Phoenix detectives sift through clues for links in victims' demise
04/06/2003
PHOENIX – The deaths of three women whose nude bodies were found in a downtown neighborhood were treated as simple drug overdoses for months.
But now, eight months after the first body was discovered, the number has grown to six. And striking similarities in the cases have led police investigate whether the women were killed and whether the deaths are linked.
"These are all very suspicious deaths, and we are extremely concerned," said Phoenix police Detective Tony Morales. "We have every available detective working to get to the bottom of it."
While there has been speculation among neighbors, detectives won't call the deaths the work of a single person. So far, there is no evidence linking the dead women, and the cases haven't been ruled homicides, Detective Morales said.
Police said four of the women were prostitutes and drug users who died of cocaine overdoses. Five of the bodies appear to have been dumped and were found nude or partially nude, most within blocks of each other in the city's Garfield neighborhood.
The first body, that of Janice Irvin, 43, was found July 14. Barbara Codman, 46, was found next in a nearby alley Sept. 11.
Police became concerned when the body of Shanteria Davis, 32, was found Oct. 10 just yards away from where Ms. Codman's body was discovered.
In November, detectives started passing out fliers at halfway houses, churches and markets in the neighborhood. Investigators also started warning women in the city's Prostitution Diversion Program.
"These women were out there asking for it, that's the way society sees it," said Chris Herzog, the program coordinator. "The women know they live a very dangerous life. This is just another day in their life."
Still, the bodies continued to appear.
On Dec. 9, detectives found the body of 20-year-old Beaunka Oggs.
Then on Feb. 27, Jade Velasquez's body was found under a palm tree, and on March 29, the body of Sherry Elizabeth Noah, 37, was found in the area across the street from a church and a block away from a school.
None of the women showed signs of traumatic injury, Detective Morales said, and medical examiners determined that Ms. Irvin, Ms. Codman, Ms. Davis and Ms. Oggs ingested too much cocaine.
"We investigate a lot of overdose deaths, and the first several deaths appeared to be nothing more than that," Detective Morales said.
"There was nothing to indicate at that point that these women met with foul play."
But Detective Morales said the discovery of Ms. Velasquez's body "really triggered alarms."
Police have asked the medical examiner's office to re-examine all the bodies for evidence.
Meanwhile, some are accusing police of responding too slowly.
"Police were telling women on the street to be careful but not to tell anyone about it," said attorney Barbara Cerepanya, who often represents women arrested for prostitution.
"Why would all these women go to the same neighborhood to take off their clothes and die? It doesn't make sense to me," she said.
"If these were not what society considers marginal people, there would have been an all-out alert before the next three got killed."
Priscilla Diaz, who lives in the neighborhood where five of the six women were found, said she's tired of running across bodies in the alley behind her house. She even had a cinderblock fence built around her back yard because of the deaths.
"I'm freaked out completely," Ms. Diaz said. "Everybody's worried around here."