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Angel #333 /// Part 2 /// 799
00:47:22
Angel #333 /// Part 2 /// 799 Part 2 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com In the early morning hours of Monday, April 17, 2023 around 12:30 a.m., the Department of Public Safety received a 9-1-1 call of a vehicle on fire on interstate 10 outside of Tonopah, Arizona. The Fire Department extinguished the fire and found 22-year-old Mercedes Vega inside deceased. This vehicle fire quickly became a homicide investigation. If you have any information regarding this case you may contact Silent Witness at 480-948-6377 / 480-WITNESS, or 480-T-E-S-T-I-G-O for Spanish speaking. You can leave a anonymous tip at www.SilentWitness.org Beer of the Week - Ghoulish Delights from Stone Brewing Garage Grade - 5 out of 5 bottle caps More True Crime Garage can be found on Patreon and Apple subscriptions with our show - Off The Record. Catch dozens of episodes of Off The Record plus a couple of Bonus episodes and our first 50 when you sign up today. Follow the show on X and Insta @TrueCrimeGarage ...
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- [00:00]
A
High5 casino lets you play your favorite slot and live table games like blackjack. With the chance to redeem for real cash prizes. High Five Casino has a giant selection of over 1200 games, including hundreds of exclusive games only found on High Five Casino. It's always free to play and free coins are given out every four hours. Ready to have your own High five moment? Visit high five casino.com that's high the number five casino.com no purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law. Must be 21 years or older. Terms and conditions apply. Welcome to True Crime Garage wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick, and with me, as always, is a man who knows that Orenthal James was a mighty bad man.
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B
Here is the captain, baddest man in this whole damn town. It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.
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A
Today we are still sipping on the fantastic brew from Stone Brewing called Ghoulish Delights. This is a dark lager with maple syrup and oak and was inspired by German styles like Marsden and Dunkel. A very special shout out to and cheers to Stone Brewer, Ashley Collins and all of the hard working folks at Stone Brewing. This beer is described as malty, roasty and toasty and delicious garage grade 5 out of 5 bottle caps. And here's some roasty and toasty friends of ours, big shout out to Paul Sadowski in Middleton, Wisconsin and a big.
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B
We like your jib to Melody in Riverside, California.
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A
Next up, here's a cheers to Ann Paul in Annapolis, Maryland and a big.
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B
Shout out to Jen from nyc.
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A
And here's a cheers to Louisiana in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. And last but certainly not least, we have Kaylee from Okinawa, Japan. Everybody we just mentioned, they went to truecrimegarage.com and helped us out with this week's beer fund. And for that we thank you.
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B
Yeah, BW Double ruin beer run. If you need more True Crime Garage for your balls, and you know you do, make sure you sign up for True Crime Garage on Patreon or Apple subscription if you're on the Apple app. All you have to do is hit subscribe and there you go. Bingo. Boingo. And that's enough of the business.
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A
All right, everybody gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. Wait for me.
- [03:23]
B
Wait for me.
- [03:40]
A
We discussed the situation that took place in the parking garage or the suspected situation that took place in the parking garage. We have poor Mercedes Vega here who was abducted in this parking garage, we're told by police eventually that that's where they believe that this went down, and they have something telling them that. And we'll go through those possibilities as we get to it. But. But we have her car that's missing. That's another great mystery of this case. The vehicle. Her vehicle is eventually found. She was driving a 2019 white Dodge Charger. This vehicle is later found abandoned outside of a restaurant near first street and Farmer Avenue. This is in Tempe, Arizona. So Vega's car is found abandoned and parked illegally. This is not far from her apartment complex. So we have a couple of things that are taking place here, Captain, and we know this based off of where she's found in the vehicle information and vehicles being used in the commission of this murder. Her vehicle is moved. We're told that the abduction took place in the. In the parking garage. She's found in a vehicle that doesn't belong to her many, many miles away. What we cannot say is how did they transport her out of the parking garage? And I know that I'm already saying they, but when you have this kind of movement with vehicles and you have an abduction that takes place in a parking garage in a public place, all I can keep thinking about here, Captain, is that it makes more sense. And it's so much easier to do these horrible evil acts if you have two people working in unison together to carry out this horrific murder.
