On the evening of April 10, 1978, 12- or 13-year-old Pamela Newton left her home in Tempe after an argument and was seen walking toward a nearby convenience store. Witnesses later reported seeing her that night playing video games and talking with an unidentified man; that was the last time anyone saw her alive. The next morning a person walking a dog found her body on the Southern Pacific railroad tracks near Main Street and Broadway Road in Mesa. Although the body had been struck by a train, the autopsy showed Pamela had been strangled with a rope before being placed on the tracks.

The Mesa Police Department investigated and a reward was offered, but no suspects have been publicly named and no arrests were announced. Friends and classmates remembered Pamela as a vibrant, sometimes troubled, junior high student. Her murder remains an unsolved cold case. If anyone knew Pamela, saw her that night, or has information about the unidentified man or the circumstances around Main Street and Broadway Road on April 10–11, 1978, please come forward.