PHOENIX – An arrest has been made in connection with the homicide investigation surrounding Mercedes Vega, a 22-year-old Tempe woman who was killed in April 2023.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office announced Monday that it had arrested a 22-year-old man Sencere Hayes about the murder.

Hayes was arrested on November 11 in Tennessee. MCSO says they are working with the Maricopa County Prosecutor’s Office to extradite Hayes back to Maricopa County.

What else is known about the Vega investigation?

Vega’s body was located in a vehicle that caught fire outside of Tonopah on April 17, 2023, around 12:30 p.m., according to a Silent Witness poster.

Media accounts citing the medical examiner’s report say the cause of death was smoke inhalation and burns. But there were also signs of blunt force trauma, a gunshot wound and bleach to the throat.

Vega’s family has been searching for answers since the loss of their daughter. Very little other information about Vega’s death had been released, but the family believed they had some knowledge prior to the event.

Pillsbury joined KTAR News 92.3 FM The Chris and Joe Show on July 16 and said she believed her daughter’s slaying might be related to a robbery she suffered three years before her death.

The robbery took place in October 2020 outside a Phoenix apartment complex where Vega lived.

“She was held at gunpoint and pushed to the ground and her life was threatened,” Pillsbury said.

Pillsbury said Vega was so traumatized by the incident that she refused to return to her apartment.

“I couldn’t even walk behind her without her falling to her knees and crying because she was so terrified,” Pillsbury said.

Pillsbury mentioned the potential robbery connection to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, but investigators told him there was no connection.

“When the police came to our house and asked us three or four questions … they said, ‘Did Mercedes have a gun?’ Was he right-handed or left-handed? Did he have a reason to be in Tonopah, Arizona? And they took his address. That was it,” Pillsbury said.

Another agency recently contacted Vega, but not about the murder case.

“I got a call from the Maricopa County District Attorney’s Office about a month ago asking me to speak to my dead child, who has been dead for over a year, and tell him that the man who held the o at gunpoint will be prosecuted. Pillsbury said.

The investigation into the crime remains ongoing.