A July 4, 2016 barbecue at a trailer home on the 4000 block of Lore Road in Anchorage ended in gunfire when Jorge Rea-Villa, a 30-year-old Hispanic/Latino man, stepped into a bathroom and was shot nine times with a 9mm handgun. Witnesses heard the shots; officers arrived about 7:45 p.m. and found Rea-Villa dead at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds, including a fatal head wound. Trayvon Leon Artis Morrissette, then 32 and acquainted with Rea-Villa, emerged from the bathroom and fled in a tan sedan, prompting a manhunt after reports tied a fleeing gunman to break-ins and attempted break-ins across South Anchorage that evening. Morrissette was captured about 10:22 p.m. hiding in a stairwell off Foxridge Way and was booked on charges including first-degree murder and burglary.

A jury convicted Morrissette of first-degree murder in May 2018 and a judge later imposed a composite 99-year term: 95 years for the murder and four consecutive years for first-degree burglary related to his flight. On appeal he argued methamphetamine-induced psychosis impaired his intent and challenged instructions and the sentence; the Alaska Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions and sentence in February 2023, noting the nine gunshot wounds and actions during his flight.

Did anyone at the gathering or in the neighborhood notice anything in the hours leading up to the shooting that might clarify why Rea-Villa and Morrissette were together that night?