- [05:31]
B
Well, because you have to move the victim and you also have to move the car.
- [05:35]
A
So some of the physical evidence that we're going to find at the parking garage is a statement by her. Her family that is saying they had to get this information from police. They're saying she was hit over the head because there was tissue and blood found in the parking garage. And based off of the surveillance footage that we have of her walking into the parking garage, her car being moved, transported to this other location, this feels to me a lot like what I suspected happened in the Jennifer Kessie case in Florida many years before this case. Right. Jennifer Kessie's case. She lives in what was supposed to be a nice apartment in a nice area parking garage. I believe that she was attacked on her way to her vehicle, intercepted before she could get in that vehicle or pulled out of it at some point. Here we have a very similar situation because we are seeing and being told that there is physical evidence that says the attack took place in the garage. Could it be police would actually go on and add clarification to this later? They think Based off of blood evidence that they found in the garage and on her vehicle that was later recovered, that she very likely had approached her vehicle. Her back was turned to the assailant or assailants. And that suggests to me that she's attempting to get into her car.
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B
Right.
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A
And the. And these cowards attack her from behind.
- [07:07]
B
Well, but because we know where the victim was found, because we know where the victim's car was found, it makes you wonder how much surveillance footage law enforcement has that they're just not sharing with the public.
- [07:20]
A
You are so spot on going to that point right here in our coverage of the case, because one thing that's perplexed me, amongst other things in this case, is that they, being law enforcement, have said they've never released it, but they've said that we have surveillance footage of her car being parked there illegally.
- [07:42]
B
Makes me wonder, too, if we have any form of DNA evidence. I know we have some gloves. So if the gloves were left by the killer, then he wore those gloves. So they'd have touch DNA evidence inside the gloves. Unless he doused those gloves and bleach.
- [08:02]
A
Yeah. Or the fire, the heat. It doesn't even have to be the fire itself. It could be the heat. And also the water, the water pressure coming out of those fire hoses and whatever they use to extinguish those flames on the vehicle very likely disrupted and destroyed and contaminated a lot of the physical evidence that they probably suspected that they would find potentially in the vehicle or on the victim herself. The problem is with this vehicle being a salvage title, it's. It would be different if it were her vehicle. It would be different if it was the suspect's vehicle. You would expect to find a lot more evidence, physical evidence, in those situations. This is a situation, Captain, where the perpetrator, perpetrators, and the victim may have only been in this vehicle for a very, very short period of time.
- [08:56]
B
Yeah, I'd. I would start looking for individuals that were similar in age to her.
- [09:01]
A
Yes.
- [09:02]
B
If.
- [09:03]
A
Thank you.
- [09:03]
B
If not, maybe a hair older.
- [09:05]
A
Thank you. And look, it's so difficult to try to crawl into the minds of these monsters here and figure out who they are, why they did what they did, or why they. They carried out the crime in the manner that they did. But I can't shake the fact. I shouldn't say fact because it's not a fact. I cannot shake the idea, the suspicion that I have, that the perpetrators of this horrible crime are probably younger folks and probably similar in age. She was in her early 20s. I would suspect that these, whoever did this to her, probably about that same age, early 20s, mid-20s, somewhere in that neighborhood. Now, one thing that I think it's been talked about, we're not going to be the first to have to have talked about this, but this case is discussed and there's plenty of articles about the case. But one thing that I don't think that comes through and is actually not even presented in most of the articles is police have somewhere to start their investigation. It may have taken them a bit of time to connect these dots, but if you go back in time to October of 2020, Mercedes Vega was, she was horribly attacked back then. And so you have to look at that. And while we cannot say that they're 100% connected, it would stand a reason that there is no connection at all.
- [10:39]
B
What information do you have on that attack?
