeyteam that I really know about. So,
Fiona, you was the oldest childof Cecilia and Philip U. Her
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younger siblings were Samantha, Kevin,and Walter. Samantha and Kevin were actually
twins, been just a few yearsyounger than Fiona. Her parents are Chinese
Americans. They had met in Canadaand then moved in nineteen eighty six to
California, which just happens to bethe year I was born in California.
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Hmm. Fiona was described as thiskind, friendly, innocent, a bit
trusting young woman. She first startedasu Arizona State University. Her friends would
say that she was very shy aroundnew people. They would state she was
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not an outgoing at all, butover her few years at Arizona State she
broke out of her shell. Butthat was by the time of her death.
And it just you see so manypeople get into these environments that they
flourish and they become like their trueself. And that was Fiona at Arizona
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State. She thought Arizona State washer home. She loved it, even
though our parents were back in California. She was like, this is my
home here in Arizona. Over hertime at Arizona State, she became this
silly girl that loved to laugh.She would bring her friend's presence every time
she would go home for her Christmasbreak, just a little nickknacked something so
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that they would know she was thinkingabout them. That is how a person
she was. I know. Fionawas a senior there at Arizona State.
She was studying business and accounting.She's very good at math. Was ready
almost getting close to the time thatshe was going to start her big girl
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job out in the world, andshe would have been the first person in
her family to graduate from college,but she would not make it to that
day. It was August fourth ofnineteen ninety seven, and it was very,
very hot, to say the least. It was a whopping one hundred
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and six degrees. Yes, now, anybody that knows Arizona knows it's a
dry this when it's one hundred andsix, it doesn't matter if it's hot,
dry, wet, it just it'shot. I you're yes, it
is uncomfortably hot. I honestly donot like tempts over one hundred degrees and
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this was one hundred and six.The hottest part of the day was around
four to five o'clock hour in thatafternoon, and this is when the timeline
of Fiona's murder starts. We havea couple different reports of Fiona's last sightings.
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Now they could be different reports,or they might be a slight discrepancy
in the times, which could alsobe All of these are true, just
not at the actual times they thoughtthey happened. One report is that of
a neighbor. His name is David. He saw Fiona riding her bike around
four fifteen PM and it looks asif she was heading to her apartment.
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This person knew Fiona and easily recognizedher, knew she rode her bike a
lot saw her. That was theend of that. The other report came
from law enforcement years later, andthey stated Fiona was working until five pm
at the airs of Arizona State Universitycampus. I think she worked in a
gift shop or a bookstore type ofthing. And then she left on her
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bike. That is her main modeof transportation. She left on her bike
to go home, and her apartmentwas only about a half a mile away.
Nobody really discussed like what Fiona wasdoing that afternoon. It was just
normal. She'd get off at fiveo'clock, she would go to her apartment.
Now, that is the report Itrust the most. It came directly
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from law enforcement. I am thinkingthe initial report of the neighbor could have
been at maybe a five point fifteenmarker, not a four fifteen, and
they still saw her riding her bike. The timeline states that she leaves at
five pm, rides her bike thehalf a mile home. There was one
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stoplight on her route home. Let'sjust say that this light was red and
she had to stop for extra minuteor two. We're talking minutes to get
home. We're not talking thirty minutes. Even fifteen minutes is way too long.
The average time it takes for aperson to ride a half a mile's
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only three minutes. And that's fora normal daily bike rider, which Fiona
was. Yeah, that's a leisurelypace. Also, it's an average pace
for a person that rides a bikedaily. Three minutes, So even if
she had to stop at the stoplight, maybe got distracted for a minute,
we're talking ten fifteen minutes all theway home, no matter what.
