An arrest was made Monday in the brutal murder of an exotic dancer whose body was found more than a year ago in a burning car on an Arizona road.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that Sencere Hayes, 22, was arrested in Tennessee on November 11 in connection with the death of Mercedes Vega, 22, on April 17, 2023.
The statement said that the sheriff’s office and local prosecutors are working to extradite Hayes to Arizona. It also said that the case is still open and being investigated and that no more information would be given out.
It’s not clear what Hayes is being charged with, where he is being held, or if he has a lawyer who can talk for him.
Erika Pillsbury, Vega’s mother, said she worried for 19 months that her daughter would never get justice.
Pillsbury said on the phone Monday, “I know the person who did this to her is going to pay for it.”
A sheriff’s report says that Vega’s body was found in the back seat of a Chevy Malibu on the side of Interstate 10 near Tonopah, which is about 52 miles west of Phoenix, early on April 17. It was found that Vega had been beaten, shot, and burned. She had worked as a stripper in Phoenix and wanted to become a personal trainer.
A forensic doctor who looked over her autopsy for NBC News said that her face looked like it had been sprayed with bleach.
A security camera in Vega’s apartment building caught her walking into the garage where she had parked her Dodge Charger hours earlier. NBC News was able to receive this video. No one saw or heard from her again.The sheriff’s office says the Charger was found in the middle of the road on April 18, about a mile from Vega’s apartment. It’s not clear how the car got there. The authorities have refused to say anything.
Vega’s family said they found blood on the garage floor near where she parked, which made them think she might have been raped and slain. The sheriff’s office has not said anything.
Based on the police report, the Malibu where Vega’s body was found had a salvage title and had been registered to someone who couldn’t be reached for comment.
State Farm Insurance, the car’s most recent owner, says they won’t say anything because of their customer privacy policy and “sensitivities surrounding this tragedy.”
The person who called 911 to report the fire said they saw someone walking around Malibu, but the report didn’t say anything else about the person.
