Overview
- Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced Tuesday that DNA linked Gary Wayne Billups to the 1987 killing of Orison James “Jim” Chafin.
- Billups voluntarily gave a DNA sample during a June interview with the AG’s Cold Case Unit and died by suicide days after providing that sample.
- Investigators matched Billups’ DNA to male profiles recovered from beer bottles and cigarette butts at the Resthaven Cemetery scene and also found links to brothers William and Kenneth Lee Mayfield.
- Because Billups and the other men tied to the scene are deceased, law enforcement has closed the case and no criminal charges will be filed.
- Officials credited careful evidence preservation by Glendale police, advances in DNA testing and the AG’s reopened cold‑case review for producing factual answers for Chafin’s family while noting some questions remain unanswered.