Law&Crime Sidebar - Arizona Woman Stabbed to Death in ‘Vicious Attack’ While Hiking — Murder Suspect Arrested

Episode Date: May 5, 2023

Lauren Heike was viciously attacked and stabbed to death while hiking in Arizona on April 29. Authorities identified the murder suspect as 22-year-old Zion Teasley, who was arrested less than a mile away from the crime scene. The Law&Crime Network’s Jesse Weber breaks down everything we know so far with legendary homicide detective Fil Waters.SUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaDevil In The DormThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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The vicious attack on Ms. Lorne Heikey is unconscionable. And the grief and heartache being felt by your friends and family is immeasurable. No one in our community should feel unsafe. A 29-year-old woman is found dead in North Phoenix after going on a morning hike and the police have just made an arrest. Former homicide detective Phil Waters comes on to discuss. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime.

I'm Jesse Weber. We is horrific. I'm sorry. As hard as this is for us, we're great. because we had such a beautiful child. The Phoenix Police Department has been investigating the death of 29-year-old Lauren Heikey after her body was found in North Phoenix off of a hiking trail this past Saturday, April 29th.

The reports are she had set out hiking the day earlier. Police said her body showed signs of trauma. And according to Phoenix Police, Lieutenant James Hester, they believe that she was attacked from behind. Well, it has now been revealed that Heikey was stabbed multiple times. and a little bit of a back story here, the Phoenix Police Department originally released a clip of surveillance footage that appears to show a potential suspect. Lieutenant Hester explained how the man in the clip exhibited peculiar behavior.

He was believed to be between 5 foot 8 and 6 feet tall and was wearing a backpack. Well, as of last night, they have tracked down and arrested a man in connection with the murder of Lauren Heike. That man has been identified as 22-year-old Zion Teasley. He was apparently linked to the stabbing by DNA and cell phone evidence. State prosecutors indicating they may have more, too. He was arrested less than a mile away from where police found Hikey's body. Teasley also has a lengthy criminal record dating back to 2020 that includes armed robbery, burglary, kidnapping, and assault with a deadly weapon.

In fact, he apparently violated his probation terms since he was released from prison this past November on felony charges, reporting indicating that he had been taken into custody on a first-degree murder charge. A judge issued a $1 million cash bond after he was. appeared in court, and his next court appearances are set for May 1st and May 15. Well, this is a developing story. I want to give everybody that warning. So at the time of this recording, we're just giving you the latest, as we know right now, by the time it actually is published, there might be more information that comes out.

But let's talk about what we know right now. I'm joined by legendary former homicide detective Phil Watersville. Thanks so much for coming back here on the program. I really appreciate you taking the time. I want to get really into this. So we know that in the early stages of an investigation, they're so. crucial. The police have made an arrest. They talked to a little bit about what they might have. What do you think about the fact that they made an arrest this quickly? Well, thanks for having me

back. Jesse. It's been a while. Well, I can tell you that the, this type of a case at first blush when I first looked at it prior to the arrest of the suspect, my sense was is that they had a video footprint from very close to the area where this occurred right up to where the suspect fled to so he appears to be running on that video and he's got the backpack and so forth and so on what I thought was interesting was that the shape on the video it is the guy you know the person they've got it hasn't been confirmed it hasn't been confirmed but it I guess it kind of matches he matches the description right yes yeah so that was that was pretty pronounced when I saw the the suspect that that this is

the guy. I mean, this is his appearance on that video. Now, my, they got to him as quickly as they did, I think, because of this video trail, perhaps. And it had to happen. He's obviously on foot. He's obviously running. So it had to be, his residence had to be somewhere within close proximity of the crime scene. And so that, that is always beneficial when you've got that very short gap to get to your suspect. And then it was just a matter of getting out there and doing the, doing, hitting the bricks and doing the footwork that needed to bring this back, bring in its arrest about. Are you surprised that when we talk about DNA evidence and cell phone evidence being used

to track them down, again, the time frame. I always imagine that might take some time, but this seemed to come back the results relatively quickly to apprehend it. Well, in regards to the technical aspects of this thing, regarding cell phones, that kind of thing, in today's world, it can be done with fairly quickly response to the request from law enforcement when you have something that's just an urgent circumstance like this. I mean, I think the thing here was is that they certainly wanted to get this guy in custody because something like this, he may be prone to do this again within a pretty quick time frame.

