John Jefferson
Left to right: Sencere Hayes (Hamilton County Jail) and Mercedes Vega (Obituary and Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office).
A man was recently arrested in Tennessee in connection with the death of a young Arizona woman whose body was found after she was tortured and burned alive in the back seat of a car.
Mercedes Marianna Vega, 22, died under mysterious circumstances in April of last year. As Law&Crime previously reported, her body was found after the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office responded to a car fire after midnight on April 17, 2023. Vega had a gunshot wound in one arm, blunt force injuries from being beaten, bleach poured down her throat, and ultimately died of smoke inhalation while being burned alive, her parents revealed in late October 2023, citing autopsy results.
The grim discovery was made along Interstate 10 near Tonopah — a sparsely-populated census-designated place located some 60 miles due west of Tempe. A little over two hours before, Vega was seen on surveillance footage in her parking garage — leaving for a planned night out with her friends at restaurant/arcade Dave and Buster’s.
On. Nov. 11, Sencere Hayes, 22, was arrested by the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office in the Volunteer State. Now, Maricopa County law enforcement are awaiting his extradition back to the Grand Canyon State, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office told Law&Crime.
The Vega case “remains active and under investigation,” the sheriff’s office said. While the formal status of the defendant in terms of criminal charges is not currently clear, he was arrested by the agency’s homicide unit, according to the sheriff’s office.
“MCSO has been working tirelessly on the Mercedes Vega case,” Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Monica Bretado told Law&Crime in an email. “MCSO is working with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office to get Hayes extradited back to Maricopa County.”
In comments to Phoenix-based Fox affiliate KSAZ, Vega’s parents said their daughter did not know the man arrested in connection with her murder. They said the news came at a welcome time.
“This time of the year is really hard,” Erika Pillsbury, Vega’s mother, told the TV station on Monday — when the arrest was first announced. “We have her stocking to hang up. I will always hang it up right next to her siblings’ stocking and that’s her Christmas tree from her house.”
The woman’s obituary remembers her fondly:
Mercedes was a beautiful young child who loved horses and babies. She played the violin, and had a beautiful singing voice. Mercedes sang the national Anthem at many sports games and special events. She was a straight “A” student throughout her young school career. She was an incredible swimmer and loved the ocean. She used to say, “My soul belongs in Hawaii.”
Mercedes was successful at everything she set out to do. She did not apologize for who she was, and yet was always uplifting and encouraging those around her.
Law enforcement believe Vega was attacked and kidnapped from her parking garage in Tempe.
Details of the victim’s likely final hours were previously relayed to her parents by investigators.
“We called the detective, and we were like, ‘Explain to us what is going on.’ That’s when he told us that Mercedes was abducted and that she had been hit over the head and forced into a vehicle and that she was shot through her right arm and that she had been burned alive,” Vega’s mother told KSAZ.
“We didn’t find out a lot of the information, like the bleach in her throat, until after,” Tom Pillsbury, Vega’s father added; her mother interjected: “Six months later.”
Vega’s car was not the one her body was found in — her vehicle had been dumped near her apartment after the abduction.
“We had gone to the parking garage about three or four days after she died and there was blood all over her parking spot,” Erika Pillsbury told KSAZ.
The sheriff’s office told Phoenix-based ABC affiliate KNXV that more arrests in the case are likely.
But, to hear the victim’s parents tell it, the first arrest in the case is exceedingly important — and perhaps integral.
According to Chattanooga-based ABC affiliate WTVC, Hayes was previously arrested this year.
“I could hear this elation in his voice, in the detective’s voice, and he said, ‘We got him. We got him,”” Vega’s mother told the Fox affiliate — her voice breaking through tears.
“She is going to be vindicated, and she is going to get justice,” Tom Pillsbury told the TV station.
A spokesperson for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said they could only confirm that shared extradition efforts for Hayes were ongoing — but said more details would be released once they are available.
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