AZ AZ - Melissa Mason & Nicole Glass, both 27, Phoenix, 3 December 2010

Nancy2441

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Two women found dead in a Phoenix home were killed by strangulation, according the medical examiner on Tuesday.

Sgt. Steve Martos said 27-year-old Melissa Mason and 27-year-old Nicole Glass were found dead in a home near 40th Street and Thomas Road on Friday.

Martos said the victims were found by a friend who went to the house and checked through a window in the back.

Police had to force their way in and there was no sign of forced entry into the home, Martos said.

He said the victims were last heard from Thursday morning.



http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/regio...men-found-dead-in-phoenix-home-were-strangled
 
http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/regio...hers-of-strangled-young-women-to-ask-for-help

Mothers of strangled young women to ask for help

Posted: 12/13/2010

By: Brian Webb

PHOENIX - An unsolved double murder is now classified as a triple homicide after Phoenix Police confirmed one of the victims was pregnant when she was killed.

Melissa Mason was 8 weeks pregnant, according to police, when she was strangled in her home earlier this month with roomate Nicole Glass.

..........................snip................................

In the meantime, the police investigation is drying up.

The women, both 27, were found dead December 3rd at their home near 40th Street and Cambridge.

There were no signs of forced entry. Police said they were strangled with some type of cord.

Glass was connected to, then cleared, in a recent drug investigation, and both women had ties to local Gentlemen's clubs.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<full article at link>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
 
http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/crime/mothers-strangled-women-ask-for-help-apx-12132010

"Not only did they take (Melissa's) life, but they also took my unborn grandbaby, and that would have been the first," Mason's mother, Sandra Minjarez of Tucson, said through tears during a news
conference after holding up her daughter's positive pregnancy test.

The test was found in the women's house, inside a plastic baggy with "Merry X-mas!" written on it with a black marker.

"Now all we have is memories, and our lives will never be the same," Minjarez said.
...........................snip...............................
Minjarez said her daughter had just graduated from Pima Medical Institute and was hoping to become a dental hygienist. Police said Mason was working as a bartender at a Phoenix strip club called Sweet Spot.

Glass pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement in a 2009 drug investigation that involved dozens of defendants, but police said her family told them the case was to be appealed. Online court documents show she was sentenced to probation.

.............................snip.................................

Police Sgt. Steve Martos said investigators are looking at all aspects of the women's lives in hopes of finding suspects, but he said none have emerged. Martos said the father of Mason's baby has been extremely cooperative and was not a suspect.

Frank Vanzucchi, managing general partner of Pantera Show Club, said Mason worked at the Phoenix strip club as a bartender for about three years and Glass worked there as a bartender for about four years before they both moved on in 2008. He described the women as "real good girls, real smart," and said they left the club on good term.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<full article at link>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
 
I wonder if someone followed one of them home from the club? Did she reject a man and he was wasted and got pizzed off about it?

I pray they find the perp(s) soon!!!

or were their murders related to this?

Police have not connected any other criminal activity to the case, but Glass was listed as a defendant in a case involving 60 others, many of them facing serious charges of theft, drug violations, kidnapping and prostitution.

The money laundering, conspiracy, and illegal control of an enterprise charges were dropped against Glass, but sentencing and even more trials for other defendants are ongoing.


more here

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/crime/strange-twist-in-case-of-2-young-women-murdered-12042010
 
This is horrible, the worst. Gang, Mafia type stuff or whatever it's called now. Here's an example in the article with link provided again. Yeah, listed in 60 other cases...

The county attorney dismissed charges against Glass, but circumstances surrounding this murder case suggest there might be more to the killing.

Police have not connected any other criminal activity to the case, but Glass was listed as a defendant in a case involving 60 others, many of them facing serious charges of theft, drug violations, kidnapping and prostitution.

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/crime/strange-twist-in-case-of-2-young-women-murdered-12042010

Just guessing.
This is a deeper investigation than anyone could expect. JMO More power to LE to solve it.
 
This case has me completely baffled. The one distinct reason it has me baffled is because it takes TIME to actually strangle someone to death. I've read it can take something like 3-4 total minutes from beginning to end. It is not a quick way to murder someone. So, for this murderer to have killed both girls, he had to do one after the other- but he sure had to have a lot of faith he wouldn't get caught in the act by the one who would have been the last to be strangled, or he had to have laid in wait for one to get home, if they were not there at the same time.

