How it began: A timeline for the La Mesa St. murders case

• June 24, 2005: Police responded to 2037 E. La Mesa St. for a report of shots fired and someone yelling for help. Police found 35-year-old Luis Rios in the backyard of the residence with multiple gunshot wounds. Rios was transported to Yuma Regional Medical Center, where he later died. Officers surrounded the home in what appeared to be a possible standoff or hostage situation. When officers went in, they found five more deceased victims, four of them children:

• 30-year-old Adrienne Heredia, asphyxiation • 13-year-old Andreas Crawford, asphyxiation

• 12-year-old Enrique Bedoya, asphyxiation

• 9-year-old Inez Newman, asphyxiation

• 6-year-old Danny Heredia III, gunshot wounds

• June 2007: Yuma police announce they have conducted 1,300 interviews, sifted through 1,000 pieces of evidence, 170 crime calls and “hundreds of other calls” and leads related to the La Mesa Street case.

• Nov. 1, 2007: Dr. Satinder Gill is murdered in his home on La Quinta Loop. The investigation

into the death determined that Gill had been asphyxiated inside his home and that a large sum of

cash had been stolen.

• Nov. 2, 2007: Police arrest Preston Alton Strong in connection to several fraud cases.

• Nov. 28, 2007: Yuma Police announce Strong as a suspect in the La Mesa Street murders and the murder of Gill. At the time, Strong was in custody at the Yuma County Adult Detention Center on unrelated charges.

• 2008: Strong is indicted in the Gill murder by a grand

jury. Strong was still in custody, recently having been sentenced to 3-1/2 years prison for unrelated

theft charges.

• 2012: Strong is sentenced to two life terms in prison with no chance for release in the murder of Dr. Satinder Gill. The two life

terms reflected two counts of first-degree murder in Gill’s death. Strong is also sentenced to a combined 25 1/5 years for

kidnapping, one count of armed robbery, one count of burglary, two counts of aggravated assault and one count of attempted arson to run consecutively with the two life sentences in Gill’s death.

• June 2014: Strong is arrested and charged with six counts of first-degree murder for the La Mesa Street murders.

• April 25, 2017: A jury finds Strong guilty on six counts of first-degree murder in the 2005 La Mesa Street murders.