Rondell Echoles and Tyrone Phillips were found dead inside an apartment in Maricopa County, Arizona, nearly two decades ago, and the persons responsible for their deaths have yet to be brought to justice.
On the evening of June 6, 2006, law enforcement officers were called to an apartment at the Dobson Village Apartments in the 900 block of South Dobson Road in Mesa about a shooting.
When they arrived on the scene, they found Echoles, 25, and Phillips, 27, dead inside. They were reportedly both from Phoenix.
The person living in the apartment told authorities that when he was outside, he was approached by two men who recognized him from high school.
They then asked to go inside his apartment because it was hot and they wanted to be in a cool environment while they waited on their ride.
After letting them inside, he said he went to the back of the apartment while they remained in the front. It was then that he heard people arguing, followed by four gunshots.
By the time he reached the front area of the apartment, he saw two men dead on his living room floor, along with marijuana that wasn’t there before he let the two men inside.
He also claimed that he didn’t know the victims and that the men he let inside his apartment were gone.
Mesa police Sgt. Chuck Trapani stated that they are “unsure of the accuracy of the resident’s statement.”
Neighbors told police officials that they saw two African-American men fleeing the scene in a dark-colored SUV that had tinted windows, according to the Arizona Republic.
One of the suspects, who was wearing a t-shirt and blue pants, is believed to be in his 20s, around six-foot-four inches tall with a thin build. The other suspect was slightly shorter, had a bald head, and had a mustache and beard.
Authorities said the motive for the killing is unknown, and because they had “little information to go on,” the “trail for the killers had virtually gone cold.”
Anyone with information regarding the unsolved murders of Rondell Echoles and Tyrone Phillips is encouraged to contact the Mesa Police Department at (480) 644-2012 or Silent Witness at (480) 948-6377.