PHOENIX — A suspect in a 1987 slaying has been identified thanks to DNA evidence, Attorney General Kris Mayes announced Tuesday.
James “Jim” Chafin, a Navy veteran who served in the Korean War, was killed in a cemetery in Glendale. His murder went unsolved for 39 years.
“Jim Chafin would have turned 95 years old this month,” Mayes said. “I hope his family can take some measure of peace in knowing that he was not forgotten.”
DNA evidence linked Gary Wayne Billups to the slaying, Mayes said. His DNA was found on cigarette butts and bottles found at the scene.
Prosecutors say they believe they would have a reasonable likelihood of convicting Billups in Chafin’s death.
Billups died by suicide in June soon after he talked with investigators and provided a DNA sample.
“I understand that is not the ending anyone would choose, but for the first time in 39 years, we can be reasonably certain about what happened to Jim Chafin,” Mayes said.
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Roger Geisler, a special agent with Mayes’ Cold Case Unit, said it’s about providing answers for the victim’s family. Chafin had a surviving nephew and niece who live outside of Arizona.
"They were just ecstatic over the fact that somebody even cared to even look at the case again,” he said. “They thought it was done, gone forever."
DNA also connected two other men with the crime scene: brothers William and Kenneth Lee Mayfield, who were Billups’ roommates.
Both have since died.
Chafin slain in Glendale cemetery in 1987
A few teenagers driving through Resthaven Cemetery found Chafin’s body in the northwest section in the early morning of Aug. 8, 1987. They told police a sedan fled across the dirt and sidewalk when they approached.
Chafin’s throat was cut, and he had multiple bruises. Geisler said it was obvious he had been in a fight with multiple people.
Geisler, a former Glendale homicide detective, said investigators believe a “social gathering” at the cemetery went bad.
“It was very obvious he had been in a fight with different people, and so that led to his death,” he said.
The Mayfield brothers were interviewed in the case in 1987. William Mayfield said he saw Chafin at a bar, Critter’s Lounge, on the afternoon before his death. His brother told investigators he worked all day and did not see anything at the bar.
A witness told police she saw Chafin, the Mayfield brothers and Billups at the bar, saying Chafin and Billups also had a fight.
The Mayfield brothers told police at the time that they didn’t know anything about Chafin’s death.
Case reopened after tip
Mayes’ Cold Case Unit looked into the case after a tip came in from out-of-state. While the tip did not pan out, investigators realized Billups had never been interviewed.
Police in 1987 could not locate Billups.
Investigators with the attorney general’s Cold Case Unit found him and interviewed him this summer. Geisler said Billups, who provided a DNA sample, was cooperative but told investigators he didn’t live in Glendale in 1987 and didn’t know about the case. But he had an arrest record in the Glendale area and witnesses had identified him at the bar, Geisler said.
Billups died by suicide days after talking with investigators and left a note saying he had nothing to save himself, Geisler said.
“When you have a case that is four decades old, there will still be mysteries surrounding it,” Mayes said. “All questions will not be answered, but we believe we have enough to lay this blame at Billups' feet and to tell the public about who else was present on site at the time.”
Mayes said improvements in DNA technology were key to solving the case.
“Investigators went back to a file from 1987, reinterviewed witnesses and used DNA to do what could not be done in 1987,” she said.
She created the Cold Case Unit last year. Geisler, who said he is currently working on a few other cases, said tips are crucial.
“I look at every single tip that comes in. I read every single tip that comes in,” he said. “Some of them may may not point me in the right direction, but a lot of them do, and they start cases for us.”
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