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Probably closer to the ten minute mark. When Fiona arrives home, she pulls
her bike into her apartment. Okay, I want to explain her apartment a
little bit. Her apartment is atown home, so there's two stories to
her specific apartment, so she'll pullon on the first floor, but she
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also has an upstairs where there's bedroomsand things like that. She lives in
this town home with a good friendnamed Kazu. Okay, Kazu's not home
at this point, but Fiona pullsit her bike in, takes off her
backpack, leaves it in the frontentryway area. She grabs the community mailbox
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keys and heads out the back doortowards the mailbox. It's a closer route
if she would go out the backdoor versus the front. This is about
a two minute walk. Okay.In this area, you have to remember
it's right off of the campus,right off of University Drive. This is
mainly a place where co eds live. This is college apartments, so it's
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huge apartment complexes all over this areaso that students can live here. So
two minute walk, a neighbor seesher getting her mail and walking back to
her apartment through that same back door. This back door is a sliding glass
door. Fiona makes it back insideher apartment, and then it seems as
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if she went straight upstairs, probablyto her bedroom, and she was attacked
on the landing area in front ofher bedroom and bathroom whatever is upstairs in
her apartment. This is not likea landing area outside her apartment. This
is inside her apartment. Authorities areunsure if the person was either waiting in
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the house upstairs prior to her evengoing to the mailbox, or if they
came in that two minute walk thatshe did while she was at the mailbox,
or if they followed her in aftershe came back. Any of these
options are plausible because that backsliding glassdoor was not function and I'm sure if
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she was just going to the mailbox, she wouldn't have locked it anyways.
But it wasn't working anyway, soanyone could have just opened that door and
walked right in. Fiona's roommate Kazu. She gets home around five thirty okay,
so Remember it's about five ten whenFiona gets home. She takes a
two minute walk to the mailbox,comes back. Maybe we're at five twenty
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ish, but the roommate gets homeat five thirty, so we're talking ten
fifteen minutes max of Fiona being inthis house. After the mail. She
sees Fiona's stuff in the entryway andassumes she's either upstairs in her room or
she's out getting the mail, becausethat's their typical routine. It isn't until
six pm when Kazu's boyfriend calls thelandline phone and she starts getting this bad
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feeling, so she goes answer it, talks to her boyfriend for a minute.
Then she's just, well, Fionashould have been back if she went
to the mail. It's very weirdthat she hasn't heard anything. A town
home, a cheap town home.I'm assuming because it's college students. Yeah,
She's like, I'm gonna go checkon her. So she goes upstairs
and as soon as she gets upstairs, she sees Fiona's body on the land.
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Oh my gosh, I know,can I cannot even imagine? She
fine? And at this point Fionais struggling to survive she is still alive,
though her pants were pulled down andher shirt was completely off. Police
are called right away. Fiona istaken to a local hospital, but unfortunately,
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she is pronounced dead at six fortypm at Tempy Saint Luke's Hospital.
The cause of death was listed asstrangulation and Fiona had been sexually assaulted.
There were various suspects over the years. First, of course, it was
Fiona's boyfriend and they had technically onlybeen broken up for a few days when
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she was murdered. Suspect number onedefinitely, this guy had worked at a
topless bar in Phoenix, and Fiona'sfriends really didn't think he was a good
fit for her. He was outgoing, this outgoing dude. They said he
was a little creepy. But heends up being in a documentary and he
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doesn't seem like this overly swave debonairdute. He just seems like a dorky
guy that I can totally see Fionaliking. Yeah, he didn't seem weird
to me. That's his years laterwhen he's doing the documentary. So he
was out of the state. Hewas visiting his mom when everything went down.
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Police still thought that he could havepossibly caught a red eye flight in
and out of Arizona just to securethis alibi. However, he was very
willing to help authorities and even flewback from vicit and his mother early so
he could talk to police and hewould eventually be cleared by DNA. That
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documentary that I said he was apart of, it's on Amazon Prime.
It's called Murder Reopened. And youcan honestly see a smile on his face
whenever he's talking about Fiona, justlike these like memories coming back to him
and she was so silly, Andit's kind of cute when you can still
see that light in his emotion allthese years. Yes, was their breakup?
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Sorry to interrupt, but was therebreakup mutual? Did it say?
Was it a did they get ina huge fight? Like why would I
understand that they would take him onas the first suspect, because that's always
the husband or the boyfriend. Butit wasn't a huge breakup. I believe
she broke up with him, though, is what I read in one report.