- [10:41]
A
So until you can, can you clear this, you have to say there's a possibility. So here's what we have. October 12, 2020. This is from police and court records. This is early morning hours. It's in the 4 o'clock hour, 4am hour. Mercedes is getting home from her shift at the gentleman's club that she was working at the time. Now I want to be perfectly clear here. The apartment that she's living in in 2020 is not the same apartment that she lived in when she was abducted in 2023, right? So she's arriving at home, she pulls into the parking lot, she gets out of her vehicle and a man wearing a mask and gloves points a gun at her, demanding her her keys, her handbag and her phone threatens her life and throws the poor young lady down on the ground viciously, so violently that when she reports this, she still has gravel, you know, like we talk about road rash or whatever, but she still has the gravel from the parking lot like sticking to her back when reporting this. And she is visibly shaken, she is terrified, she's scared beyond all. Get out here. And her family has talked openly about this attack as well. And they say look after, after this went down, this guy's wearing a mask. The, our poor victim here has no clue who did this to her. But they took her belongings, her personal belongings, likely her identification that would have been in her handbag along with the keys to her vehicle and her cell phone. So they have her personal information. She never goes back to that apartment ever again, ever. Not after reporting the crime. She never returns to that apartment or that parking lot simply out of fear.
- [12:49]
B
And so there be so much trauma there. But that to me Feels like a. A robbery. This, her murder case, doesn't feel like a robbery gone bad.
- [13:02]
A
No. Because it's. It appears that it's violent right away. Right. Because it's. It's a. It's not just violence right away to hurt and harm her, but it's hurt and harm her with the. The intent of abducting her and moving her elsewhere. Which really shows me and tells me that it's very likely that they had to hurt and harm her to make it easier for them to abduct her and move her elsewhere.
- [13:29]
B
And like you said, law enforcement shows up to her apartment. We. We find some kind of evidence that there's an attack that happens in the garage. So I'm guessing that there's blood and stuff in the garage, but also blood on her car. It just makes you wonder, why. Why would they move her car? Because you don't need to move her car to abduct her and kill her.
- [13:51]
A
You don't. But maybe you're hoping that. Maybe you're hoping that at the very least, that detectives will not be able to know that she was abducted from the parking garage. Because try to think about it from the criminal's angle. If she is targeted, the criminal, the abductor and killer are going to her parking garage because they know that there's a high probability that that's where they can find her and abduct her from. But if. If you don't. So. So what that means is, as the perpetrator, you are now on a shorter list of people who could have conducted this crime. Why? Because that means you have to be in the know of where she lived and where she parked her car. You can't say that any Bob, Tom, and James off the street would know where this person lived. They might know where she dances, they might know where she works, but they may not know. They likely wouldn't know where she lived, where she parked her car. And so what? This is suggestive to me, moving the vehicle? Again, you're putting yourself at risk, but you're doing that because you're trying to stage the scene of the crime of the abduction and set it up in a way that maybe the detectives can't figure out, that she was abducted in that parking garage. And that opens up a whole other list of possibilities which would then carry itself to a whole other list of potential suspects. So let's go back to that 2020 attack. What happens here is Mercedes Vega. She's no dummy. She starts noticing. Look, I'm on some of the apps that I use. There's activity on some of the apps that I was using. And in at least one case, she can tell that someone is trying to transfer money out of one of her accounts. And this. This guy is a dummy, however, because guess whose account he's trying to put it into? His own. I mean, come on. Come on, Cracker Jack, why don't you. Can you come up with a better plan here? So she goes to police and she's. She. She. God bless her. After this horrible attack happened to her in 2020, like, she didn't just want to get the guy busted. She. She moved elsewhere. She had to change her whole life. And her parents say, like, she almost. It was almost like she was starting over because she had to up and move abruptly. She had to. She had to change her routes. She changed where she worked and things of that nature. But she doesn't want to just get the guy busted who. Who scared her, who hurt her, who stole her, stole from her. She tells the police, like, I'm willing to work with you morning, noon and night on this because I want to help other people. I don't want this. This guy to do this to anybody else. So she's. She goes to police and says, look at this activity. This person is trying to get my money out of my account and trying to put it into his. So police take that information, and it leads right to the doorstep of the perpetrator.
- [17:11]
B
Got it?
- [17:12]
A
Well, we can't say that he perpetrated the robbery on her 100%, but we know the result. Right. The robber took her personal belongings along with her phone. So I'm assuming here that this person, somebody is using her phone to get into these accounts and attempt to move things.
- [17:31]
B
Right.
- [17:32]
A
This leads them to a person named Cujo Young. And I want to spell that because I'm likely saying the first name wrong. It's probably Cudjoe Young. It's C, U, D, J, O, E.
