In the fall of 2016, the life of 39-year-old Sabrina Rollins came to a tragic and violent end. On November 9, 2016, her body was discovered in the area of 107th and Southern Avenues in a case that would remain cold for years. Rollins, a female, had been fatally shot. The discovery of her body came less than two days after she had been released from the Lower Buckeye Jail.
The initial investigation by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office yielded few leads.
The medical examiner determined that Rollins died from gunshot wounds and a sexual assault kit was submitted to the crime lab. A male DNA profile was developed from the evidence, but it did not match anyone in the existing databases, leaving detectives at a standstill. For years, the case grew cold, and justice for Sabrina Rollins seemed distant.
A breakthrough finally came in April 2019 when investigators turned to familial DNA analysis. This advanced technique searched for potential relatives of the unidentified suspect in the state's DNA database. The search led detectives to a potential suspect, and in November 2019, they identified 60-year-old Tony Tyrone Reed. After obtaining a search warrant for his DNA, a direct comparison was made to the sample from the crime scene.
In April 2020, the results confirmed a match, and Tony Tyrone Reed was arrested in connection with the murder of Sabrina Rollins. Despite the DNA evidence, Reed denied any involvement in the homicide. Just a week after his arrest, Reed was released from custody, and as of the latest available information, no formal charges have been filed against him in this case. The investigation into the death of Sabrina Rollins officially remains unsolved.
