Ignacio Barajas, 28, male, of unspecified race or ethnicity, was living in Phoenix, Arizona, when he was killed in an unsolved double homicide that has troubled investigators and the community for years. In early June 2012, he shared a small residence located behind a main house at 4626 South 5th Street with another victim, Jorge Garcia, in a South Phoenix neighborhood near 5th Street and Broadway Road.
According to police bulletins later shared through Silent Witness, officers were called to the property at about 1:18 a.m. on Monday, June 4, 2012, for a report involving the deaths at the address. Both Barajas and Garcia had been staying in a separate structure at the rear of the lot, away from the primary home on the street. They were ultimately found shot to death inside that rear residence, with investigators determining that the killings had taken place roughly two days before the discovery, suggesting that their bodies may have gone unnoticed for some time before authorities were alerted.
Local Spanish-language coverage reported that the two victims were found inside the residence on 5th Street near Broadway and that police immediately classified the case as a homicide, although they did not announce any clear motive for the attack. The reporting emphasized that the circumstances were violent and deliberate, and that detectives were working from the outset under the assumption that someone had intentionally targeted the pair. Silent Witness released a case notice and reward flyer under case number 2012-1476, offering up to $1,000 for information and urging anyone with knowledge of what happened at the property to contact their tip line, reinforcing that the investigation remained open and active.
Cold-case listings compiled in later years continue to treat Barajas's death as an unsolved “death by force” or homicide. Some of these databases repeat the basic facts that he died in Phoenix in 2012 in connection with the 5th Street address but contain minor discrepancies in the exact address number and date, underlining how limited the publicly available information has been and how dependent later summaries are on the original police and Silent Witness notices. Despite the passing years, there have been no public announcements of any arrests in connection with the killings, and law enforcement materials and cold-case summaries alike still list the suspect or suspects as unknown, with no detailed description released.