- [17:47]
B
Last name, Young, last name, but Licker.
- [17:50]
A
We know that this attack and robbery on her takes place mid October 2020. Let's fast forward one month to mid November 2020. This is when another dancer at the same club that Vega was working at was targeted. Just one month later, according to records, a woman was getting home to her Scottsdale apartment very nearby. Not far around 3:45am she's approached by a man at gunpoint. Then a vehicle or a passerby stumbles into the area, and this man gets spooked and runs off. We can't say for certain that it's the same crime. But doesn't it sound very similar? We have two people that worked at the same, at the same establishment and both are attacked when they return to their apartments in the middle of the night. A gun. A gun is used in both situations. Yeah.
- [18:45]
B
And you would think that because of her profession, she's probably carrying cash.
- [18:50]
A
Exactly. And here's the thing we talked earlier about these businesses, most of them, the good ones anyway, they're being escorted to their, the people that work there are being escorted to their cars. And oftentimes it's not just, it's not just dancers, it's waitresses and bartenders and everybody involved, they're being escorted usually by a very large, incapable security guy. I tell you what, I got thrown out of one of these establishments one night and I was through no wrongdoing of my own, just a complete misunderstanding, you know, and, but I'll tell you this, Captain, I was very happy that they didn't result to violence to get me out of there because it. One punch is all it would have taken. You should have seen the size of these guys. They were mountains, I tell you. So that's what she said. These. If you're going to attempt to rob one of these young ladies or a bartender or whomever coming out of one of these joint, you ain't going to do it in the parking lot at one of these joints. And like you said, this is a, is primarily a cash industry. And why would one would somebody work at this establishment? For the same reason I used to bartend. One of the best parts of it was you got to leave usually with a good stack of cash at the end of a busy night. People can target these type of people and it doesn't take a sophisticated criminal to target these persons.
- [20:15]
B
Well, like you said, you could have the idea. Well, these ladies are leaving with a lot of cash. I'm going to rob one of them. Okay, well I'm going to do it right after they leave work. Oh, they're being escorted out. I can't do it here. Okay. I need to follow them home. And that's what happens twice.
- [20:33]
A
This Cudjoe Young is picked up. Mercedes Vega picks him out of a photo lineup. This is in December of 2020. And let's keep in mind he's also charged at the same time with another armed robbery. And let's go a step further. Records show that Young was seen inside of the gentleman's club following the robberies.
- [20:58]
B
Right.
- [20:59]
A
So he's going into this. So he has a Direct tie to this gentleman's club.
- [21:04]
B
Yeah, but it makes sense. You go into the club, you see which girl is working more. You can see the dollars being thrown. And then you pick out your victim and you follow them home.
- [21:15]
A
And unfortunately, he. He posts bond. Posted bond on both of these cases and he gets let out. Now, we should point out a few things here. He's out on bond at the time of Mercedes Vega's death in April of 2023 at the time of her murder. What gets a little difficult here. So he. So he's out and could have potentially committed this murder. But what gets difficult here is there, there are records, there are court records that show that he may have had an ankle monitor at the time.
- [21:50]
B
Right. So they would be able to track his movements. But you would. But good suspect nonetheless because one, he's capable of the crime. And on top of that, it probably wouldn't be too hard if he's been a customer before, to figure out where she lives. You know, he knows somebody that knows somebody and gives them information. Doesn't even know that this guy robbed her in the first place. But maybe the idea is, well, if I get rid of her, she can't identify me. And that's all they really have. So I won't be charged and I won't go to jail.