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No, just your normal college Hey, this isn't working out. They
didn't even go out very long.It was a few weeks a month or
two at tops. It wasn't thiscrazy thing at all. He was actually
interrogated by police obviously four hours andhe almost missed Fiona's funeral, and in
the documentary he talks about how upsethe was about almost missing it, and
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he was stressed he wouldn't be ableto make it there in order to have
that chance to say goodbye, becausehe really did care for her at that
time. The other people that werelooked into were these two teenagers. About
a month after Fiona's murder, asixteen year old named Derek Wood and a
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seventeen year old named Lee Comier Juniorwere arrested on charges of attempted murder,
sexual assault, and other felonies aftertwo other Arizona State students were attacked on
campus, sixteen and seventeen year old. I have a sixteen year old.
This is absolutely mind boggling that thesetwo kids, two children, would go
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out and do what they did.So one of the women were attacked in
her home. She lived in avery large apartment complex, just like Fiona.
She was swimming in the community pooland they had followed her back to
her apartment and attacked her. Thenthere was another one that was in a
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dorm room building, so this wason campus. The boys had knocked on
the dorm room and a girl openedit and they did this blitz style attack
by charging her. The bigger ofthe two charged her, started strangling her,
and then they sexually assaulted her.Luckily, both of these women survived.
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The one that lived in the dormroom. She was a seventeen year
old sophomore in Couche. The brazennessthe audacity of these two is ridiculous.
So they both survived. So theywere able to give police a description of
the two and they were arrested prettysoon after these incidences. This is identical
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to the mo of Fiona. Theywere asu female students. This happened in
broad daylight, attacked in their ownhome, which happened to be large apartment
dorm style buildings. The victims werestrangled and then essexually assaulted. These all
of these attacks were located half amile from each other within a month or
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two period. Absolutely insane. Theywould be prime suspect Numero uno in my
life. Yeah, one percent,one hundred percent, number one. Everything
is pointing to this guys, butDNA does not met They were fortunate enough
to collect a substantial amount of DNAfrom Fiona, and these two kids did
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not match. They did, however, go away for a very long time
for what they did to the otherwomen. I'm going to talk about a
possible witness that might actually be aperson of interest. After researching this,
watching various documentaries, all of thearticles I read this seemed weird. Now,
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maybe it's me because I'm suspicious allthe time of everyone. But tell
me what you think. I'm goingto tell you what happened with this witness.
So this was a local maintenance man. He would be doing the maintenance
for a few different apartment complexes rightaround where Fiona lived, and he was
the maintenance man for Fiona's apartment aswell. He was across the street at
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around this time that Fiona was murdered, and he states that a person came
out of Fiona's apartment and he describedthis person, oh, possibly six foot
blackmail. But that's really it,very very vague. No age, no
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weight, nothing like that is veryvague. He said he saw this person
coming out of Fionda's apartment and hehad never seen someone come out of Fiona's
apartment before, so he thought itwas weird, and he knew Fiona lived
in this apartment. He's seen arid bike. We thought it was weird
that he hadn't seen anyone, somade a mental note, Oh, that's
weird that this guy's coming out.This guy's looking around, and then he's
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walking away. But it isn't untilthirty minutes later that the police are at
Fiona's apartment complex, obviously roping itoff, and he sees the police there,
so he goes over right then totell police what he saw and he
said, hey, I thought itwas weird that this guy was coming out
of her apartment. This is avague description of what he looks like.
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And that was that police never reallylooked into him or didn't think that he
was a suspect. But it's weirdto me that he would take notice,
first of all, at a collegeapartments with a guy coming out, and
so much noticed that he'd be like, oh, that's weird that he's coming
out of that apartment, and letme go tell police. And in his
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interview he stated Fiona was cute andI'm sure he would want to get him
one of them, I think,is what he said. I felt this
was extremely weird. It's a collegeapartment, there's people coming and going,
probably at all times of the dayand night. Yeah, I thought that
was strange. That is very strange. Obviously not pointing fingers and police know
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obviously a lot more than we alldo, but it does seem suspicious.
I would assume police have cleared himin some way, considering he did insert
himself into the investigation. Is notalways people that do that, that insert
themselves into the investigation always throw mefor a loop. Either you have extreme
confidence you are this uber narcissistic styleof person that really just wants some sort
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of attention. Even the criminals thatdo it, like serial killers that want
to be a part of the investigationbecause they think that at some sort of
control aspect always just boggles my mind. I agree, I would stay far
away as possible, but it seemslike this happens, and possibly that vague
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description is to throw police off.Very true, and maybe because you can
read literally every emotion on my face. I do not have a poker face.
