The Tempe Police Department has solved a murder that occurred 12 years ago, and police didn't have to search too hard to find the guy -- he's been on death row for more than nine years.
Alfred Carreon is charged in the murder of 20-year-old Jose "Joey" Gonzalez, who was last seen on December 18, 2000.
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Gonzalez drove off in his girlfriend's car that day, and his family reported him missing to Phoenix police after he didn't come back.
Two days later, Gonzalez was found dead in that same car at the Fiesta Village townhouse complex in Tempe.
Police believe Gonzalez was shot and killed somewhere else, then placed back in the car, driven to that Tempe housing complex, and abandoned.
Tempe police say Carreon was identified as a potential suspect in 2005 -- two years after Carreon was already sentenced to death for two other murders -- but the case couldn't be built against him with the evidence detectives had.
Since then, police have gathered more evidence, including a DNA match linking Carreon to the crime, police say.
According to a Tempe police spokesman, the department will not be offering up any extra details on the evidence obtained that links Carreon to the murder.
Carreon was sentenced to death in 2003 after being convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in a pair of 2001 deaths. He was also convicted of endangerment, burglary, and misconduct involving weapons in that same case, according to Arizona Department of Corrections records.
Carreon faces another first-degree murder charge in Gonzalez's death.
