On the evening of Friday, December 15, 2017, 43-year-old Maria G. Villanueva drove her dark gray Kia Sportage to the Casa Bellisima apartments in Glendale, Arizona, for a date with her boyfriend of ten years. She pulled into a parking spot around 8:30 p.m. A man in dark clothes, who had been waiting nearby, approached her vehicle. For reasons that remain unknown, Villanueva allowed the man to get into the driver's seat of her car while she moved to the passenger side.
At 8:52 p.m., her Kia was seen leaving the apartment complex; she was never seen alive again.
Sometime between 11 p.m. and midnight in south central Phoenix, residents heard gunshots, but no one called the police. One person later reported seeing a dark-colored Kia driving in an alley with its headlights off. In the early hours of December 16, a police officer spotted Villanueva's Kia and followed it, eventually letting a police helicopter track the vehicle. For unknown reasons, the helicopter ceased its pursuit around 3:24 a.m.
At 9:41 a.m. on Saturday, December 16, a resident taking out their trash in a south central Phoenix neighborhood near Third and Mohave streets discovered the body of Maria Villanueva. She had been shot three times, with wounds to her neck, cheek, and chest. Investigators found three 9 mm bullet casings, along with a purse and a cellphone, in the alley where her body was found.
Her daughter reported her missing the next day after Villanueva's boyfriend had not heard from her. Detectives then found her Kia at an apartment complex and impounded it. The investigation into her death led authorities to link her murder to Cleophus Cooksey Jr., an alleged serial killer suspected in a total of nine murders in the Phoenix area.