- [22:25]
A
Here to back up some of this information, this is from News 12 or 12 News. They are on record saying that they have confirmed that Cudjoe Young was wearing an ankle monitor in April of 2023. And that ankle monitor did provide GPS information. So if he's the perpetrator and they've not connected that dot, he either figured out a way to get out of that monitor or because it would track his movements. Now, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said, well, when asked if they've investigated potential links between the robberies and this homicide, the they did say, we will not comment on this or any other possible connections at this, at this point. But let's go to April 13th of 2023. So this is days before the abduction and murder. Court records there show that Young's attorney filed a disclosure notice that a man named. And I'm going to go air quotes here, George. So we don't know if this is a real name, fake name, what have you. But in this filing, names a air quotes George, who was going to be testifying at the robbery trial. Because. Cut. Joe Young is saying that this George character is the person that threatened him and which then forced him to commit armed robberies no last name for George is given. And then as we know, sadly, four days later is when Mercedes Vega is found dead. But a couple things to consider here with these robberies. I'm not talking about the abduction or the murder. I'm talking about the robberies here. If, if these persons are being escorted out to their vehicles, which I think it's easy to make that assumption and we should, there's a reason, again, there's a reason why these robberies are happening when the person gets out of their car, not when getting into their car. And in both situations, they've left the establishment, the same establishment, mind you, and they're attacked later. So either they're being watched and then followed to where the attack takes place and the robbery takes place. Or could you have a situation where you have two people in communication saying the target's leaving. And if you, if you know where they live, well, you got a pretty good idea of their destination in the middle of the night. And you could have somebody sitting on the other end waiting to pounce. With big wireless providers, what you see is never what you get. Somewhere between the store and your first month's bill, the price magically skyrockets. With Mint Mobile, you'll never have to worry about gotchas again. When mint mobile says $15 a month when you purchase a three month plan, they mean it. Not to name names, but I have had mobile providers in the past that have a less than reliable service that I have paid much more than Mint Mobile. Like you, I was tired of complicated bills that included new fees and upcharges that made absolutely no sense. Mint Mobile is straight up great reliable service at a great and fair price. All Mint Mobile plans come with high speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. You can use your own phone, your own phone number and all of your existing contacts. Ditch overpriced wireless with Mint Mobile's deal and get three months of premium wireless service for 15 bucks a month. To get this new customer offer and your new three month premium wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to mintmobile.com tcg that's mintmobile.com tcg cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com tcg $45 upfront payment required, equivalent to $15 per month new customers on first three month plan only speed slower above 40 gigabytes on unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees and restrictions apply. Cement Mobile for details Is your sock.
- [27:00]
B
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- [28:25]
A
Bombas.
- [28:26]
B
Check out bombas.com true crime garage today. All right, we are back. Please raise your hand if you've ever been kicked out of a gentleman's club. Tall cans in the air. Cheers, Colonel.
- [28:57]
A
I will not put my tall can in the air, but I will.
- [29:01]
B
I will not.
- [29:02]
A
I will not. This case, I don't want to say that it seems open and shut, but I think. I think in most cases where there's smoke, oftentimes there's fire. And here we have the situation with this, this armed robber, a violent armed robbery. Cudjoe Young, this George character, we don't know who he is. Could this be retaliation for getting someone busted? Could it be retaliation before someone's about to be sent off to prison? I think that those are suspicions that would be that most people would have. We can't say with any level of certainty, but it can't be overlooked. Now, I do know the family is disappointed with the investigation. And one aspect that they're disappointed with is that the vehicle that she was found in that description. You know, we gave that description to you in part one. A 2018 white Chevy Malibu that's not released to the public until over a year after the murder. And the reason why they say they're disappointed is they think that it would have been more helpful to the investigation or more helpful to the public. If you are, since you are, in fact asking the public for their help to have released that information much, much sooner. I agree 100% with what the family's saying. I do want to kind of throw a little bit of a wrench in the whole situation, though, because we don't know what leads and what police were working on and detectives were working on it prior to releasing this information. What I think we have here, Captain, is I think, and I'm hoping that I'm right. I don't know that I'm right, but I'm hoping that they were hot on something. They were working that angle, they were chasing those leads, and that they released this information when they figured out we have to move on from whatever it is we're working on.
- [31:00]
B
Well, they had three crime scenes.
- [31:02]
A
Yeah.
- [31:03]
B
So I think they were hopeful that they're going to get maybe some DNA, maybe a fingerprint. We don't know what they have, what they don't have. But it's very tough for law enforcement. And I don't want to come off as a bootlicker, but the idea that these law enforcement officers don't want this solved, that they did, there was some malice by not releasing information. It's. Sometimes you just make a bad decision and you have to kind of go with. Go with what you think is best. But again, I agree with the family. I think a year is too long. Now, if you said, hey, we followed this, we worked this hard, within a couple months, it doesn't go anywhere. Well, then release the information. But we have cases, and this is the whole bullshit thing, the true crime world. I mean, how many cases do we have that are 20, 30 years old and law enforcement is still keeping things that could possibly solve the crime too close to the chest.
