Police searching home in child-porn case find 2 dead

Police attempting to search a Glendale home in a child pornography case Saturday evening heard a gunshot as they approached and found two people dead inside.

Detectives from the Phoenix Police Department’s Sexual Investigations Unit went to serve a search warrant shortly before 7:20 a.m., at a home near 59th and Peoria Avenues, said Officer Tiffany Smith, a Glendale police spokeswoman.

As police were entering the home, they heard a single gunshot, Smith said. A search of the home located one man and one woman, both adults, deceased, she said.

Smith said the condition of the bodies made identifying them difficult. She said Sunday that police might not release the names of the dead people until Wednesday.

Next-door neighbor Sadie Marquez said it sounded like “a car ran into the house” as the police tried to enter.

Lori Boyer, who lives across the street, said it sounded like police had used a canister to “try to flush somebody out” and that the sound was louder than a gunshot.

A front window to the home was boarded up on Sunday afternoon.

Boyer said she saw police search both the house and the cars in the garage. She said the trunk of one car was open for a

long period of time and officers were taking pictures inside it.

Boyer said police were walking through backyards in the neighborhood. One asked her whether she had seen a young girl in the area.

Marquez said police also knocked on her door to ask about a child.

Smith, the police spokeswoman, said she could only speculate as to why officers were asking neighbors about a girl.

The address where Phoenix police said they served a search warrant is connected to a Level 3 sex offender, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s sex offender database.

The offender’s criminal history involved sexual conduct with a minor, according to records.

Boyer said a lot of people in the neighborhood didn’t like the man, but she called him “personable” and “very, very friendly.” She said she received a flyer about his sex offense when he moved into the neighborhood, but didn’t research the charges against him. She said she knew he had his “demons,” but she gave him “the benefit of the doubt” thought

“He didn’t seem like the type of person that would do something like that,” Boyer said.

Boyer said the man had a live-in girlfriend about two years ago, but she moved out and she hadn’t seen her since.

Smith said no one else was inside the home during the incident. The Glendale Police Department was called to assume the investigation into the deaths.

“He didn’t seem like the type of person that would do something like that.” LORI BOYER LIVES NEAR HOME WHERE 2 PEOPLE WERE FOUND DEAD