I clearly would not be good atinserting myself into any sort of investigation.
If I was a part of it, I would be like, I'm
sorry, I did it, itwas me same. I would start my
story that I came up within myhead, my lot, my alibi,
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my motive, and literally they'd belike, do you want some water?
And then I would confess everything automaticallyif they didn't already, because I'm sweating
bullets or foaming at the mouth,I feel like something would have happen like
that. So with a bit moredigging about Arizona State University, I was
able to find out that there wasactually a stalker on campus around this same
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time, and they were targeting Asianwomen. This just sounds like not a
safe campus at this point in time. So a man would target these female
students on campus while he was drivingaround in his blue compact car and he
would pull over next to the womentell them that he had a gun and
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that they needed to get into hiscar. Sometimes he'd be like you have
to have sex with me, orhe'd say like these random things to them,
highly offensive. Nobody ever actually sawa gun, though, but he'd
always state that he had a gun. Luckily, because he was in his
car and they were not, theywere able to flee and make it to
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safety and where they would go reportthis. They were not injured, for
at least the ones that came forwardwere not. Now how many times did
he do this? Did anyone actuallyget in the car and just we're never
seen again? How many times thingsjust do not get reported? Who knows
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how many times this actually happened.All of these attempted abductions occurred between at
nine pm and midnight and all aroundthat University Drive, which was right around
where Fiona was killed. This manwas described as a white male in his
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thirties, a skinny frame, andsometimes he would have facial hair and sometimes
he Men do look so different ifthey have a beard and don't have a
beard. But they wanted people tobe on the lookout for everything. They
ended up finding this guy. Hisname was Thomas Floyd Phelps, and he
told police that he stalked up totwenty women and he had this sexual addiction.
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He was arrested and charged for aslew of things and never anything to
do with Fiona though, And thepolice did say that they pulled out her
picture and was like, okay,what about her? Did you stalk her?
He didn't make any type of reaction. He was just like no,
And they don't believe he had anythingto do with it. Prior to him
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being arrested, every time they wouldtalk about this stalker in the newspaper,
Fiona's name would be mentioned and they'dbe like, this also happened. Fiona
was Asian, this could be connected. However, after he was arrested,
not one mention in anything I couldfind had Fiona's name attached to it,
which I thought was weird as well, like why are we grouping her with
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these women that were stalked prior tothis? But then after he's arrested,
we no longer there's no connection obviouslythey I mean, I would hope they
know something that we don't know.And he's definitely not a suspected The whole
stalking thing happened in early nineteen ninetyeight, and it was mid nineteen ninety
seven when Fiona was murdered, SoI mean, that's close enough, and
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by mind timeline wise, I wouldagree. At this point, the Arizona
State students they had enough, itwas dangerous. This is really dangerous on
campus, and they started protesting allof these unsafed conditions on and around the
campus. There had been a murder, multiple sexual assaults, a dozen attempted
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kidnappings, and a lot of thesepeople, a lot of them were still
unsolved at this point or they werestarting to figure our things out. The
entire campus was on edge, andfemale students could no longer walk alone,
even in broad daylight. Oh my, yes, these protests were called take
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back the Day. It was allabout fighting back against violence. This one
student said something along the lines ofthey want us to be more careful.
That is putting the burden on thewomen. And here we go with the
victim blameing. I know, Oh, if they were just paying attention.
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Oh, if they kept their headup, knew their surroundings, if they
didn't walk alone, or how aboutthese vile human beings that think it's okay
to take what they want from anotherperson, they just didn't do that,
everything would be safer. Yeah,how about these assholes just keep to themselves
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instead of murdering people or stealing peopleor all the gross things that these stupid
people do. Exactly, I'm like, let's not put like that girl said,
let's not put the burden on thepeople that are just trying to get
an education. Let's put it onput the burden on the cyclepaths that are
doing this on the daily. Soif you've listened to us before, you
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know we cover unsolved cases. Soyes, Fiona's case is an unsolved or
is an unsolved murder. However,there has been some amazing updates in this
case because of DNA. In twentyseventeen, two decades after Fiona's murder,
investigators used Parabond Nano Labs, whichis a company that specializes in DNA phenotyping.