So the technical stuff, look, this stuff can be done if it's requested and if there's a rush put on it and a sense of urgency. So, yeah, it can be done. I've done in a couple of investigations that I had. I'm also curious when you think about this, right, the idea of he's taken into custody, I imagine they try to interview him, right? They try to interrogate him. He may choose to lawyer up, but you think that happened already? They tried to speak with him and understand what happened here? Me prior to the arrest?

No, after the arrest. Yeah, after the arrest, right. So that would be the first, that would be the next step. Once you, once you get this suspect in custody, then the first thing detectives are going to want to do. I know that if it's me, that's the first thing I want to do is get them into the interview room and have a discussion with them. He's obviously in custody, so it's going to be a custodial interview. They're going to have to Mirandize him. He's going to have to waive those rights to carry on the conversation.

And, of course, we don't know it if that occurred. and what his response was to it. So you always, you always give the suspect, the opportunity to speak with the detectives, always. And again, we don't know if there's possibly someone else involved. So again, you know, they're still in the early stages of trying to see this. He has been arrested. He has been identified as the suspect. What do you think is happening right now behind the scenes?

What do you think the investigators are doing right now? Well, if they're, if they've done the interview or if he's. whatever they try to that aspect of it if that's been completed now you've got you've got a whole host of things that are going on in terms of the the evidence that was gathered at the scene getting those things to the appropriate labs to have that analysis done and we're now doing the background when i had cases i would do a psychological autopsy on the suspect so that's being done his background and so forth and so on to find out who he is to find i'm sure they're going to find out that he was this was not his first interaction with

her and i would imagine that he was stalking her i'll use that word you you believe that you believe that this was targeted against her specifically because another way of looking at it was he maybe trying to rob her or saw her randomly and it's something you know happened but you think there was something that developed beforehand well and this is just based on what i've what I've read and what I've seen and just my instinct is that this these types of attacks don't happen in a vacuum and my sense is is that this is someone that he had seen and if she is prone to if Lauren was prone to that that particular trail that hiking trail or running along that trail or whatever activity she was involved in it doesn't

sound to me as though that was an unfamiliar area for her. So I would have to, and given the proximity, I don't know how close his apartment complex was from hers or if they were in the same one. I don't know if you've got that information or how close the trail was to the apartment complex where he lived. So all of those. things are what are being computed at this point in time and they're they're going to further up and see if this guy was to me it just appears that he's seen her before drawn to her and who knows if it was a robbery if it was a sexually motivated thing i mean these murders happen you know i say it all the time it's one of three reasons sex drugs or money so it's just you have to be determined

and he was and like we said you know he was arrested less than a half a mile away from where they found her body, the stabbing, the stabbing. So we knew that there was, originally they said blunt force trauma, that she'd been attacked from behind. The act of stabbing, what should we be thinking about that, Phil? Well, that doesn't surprise me. There may have been blunt force trauma, obviously the first strike if he attacked her from behind, which is most likely. And if he attacked her, attacked her from behind, then the first blow you would think would be to the head to get her incapacitated and then further the attack. Now, again, we're going to have to, those detectives are trying to determine what the motive here was.

Was it, was it a money? Was it a robbery? I mean, he is known to commit aggravated robberies. He's known to commit burglaries. He's known to commit aggravated assaults. So this was just kind of a step up the ladder for him. So we don't know at this point whether the motivation was aggravated robbery. Was it sexual assault or was it a combination of the two? And like I said, even though arrest has been made, we don't know. more details. We don't know if somebody else may know something or somebody else is involved. So anybody with information is urged to contact the Phoenix Police Department at 602-262-6151 or silent witness at 480 witness or 480 Testigo for Spanish. Phil Waters, always appreciate your insight, your excellent analysis of these cases. Again, thank you so much for taking the time to come

here on Sidebar. Thank you, Jesse. Have a great weekend. All right, everybody. That's all we have for you here on Sidebar, thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series, ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.