Which would also have to mean, IMO- at least, that he very likely had to have known the girls. I think, anyway. Because they had to have let him in the house! I cannot recall where I read it, but I heard somewhere that the girls had always kept their house locked, when not home- and when they were home. It sounded like the girls were very security conscious. Which leads me to believe that one or both of them allowed him into the house, and somehow, he was able to lock it up after he had 'finished' with his evil tasks. Ugh...

I feel so terribly for these young ladies' families and friends! I cannot imagine how they must feel. How tragic, to have your daughter snatched from you, and then, for one family, to find out you also lost an unborn grandchild??? Oh, I cannot fathom how awful that was. My deepest sympathies lie with these girls and their friends and families.
 
This is horrible, the worst. Gang, Mafia type stuff or whatever it's called now. Here's an example in the article with link provided again. Yeah, listed in 60 other cases...

The county attorney dismissed charges against Glass, but circumstances surrounding this murder case suggest there might be more to the killing.

Police have not connected any other criminal activity to the case, but Glass was listed as a defendant in a case involving 60 others, many of them facing serious charges of theft, drug violations, kidnapping and prostitution.

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/crime/strange-twist-in-case-of-2-young-women-murdered-12042010

Just guessing.
This is a deeper investigation than anyone could expect. JMO More power to LE to solve it.


Great! This article just adds to my confusion! So many things I didnt know. Melissa owned the home. But it was in forclosure? However, it said that, in November, the "Trustee's sale was canceled". I don't understand what that means? Who's the trustee, and why was the sale cancelled? Does that mean her home was no longer in foreclosure? Wow. So many questions.

The only thing I can think that might link Melissa Glass's murder with this criminal case is the fact that her charges were dismissed. I wonder if someone thought that her charges were dismissed because she "Talked" and maybe rolled over on other defendants? Not sure what else to think? But even if this were the case, why was her roommate murdered at an obviously separate time? To eliminate a witness? That's all I can imagine....
 
After reading the above ideas, how about:

Man one of them knew came to the door late at night. She lets him in. He strangles her; and if with a cord at hand, then due to an altercation, in other words, unplanned. That wakes up the other woman, who comes in, and he strangles her, too. About the locked door, he could've been acting on auto-pilot, to lock a door you're going out; but maybe, he had a habit of locking that specific door--he'd been there often enough before to know to do that and to have left "on his own," not shown out, before.
 
I registered with this forum for the sole purpose of this particular case. It took place in my city, and the media has completely lost interest in it. The last media report from a week or so ago basically reports that the trail has gone cold, and police have no leads.

Someone made his way into this house and strangled a young woman to death, then strangled a second one to death. He is now roaming around a free man, probably somewhere in Phoenix. The area where these girls live is not especially bad. That part of the city, near Arcadia, is gradually becoming a very hip and popular place for young professionals and couples to live. That one block may not have been an upscale one, but the region in general is the kind where you can drive down one really bad block and encounter another block with beautiful homes and sculpted front lawns right next to it. I have many friends who live in Arcadia. So, this one hits home.

Who killed these girls?
 
Great! This article just adds to my confusion! So many things I didnt know. Melissa owned the home. But it was in forclosure? However, it said that, in November, the "Trustee's sale was canceled". I don't understand what that means? Who's the trustee, and why was the sale cancelled? Does that mean her home was no longer in foreclosure? Wow. So many questions.

Melissa owned the home. It went into foreclosure. Then, the auction at which the house was supposed to be sold as part of the foreclosure was cancelled. This can happen for many routine reasons, such as: the bank reached an agreement with the homeowner to short-sale the house; an error in paperwork; a bankruptcy filing by the homeowner (although this has not been mentioned in the media; and other such things. The "trustee" is just a corporate representative of some bank or institution. This is normally never anyone with a personal connection to the homeowner.

The only thing I draw from this is that Melissa was in financial distress, as many homeowners in Phoenix have been over the past couple of years because they took on too much debt to buy too much house.


