Sheronda Dyer, a 41-year-old Black mother of three, was killed in her south Phoenix home in the late summer of 2021. On the morning of Friday, September 3, a family member went to the residence near 59th Avenue and Broadway Road just before 11 a.m. and made a devastating discovery. Inside the home, Dyer was found deceased with what police described as obvious signs of trauma.
Earlier that morning, Dyer had dropped her son off at school.
Her boyfriend, 35-year-old Eddie Lauderdale, who was also the father of their 3-year-old daughter, had been at the house. A neighbor later told authorities they saw a man matching Lauderdale’s description in the home's garage and heard gunshots coming from the area around the time Dyer returned. Investigators learned she had been fatally shot.
Phoenix police officers responded to the scene and began a homicide investigation. Their attention quickly turned to Lauderdale as a person of interest. During their search, investigators found shell casings and Dyer’s cell phone discarded near a bus stop at 43rd Avenue and Van Buren Street. The day after the shooting, on September 4, police located Lauderdale at a home near 19th and Glendale avenues, where he turned himself in.
In an interview with police, Lauderdale said he and Dyer had been in a fight. He claimed that when Dyer walked to her car, allegedly to get a gun, he went to their bedroom, retrieved his own gun, and fired at her nine times. According to court documents, Lauderdale admitted he did not check on Dyer or call for help. Instead, he took his gun and a gun from her vehicle and left their young daughter alone in the home. He told police he threw the guns in a dumpster and Dyer’s phone in a trash can. Officers were later able to recover the items.
Following his confession, Eddie Lauderdale was arrested and faced multiple charges, including first-degree murder. The case concluded in court nearly two years later when he was convicted of second-degree murder for killing Sheronda Dyer. In April 2023, a judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison.
