On the evening of May 17, 2005, Tony Mendez, a 38-year-old construction worker, was riding his bicycle in Phoenix when he was fatally shot. First responders initially treated the scene as a hit-and-run, but examiners found a gunshot wound to his back. At the time he was reportedly on his way to bring candles to a family without electricity.

Mendez’s killing was the first in a 14-month span of seemingly random nighttime shootings across the Phoenix metropolitan area that targeted pedestrians, bicyclists and animals. Investigators later linked the series to two roommates, Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman, after a tip led to arrests in August 2006; a map found among their belongings had markings near some of the shooting locations. Dieteman pleaded guilty to two murders and agreed to testify against his roommate. Hausner was charged with Mendez’s murder but was acquitted of that particular charge; he was convicted on numerous other murders and related counts. Dieteman received life without parole and Hausner later died by suicide in prison.

Does anyone have information about Tony’s route that evening or remember seeing him in Phoenix on May 17, 2005?