An arrest has been made in the 2005 murder of a Valley woman and U.S. Air Force veteran.
"You could hear her smile when she talked to you," says Danita Greene, a close friend of Shelia Jones.
Forty-two-year-old Jones was known to friends as "Stevee."
She's been gone for nearly 17 years.
"She had a heart of gold; she was a beautiful person," says Greene.
All these years later, there has been a break in the case. A man named Latoyi Clinkscale was extradited back to Phoenix from a prison in Wasco, California, where he was serving time for another crime.
Greene said she was not expecting to get the call saying the alleged murderer has been arrested in her friend's case.
Greene was a co-worker turned close friend and the person who found Jones in her Phoenix townhome at 19th and Glendale avenues just days after Christmas. ABC15 spoke with her at that time and speaking with her now, she still remembers everything from that frightful day.
"Then I noticed it looked like somebody bent over on the couch, reaching under the couch for something. That's what it looked like but, there was no movement, there was just that stature," says Greene.
It was hard for Greene to see because there were no lights on in the home. When she got closer, she could tell it was Jones by her hands, which she says were bound behind her back.
"She fought. He had to overpower her to do what he was able to do to her," says Greene.
It is unknown what exactly led authorities to Clinkscale but ABC15 has learned a DNA sample was secured. According to court documents, this likely started as a burglary before things escalated.
"They went through everything; they found both her safes. The drawers were pulled out," says Greene.
Jones was killed and Clinkscale is now named as the suspect. We showed Greene his picture, someone she has never seen before. She believes the killing was random.
"He looks like somebody that if he ever approached her, that he was down and out on his luck or whatever, she wouldn't hesitate to assist," says Greene.
