Photo: Mercedes Vega/Facebook
Authorities have made an arrest following a months-long investigation into the April 2023 killing of an Arizona dancer who was found in a burning car. Mercedes Vega, 22, was killed along a highway in Tonopah, Ariz., on April 17, 2023, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement to PEOPLE.
Earlier this month, on Nov. 11, authorities arrested 22-year-old Sencere Hayes in Tennessee in connection with her death, per the MCSO. Vega was last seen in the parking lot of her Tempe residence on April 16, 2023, according to her parents, NBC News, ABC 15 and FOX 10 Phoenix reported.
Video footage from the location shows her walking at about 9 p.m. that evening, according to a still photo shared by NBC News. Her family told ABC 15 they believe that was the last time she was seen alive and that she was taken from that location.
Vega’s mother, Erika Pillsbury, told FOX 10 Phoenix the family later found “blood all over her parking spot.” On April 17, 2023, police responded to a report of a vehicle on fire down a ditch in Tonopah, per 12 News, which reviewed the call.
Authorities were able to identify the victim inside the car as Vega, per NBC News. She was found with bleach in her throat, and had suffered blunt force trauma and a gunshot wound, according to the medical examiner, ABC 15 and NBC News reported.
A forensic pathologist who reviewed her autopsy told NBC News that it appeared the victim’s face had been doused in bleach. Vega was an exotic dancer and aspiring personal trainer, her father Tom Pillsbury told Dateline.
Her mother told the show, “You always knew when she was around, and she was always so true to herself and she encouraged so many people to be who they were wholly, fully, without excuse.”
In her obituary, Vega was remembered as a straight-A student who played the violin and “always stood up for others and protected those who could not protect themselves.”
Police have not released information on a possible motive or if they believe the suspect knew Vega. Her parents told FOX 19 Phoenix that Vega did not know Hayes.
MCSO is working to extradite Hayes to bring him to Arizona, the sheriff’s office said in their statement. They did not comment on possible charges he is facing and it wasn’t immediately clear if he has retained an attorney to speak on his behalf.
