The night James Cruz disappeared, his sister knew something was wrong. Cruz had been living in Tempe, Arizona’s ‘River Bottom’ homeless encampment for years. Known to his friends as “Cruz,” the 56-year-old was often seen riding around town on his bicycle or attending weekly community picnics on Tuesday evenings. Cruz’s sister Rashel said that, despite his yearslong battle with addiction and homelessness, her brother was trying to get back on his feet. He had begun spending most nights on her couch, arriving by 9 p.m. and leaving in the morning, the Appeal reports. One night in April 2022, Cruz didn’t come. He didn’t call as usual. Rashel’s panicked stream of phone calls went unanswered. She reported him missing. A few days later, the police knocked on her door. “As soon as I answered it, I knew,” said Rashel, who asked that her last name be withheld out of fear of retaliation. “I just knew. It hit me before I even opened the door that he was gone.”
Her brother had been shot and then dismembered, Rashel and others who spoke to Tempe police officers recalled them saying. The medical examiner labeled his death a homicide. He was one of at least 88 unhoused people who were victims of homicide in Maricopa County, Arizona between 2021 and 2023, according to the county medical examiner. That number is almost certainly an undercount, as it doesn’t include dozens of additional homicide victims whose housing status the county couldn’t confirm. In the days following Cruz’s death, rumors swirled about who might have killed him and how. No answers came. No arrests have been made in more than two years. In May, a Tempe police spokesperson said the investigation into Cruz’s death is still ongoing. “There’s no closure here,” Rashel said. “No one is being held accountable.”