- [32:12]
A
That's the flip in this situation where here we look, if a year later, was it too late? Very difficult for anyone to say. However, it's a year later, it's not 10 years, 15 years later. We've seen in cases 19 years later where they're releasing like, okay, well, good luck. The person that might be able to identify that item that you're asking us to identify may no longer be on the big blue marble. May know, might be pushing daisies by this point. Yeah, it gets hard to say, I think, when we're looking at something within a year's time. I bet you I would suspect, like you said, three Crime scenes, surveillance footage at the, at the scene that we're being told by. And they back this up with evidence that the abduction took place at one of the places where we have surveillance footage. We have an eyewitness who can't really describe the person he sees outside of the vehicle at another one of the crime scenes. And then we have police on record saying that we have surveillance footage of her car being parked illegally. They're not saying we have surveillance footage of her car being parked there. They're saying we have surveillance footage of it being physic, somebody physically pulling in and parking it. And so when you have a witness at one scene and surveillance footage at two other scenes, it's very likely that detectives were working this for a while under the impression that we are going to solve this soon. And we need to keep a lot of this stuff close to the vest because we are going to find ourselves sitting across the table very soon from the guy or guys that did this. And we need everything in our arsenal to get them to confess or to later get them convicted in the court of law. This situation, of course, is very troubling to all. I understand the frustrations and the disappointment with the family. Sorry by the family with this investigation. I do still feel like that there's. This one could be solved very soon. I think there's a chance that there's a lot going on here and that they're closer to solving this than we know. To stay on to this Cudjoe Young ass hat.
- [34:16]
B
Yeah.
- [34:17]
A
In November of 2023 he's arrested again. This is in a Tempe, Arizona. This is the police department there in Tempe. They're running this narcotics operation. He's picked up and arrested in this narcotics operation. He's accused of facilitating a large scale drug transaction involving around 40,000 pills. That's a four with four zeros after it. 40,000 pills containing fentanyl. This is according to court documents. Records show 11 other CO defendants have been charged in that particular case. Some of them have agreed to plea deals. Cudjoe Young has not. So he's facing a long list of charges including this criminal enterprise. Money laundering, transporting drugs for sale, conspiracy. And we know that he's also facing those robbery charges, armed robbery charges. In July of this year of 2024. His robbery case, it's supposed to go to trial. Well, it gets pushed back to October, unfortunately. One big thing that's going to be missing from the robbery trial is Mercedes Vega. She picked him out of the photo lineup. She's no longer around to aid in the prosecution of this guy. And God bless her parents, because they say, you know what? If this guy, whenever he's in court, we're going to be in court too, representing our daughter, honoring our daughter, making sure he knows there are so many people that want to see him where he deserves to be. Whether he killed our daughter or not, he deserves to be behind bars and punished for the crime, these other crimes.
- [36:02]
B
But doesn't that. Isn't that what this crime feels like? It feels like somebody that thinks they're a badass gangster. And because it's not just. Probably not just one individual, but two individuals. Oh, we're going to move her car and then we're gonna. We're gonna kill her and we're gonna.
- [36:22]
A
Set fire, probably steal this other car from this lot. And there's so many crimes that are taking place here, plus the robberies. And what concerns me and what makes me believe and suspect that. That he's good for this or involved in it. Again, it's the. What you and I agree is the suspected age of the perpetrator of the abduction and homicide. Yeah, the. And this is, you know, wannabe gangster, whatever. I don't know this cat and don't want to know him, and I have no interest in even talking with him. But I. What I can say is, based off of his rap sheet and his name constantly being in news articles, this dude is what I would define as a career criminal. And these types rarely talk, they rarely rat on another, and they're usually. If they're out walking around, they're committing crimes.
- [37:18]
B
Real pieces of shit.