UPDATE: I reviewed some of her property documents, which anyone can by searching for her name at the Recorder's website: http://recorder.maricopa.gov/recdocdata/getrecdataselect2.aspx

Her timeline of events is a textbook case of what happened in Phoenix en masse from 2008 to the present.

In October 2006, she bought the home for what apparently was a reasonable sum, borrowing only $60,400 to do so. Loans were easy to get in that time period.

In October 2008, right before or around the same time as the market plunged, she managed to borrow a total of $320,679 on the home. I assume this was a second mortgage.

In April 2009, it looks like that loan was transferred to another bank.

In November 2009, foreclosure proceedings were commenced.

In November 2010, foreclosure proceedings were halted, at least temporarily.

Because I'm no expert in interpreting these title and property documents, it's not clear to me whether she owed a total of around $325,000 on the home, or that amount plus the original $60,400 for a total of about $385,400. But whether she owed 325K or 385K, it's obvious that her waitress salary was not going to allow her to sustain her debt. She also wanted to go back to school, and God knows how she was going to pay for that.

Her stress from all this must have been tremendous. Given the foreclosure proceedings, and given her work experience in a strip club, I speculate that she may have been experimenting with creative ways to get herself out of the bind her youthful and naive ways had gotten her into.
 
FWIW and IMHO, this case is going to go cold for a while.

I think it's solveable. I wouldn't even doubt if LE may pretty well already KNOW, who the perp is.

I think one of the girls got in over her head and paid the ultimate price. Unfortunately, her friend may have been included in that price.:(

JMHO
fran
 
I'm a distant relation of Nicole. Though she was my cousin, I never got to meet her. When word of this went around the family, we were all shocked and horrified at her fate. But the fact that this is unsolved especially bugs me. As far as I know, this is the first time anyone in our extended family was murdered. I hope some detective somewhere is still thinking about this case and will soon track down the killer(s).
 
This case has me completely baffled. The one distinct reason it has me baffled is because it takes TIME to actually strangle someone to death. I've read it can take something like 3-4 total minutes from beginning to end. It is not a quick way to murder someone. So, for this murderer to have killed both girls, he had to do one after the other- but he sure had to have a lot of faith he wouldn't get caught in the act by the one who would have been the last to be strangled, or he had to have laid in wait for one to get home, if they were not there at the same time.

Which would also have to mean, IMO- at least, that he very likely had to have known the girls. I think, anyway. Because they had to have let him in the house! I cannot recall where I read it, but I heard somewhere that the girls had always kept their house locked, when not home- and when they were home. It sounded like the girls were very security conscious. Which leads me to believe that one or both of them allowed him into the house, and somehow, he was able to lock it up after he had 'finished' with his evil tasks. Ugh...

I feel so terribly for these young ladies' families and friends! I cannot imagine how they must feel. How tragic, to have your daughter snatched from you, and then, for one family, to find out you also lost an unborn grandchild??? Oh, I cannot fathom how awful that was. My deepest sympathies lie with these girls and their friends and families.

BBM
Perp may have had made a copy of the house key without anyone knowing it... may have picked lock and hid inside house before anyone got home..
all IMO .... seems like this is a hit of sorts, related to something either gal got into because of serious need to make money...
 
http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/crime/mothers-strangled-women-ask-for-help-apx-12132010

"Glass pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement in a 2009 drug investigation that involved dozens of defendants, but police said her family told them the case was to be appealed. Online court documents show she was sentenced to probation."

respectfully snipped**

if she was part of a drug investigation and only got probation, i'm going to put my bet on she may have turned states evidence against some of her dozens of codefendants? maybe she gave up some names, and whether gang related or not, they came back to get her for snitching?

if it was a gang order, the other girl there could have been killed for just being there and a witness in the wrong place wrong time (even though she was her roommate).

if this is a gang killing, it could have been ordered from someone inside or someone outside even. depends on who she gave up if she did. i'd guess she gave up names to get such a reduced sentence.

also if it was a "gang" order it could have been more than one murderer present.
 
It seems to me that whoever did this (he, she or they) is/are probably the one(s) that would have the most to lose if one or both of these girls lived. So, I am leaning toward it having to do with something one or both knew about criminal activity. I could be way off but that is a large number of other defendents in that investigation. And some pretty serious charges.
 

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