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Loved ones still looking for answers 16 years after deaths of Alfonso McCoy and Debra Gomez

Posted at 6:12 PM, Feb 25, 2017
and last updated 2017-02-26 00:54:26-05

Sixteen years after a terrible crime, and a Phoenix family is still looking for answers.

They want to know who killed Alfonso “JR” McCoy and his girlfriend Debra Gomez.

Police said the two were killed inside Gomez’s home near 62nd Avenue and Thomas between February 20 and 21, 2001.

McCoy’s family said it’s taken them years to be able to talk about their deaths.

“You took away a lot from a lot of people. I keep him with me every day. Everywhere I go, he goes with me right here,” said Muriel McCoy, Alfonso’s mother, pointing to a necklace.

They’re looking for justice and peace after all these years.

“I’m hoping that I’m around to see justice served. I’m in my seventies,” McCoy said.

Alfonso’s sister, Relma Voigt, said she wants to keep his memory alive. She doesn’t want him to be remembered only as a man who was murdered. They remember Alfonso as a giving man, who loved education and sports.

Every year on his birthday, Voigt sends a gift to a Valley hospital for the first born boy of that day, along with a letter saying the gift is in remembrance of Alfonso “JR” McCoy.

“Maybe they’ll go look him up. Maybe they’ll see that he played football, and he was a star player, and he was damn good…and he prayed, and he had friends. It’s all out there--little bits and pieces,” Voigt said.

Alfonso’s family is pleading with the public to come forward with any information.

“Even if it seems as if the case is so old, and so many years have gone by, any information, anything can be vital,” Voigt said.

There’s a reward of $3,000 in this case. Anyone with information is asked to call Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS to remain anonymous.