- [37:20]
A
Yes. And that's who I think that this guy is. Does it mean that he murdered her? We can't say with a great level of certainty. But I. But if police haven't been able to move on from him, it's also not. It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that somebody he knows or is associated with was involved. I see a situation here, Captain, where I think more than one person was involved in the abduction of murder. And I see a situation where I think it was likely that more than one person was involved in those robberies. Is that complete coincidence? Could be. It also could not be a coincidence at all. Now, this guy, you know, he reminds me of somebody that we spoke about before, and one of the criminals that you and I loved to hate, the one that thought he was some kind of talented rapper from inside of the jail.
- [38:16]
B
Yeah.
- [38:17]
A
But in. So October 15th, this is where you get Frustrated, not frustrated with law enforcement, frustrated with this guy with the Cudjoe Young in October, this is October 15, 2024. So just a couple weeks ago we have Mercedes Vega, her family, her parents, they're back in court because they still don't know who killed their 22 year old daughter. But they're in court for a different case. They're in court again for robbery charges and for charges that cut Joe Young faces. He is playing the system. He is playing the system. You know what he keeps doing? He keeps firing his attorney so that his trials will keep getting pushed back and pushed back and pushed back. So once again in October, he, because he, he changed his, they're saying changed his attorney. The trial has once again been pushed back. He's currently being held without bond on several drugs charges and has been since November of 2023. So at least he's not out and walking the streets. But he's playing the system and he's, he's using every card that he has up his sleeve to delay what I think will be his eventual, his inevitable conviction and at least one of these cases. There is a statement and I want to be clear here. I don't know who this is coming from. I don't know if this is coming from the family or from law enforcement. Again, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has not been an open book regarding this homicide investigation or their findings thus far. So I don't, I don't suspect that this is coming from them. But it came from somewhere. There is a statement out there in reports and in stories that say that she was attacked and taken by at least two people. She was hit over the head, shot in the arm and eventually left in a vehicle. So there's no nice way, but somebody took an accelerant, lighter fluid and put it on her head and hands and that's where the fire started. And unfortunately that information seems to be true because based off of the eyewitnesses statement, when he's calling 911, he's. What is he saying again? He's saying that he's seeing, he can see a flame or flames coming from inside the vehicle. But again the statement, I don't know where it comes from but what's interesting about it to me and I believe to everybody would be the statement of taken by at least two people. Is that speculative or is that something that they can they know from the surveillance footage or is that something they know by the physical evidence at the scene or scenes? What we do know this is this, that moving these vehicles, much easier to do with two people. And in both cases, we have two vehicles. We have, we have the salvage title vehicle that was moved at least twice right off of the lot and then placed at the. Where it was found in flames. We don't know if it was used to abduct Mercedes. We don't know if her vehicle was used to transport her out of the parking garage. I mean, we have the situation with all this movement with the vehicles and with the blitz attack on our victim. I don't know, it just seems a lot easier for two people to have carried this out than one. And you have to wonder, is it retaliation? Right. There are people that have suggested that the bleach in the throat may be more of. To send a message to somebody. I don't know that I agree with that 100%. I don't think it's a bad assessment or speculate speculation. I think that. I truly think that the setting of the fire, the purpose of that was to destroy and burn everything and that if you were trying to send a message to someone else beyond the victim. Well, what kind of message are you actually sending if all of that evidence and all of that information is destroyed, which the fire would imply that you were attempting to do so. Yeah, I, unfortunately, and I hate to say this out loud because there's going to be people that know and love and care for our victim. I think that that was just a way to punish her in the moment. This is clearly whoever did this. I think there's a direct connection between the suspect between the perpetrator and the victim. And I think that somebody in that moment for, and thankfully it was a very short period of time, wanted to hurt, harm and torture this poor young woman.
- [43:05]
B
Yeah. If I'm investigating this crime, like you said, she was attacked before, but to me that feels like a robbery. Doesn't feel, but it's a difficult case. And again, we don't know how much they're holding back. This is just a little over a year old as far as the case goes. And you, you got three difficult crime scenes. Yeah, One crime scene that was set on fire. The other one was the parking garage, which, hey, glad that we have surveillance footage and then the abandoned car. But they could have a lot on this individual.
