In the early hours of April 21, 2024, the quiet of a Mesa, Arizona neighborhood was broken by the discovery of a young man's body. Twenty-three-year-old Gavin Wadzinski was found with a gunshot wound on a sidewalk near Teton Circle and Recker Road. Mesa police responded to a 911 call around 1 a.m. about a man down and unresponsive. Upon arrival, officers confirmed the man, Wadzinski, was deceased at the scene.
The incident was immediately treated as a homicide.
Investigators began canvassing the area, searching for any leads that could point to a suspect. They looked for surveillance footage from nearby homes and businesses, hoping to piece together the events that led to Wadzinski's death. Initially, with no witnesses coming forward, the case presented a significant challenge. Detectives were exploring all possible motives, including Wadzinski's past as a registered sex offender, a fact that had been previously disclosed to the neighborhood. However, the investigation into his past did not immediately yield any suspects in his murder.
For nearly a year, the case remained unsolved, leaving the community on edge. A breakthrough finally came when investigators, after executing several search warrants, uncovered digital evidence showing that Wadzinski had arranged to meet someone to purchase a gun and marijuana on the night he was killed. The seller was identified as then 17-year-old Devin Moll. According to police, Moll had described the vehicle he would be driving to the meeting. This crucial piece of information allowed detectives to scour traffic surveillance footage from the night of the murder. They identified a vehicle with a unique headlight pattern in the vicinity of the crime scene around the time the shooting occurred. By tracking this vehicle through various surveillance cameras across the city, investigators were able to create a path that ultimately led them to Moll.
On April 1, 2025, Devin Moll, now 18, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in connection with Gavin Wadzinski's death. During interrogation, Moll admitted to meeting with Wadzinski for the transaction. He claimed that he shot Wadzinski because he believed he was about to be robbed. Moll is being held on a $1 million bond. His arrest marked a significant development in the case, bringing a sense of closure to a homicide investigation that had puzzled authorities for almost a year and providing answers as to the circumstances surrounding the final moments of Gavin Wadzinski's life.
