QUEEN CREEK, AZ — One week after the 1,100-page Queen Creek Police report in Preston Lord’s case was released, the department and Maricopa County Attorney's Office took ABC15's questions.
Lord just 16-years-old was beaten at a Halloween party and later died. It took four months before arrests were made. In March, seven individuals were arrested and charged for Preston's death.
"We're at a great place, but we still have a long way to go," said Queen Creek Police Chief Randy Brice.
Lord’s murder case is still an active investigation for Queen Creek Police even with those suspects facing first-degree murder and kidnapping charges.
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"Obviously, there's a lot of information in there," said Chief Brice about the report. "There's still a lot of information that has not been released that we're still redacting. So, I would just be cautious as you read that this is a piece of the investigation."
That report unveiled new details including messages from suspects, witness interviews, and even allegations that suspect Talan Renner traveled outside the Valley to “let his hands heal”.
"Well again, a specific detail of the report that I don't want to go into necessarily," said Chief Brice. "But it's in there. So we, our whole point, was trying to get, gather evidence; talk to people that we that we believe to have been involved in the situation to gather more details. And so we were aware of all those things."
Chief Brice couldn’t go into detail about potential pieces of evidence like video or what alleged roles the suspects played that October night. But he was able to say the department has the investigation at a point where they are "very confident".
"We know the story, we know what happened, we have the people that were involved," said Chief Brice. "They're the ones that they're in custody, and been charged."
But part of the ongoing investigation, is what people did in the days and weeks following the attack.
"We're kind of at the cleanup stage at this point," said Chief Brice. "We don't have, [we're] running down every possible thing that we have. We're looking at these new allegations that came up from a witness statement about potential cover-ups. So we are looking into those situations."
ABC15 also took community questions and concerns straight to Chief Brice, see him address those in the video player above.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell also took questions on the case. In terms of prosecution, Mitchell said they are in the very early stages of this case.