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They were able to predict a bunchof characteristics of Fiona's murderer. This
included eye color, hair color,skin color, freckles, face shape.
This is insane what DNA is comingup with. This is like Bones level
stuff. All I can think ofis Angela from Bones creating a face on
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her computer. That's what this is. This is what this is, and
it's so exciting. So they tookthe DNA that they found on Fiona and
they were able to produce a compositebased on the information they gathered. Some
obviously very smart people are creating thisamazing change. This is going to This
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is a game changer. I dobelieve in the next decade or two people
will not be able to just murderrandom people and get away with it.
They won't not with this type oftechnology now with science, so this testing
is getting so precise, or maybethe right word is detailed. They were
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able to tell at the time ofthe crime, this man that killed Fiona
was believed to have looked or beenin the age range of twenty five years
old and he had a body massindex of twenty two. I see that
they can tell your if you're leanor not. Yep, that is freaky
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to me. They were able totell like his size based on this based
on the composite from the DNA,investigators are looking for a Hispanic male,
so approximately forty five years old,but that was back in twenty seventeen,
so we're talking about fifty years oldnow. He has brown eyes, black
hair. And get this matches thedescription of another assault that happened right around
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the same time as Fiona's and closeby her apartment, another sexual assault that
obviously wasn't linked to any of theother people that were like stalking all the
humans around there at that time.Wow. Yes, so where is this
guy new? Good question? Becausehe was young then he could definitely still
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be alive. Even though it's beentwo and a half decades since Fiona's murder.
For today's call of action, thecomposit will be shared on our social
medias. Will you please share it? Getting this image out there will make
such a difference in this case.Have they taken this composite and done an
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age progression? I did not readthat they had done that but yet,
but they really should consider that.And or since they do have this DNA
and already have the phenotype report,surely they could match it to JED match
exactly, I wonder. I'm surethey've done that too. Or it's in
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a line. There's a long waitlistfor a lot of these things. Yes,
exactly, it might be, Butthis is one that we really could
be solved, considering we know prettymuch everything about this dude. Yes,
please share the composite because this isa possible serial rapist murderer still could be
out there wandering the streets. Wehave no idea. Fiona's family, her
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parents, and her siby have beenthrough so much and they deserve to know
what happened to their shy, sillyFiona. If anyone has any information,
please call the Tempe Police Department nonemergency line at four eight zero three five
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zero eight three one one or theSilent Witness at four eight zero nine,
four eight six three seven seven.I love that Arizona has that Silent Witness
program. I know it's comparable toCrime Stoppers, but it just seems I
don't know, different, just grownup with and you just feel like,
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what good is that gonna do.It's just crime Stoppers. Not that it's
not a good organization. It's agreat organization for what they do. It
just seems sal It Witness sounds sostate of the art and fancy when crime
Stoppers is what we've always had.Yes, I don't know, it's just
nice to see something different. Itmakes me feel like there's more resources out
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there than a lot of people think. I agree. I agree, yeah,
that there's more people out there tryingto help and get these cold cases
salved. Yes, because hers isI do believe it's going to be solved
because of the DNA DNA you knowme. I'm like, it's it's getting
hit every time right the way theworld, Like you said before, much
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longer. I even now, Idon't think that you will be able to
get away with murder, with mostcrimes with the technology that we have now,
the cameras, the camera technology alone, no way. Yeah, everything
is on video these days. Everyonehas surveillance, everyone has a ring doorbell,
everyone has a cell phone at alltimes, and people aren't afraid to
record anymore. Exactly, people recordeverything. Point in case, we almost
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died on a boat this summer andsomeone was recording us instead of helping us
get ashore. Yeah, exactly,there's always one person that thinks about recording
first for saving their lives, precisely. But yes, that is Arizona.
Wow, that was so much crimein that one little area during that time
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period and is unbelievable. Or ona college campus the majority of it.
Wow, how did people send theirkids to school? Then? I do
not have a clue, but it'svery weird. Just trying to google what
went on at Arizona State during thattime period, and you can't google it.
I'd had to go into archive thenewspapers to get the information. Thanks
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for listening and stay safe, NewMexico.