In the quiet early hours of a Christmas morning in Phoenix, Arizona, a life was tragically cut short, leaving a family with questions that would haunt them for years. On December 25, 2017, in the parking lot of the Payless Inn on East Van Buren Street, a dispute between two men escalated into deadly violence. Roosevelt Junious Jr. was stabbed during the altercation. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, but tragically, he succumbed to his injuries.
The immediate investigation pointed to a Hispanic male who had been seen fighting with Junious, but the suspect vanished in the aftermath, leaving a painful void and an unsolved case. For years, the pursuit of justice for Roosevelt Junious Jr. seemed to have stalled, a cold case resting in the files of the Phoenix Police Department.
However, after nearly eight years of silence, a breakthrough in the investigation brought a renewed sense of hope. In October of 2025, law enforcement located and arrested a suspect, Michael Arredondo, in Mexico. It was discovered that Arredondo had been a neighbor of Junious. Shortly after the fatal stabbing, he fled the United States, first to California and then across the border, where he remained a fugitive from the law. The arrest was a culmination of a lengthy and determined effort by law enforcement agencies, finally bringing a suspect into custody to face charges for the death of Roosevelt Junious Jr. The family, after years of uncertainty and grief, could finally begin to see a path toward closure.