- [43:46]
A
And well, the, the more crime scenes and the more known crime scenes. So these, these are not just unknown. Like we have plenty of cases that we've reviewed where we know that there are additional crime scenes. We just don't know the location of Them. And here we know the locations of the multiple crime scenes. So that in itself would be, would lend itself to the idea that the more crime scenes, the more evidence. And therefore you're. I think you're right. I think you're spot on, Captain. I think they have something, they have stuff here. They have meat on the bone. And what, what can they do with it? It's very difficult to say at this time. This case is still relatively new. It appears that they're working it very good, I hope. And it appears that they have more information than what has been released to the public. We should. I do want to point out a couple things too before we wrap here. Her vehicle, remember her vehicle. One of those crime scenes is where her vehicle was found. That was the parking lot of a business called the Culinary Dropout. This is near Mill Avenue and Fifth Street. And the report is, I've never been to this Culinary Dropout, but the report here from the locals is her vehicle is found behind one of the most popular restaurants in that area. Her vehicle was a white 2019 Dodge Charger with the license plate LUV LOVE333. This is near ASU campus. And again, we have that statement, and I hate to keep throwing that out there because we don't know where it came from, but a statement of she was attacked and taken by at least two people. And if that's the case, you hope that police can get an advantage point at some point where they can leverage something to get person A to turn on person B. And that might just be the only thing that remains in this investigation for them. Hopefully they've honed in on who's responsible or they have a small pool of people and they know that someone's inside of that pool of people are responsible for this murder. Make no doubt about it, make no mistake about it. And these are very, very dangerous people for obvious reasons in the murder of Mercedes Vega. But even beyond that, these armed robberies are, whether they were committed by the same people or not, are very, very dangerous people. This, this cartel, for a lack of better word, a conspiracy of 1112 people to move 40,000 pills of fentanyl are very, very dangerous people. This, this situation does not get any more serious than this. I do want to include this information from the family that says this is the family talking here. Captain, we aim to keep Mercedes Vega story alive in the media and ask that all of you continue to share her story, share this true crime story, Repost her story on social media if you have information on her murder and you are afraid because again, we're talking about dangerous people, dangerous circles of people. If you're afraid of these people and you have information about her murder, her abduction, the vehicle information, anything that could help police help out this poor family, there are ways for you to come forward and not. And these people don't have to know that it was you. There is a reward for information leading to the arrest of the persons responsible. You do not have to give your name. If you have any information regarding this case, you may contact Silent Witness. We've talked about them before in other cases and they've had great success, great successes helping solve these cases in some cases many years after they occurred.
- [47:52]
B
Yeah, they should change their motto. Silent but deadly.
- [47:55]
A
Silent Witness. You can contact them at 480-WITNESS W I t n e s s. That's 480-948-6377. Or for Spanish speaking, you can call 480 te s t I g o. You can also leave an anonymous tip on the Silent witness website@silentwitness.org you will remain completely anonymous and you could earn a cash reward for information leading to the arrest and or conviction of the suspect or suspects in this crime. You must contact Silent Witness prior to the arrest or indictment to be eligible for any reward.
- [49:03]
B
I want to thank everybody for joining us here in the garage. Thanks for telling your mother. Thanks for telling your brother. Colonel, do we have any recommended reading?
- [49:11]
A
Thank you, Captain. This week we are recommending the Lewiston Shootings and An All American Tragedy by Robert Conlin. This is available in all forms, Kindle audiobook with audible and of course, hard and paperbacks. October 25, 2023 was supposed to be an ordinary day, ordinary night in Lewiston. Lewiston is a small working class city of about 37,000 people in Central Maine. Friends and family gathered to do things that they loved when terror was unleashed at the local bowling alley and a popular sports bar and restaurant. We had a deeply paranoid Army Reserve soldier who walked into both locations with a high powered rifle, opened fire and then he fled. And this all took place in the great state of Maine, a state that the FBI had just months before named the safest state in America. And one of the tragedies within a multitude of tragedies here is that there were numerous red flags raised in the months before the attacks. Read or listen to the Lewiston Shootings and All American Tragedy by Robert Conlin. You can find that recommendation and many more on our website's recommended page@TrueCrimeGarage.com and until next week.
- [50:30]
B
Be good, be kind, and don't litter.