A routine welfare check at a home on Ver Mesquite Lane in Litchfield Park turned into a homicide investigation this week after Avondale police officers discovered human remains buried in the backyard. Family members had asked officers to check on a husband, wife, and their 27-year-old adult son, Matthew Flores, whom detectives now believe fled the country before officers ever set foot inside the house.
Welfare Check Turns Into Foul-Play Discovery
According to FOX 10 Phoenix, Avondale officers entered the home on Tuesday with help from a family member to conduct the welfare check, only to find signs that foul play may have occurred. Investigators said what began as an initial missing persons case involving suspicious circumstances quickly escalated once officers examined the property. Per KTAR.com, the home sits along Ver Mesquite Lane near Indian School Road and Wigwam Boulevard, squarely inside Litchfield Park's residential core, while the earlier FOX 10 report placed the residence near Spring Street and Wigwam Boulevard.
Police say they later found unidentified human remains buried in the backyard, and detectives are now investigating the missing persons case as a homicide. Avondale police have not disclosed whether the remains belong to the husband and wife who were the subject of the original welfare check request. The department said it is continuing to work with local agencies to recover the remains, and officers withheld the names of the husband and wife at the family's request.
Son Believed to Have Fled Before Police Arrived
Detectives believe Matthew Flores, the 27-year-old son in the family, had already left the country by the time officers arrived to check on the household Tuesday. Avondale police are asking anyone with information on Flores's whereabouts or details related to the homicide case to call the department's crime tip line at 623-333-7001 or reach out to Silent Witness, which offers anonymity and potential cash rewards for tips leading to an arrest, per KTAR.com.
If a suspect has crossed into another country, tracking foreign leads and coordinating any extradition back to the United States typically falls to the U.S. Marshals Service's Office of International Operations, the federal lead agency for such cases. International extradition requires diplomatic coordination under treaties with the country involved, a process that can stretch on for months even once a suspect's location is confirmed.
Why Avondale, Not Litchfield Park Police, Is Leading the Case
Litchfield Park has not run its own police force since mid-2021, when the city ended its longstanding contract with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. The City of Litchfield Park now contracts all public safety and policing services through the City of Avondale Police Department, which is why Avondale officers and detectives are the ones leading a homicide investigation inside Litchfield Park's municipal boundaries. Litchfield Park's city council voted unanimously in April 2021 to make the switch, aiming to secure dedicated beat officers, a sergeant, and faster local response times; the change cost the city roughly $1.518 million in its first year, according to the Daily Independent.
Avondale Police Department, which runs 24-hour emergency response for both cities out of its headquarters at 11485 W. Civic Center Drive, shares dispatch and administrative resources across Avondale and Litchfield Park. Litchfield Park is a small, master-planned West Valley community, with an estimated 2026 population of just 6,708 residents, a median household income of $126,250, and a low poverty rate of 3.85 percent — an affluent, low-density suburb built around the historic Wigwam Resort area, according to World Population Review data.
Potential Legal Exposure Under State Law
Whoever is ultimately connected to concealing the remains could face serious criminal exposure. Under Arizona Revised Statutes § 13-2926, knowingly moving or concealing a human body with intent to abandon or hide it is a Class 5 felony under state law, a classification that carries mandatory state prison sentencing considerations. Official identification of the remains and determination of cause of death rest with the Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner, which handles nearly 10,000 annual death reports across 9,200 square miles using board-certified forensic pathologists and anthropologists. No identification or cause of death has been released as of this writing.
The case follows other recent public safety incidents Avondale police have handled inside Litchfield Park, including a shooting on a quiet street in June and a house-party shooting that sent several people to the hospital in April. Litchfield Park also encourages residents to form volunteer Neighborhood Block Watch groups paired with assigned Avondale officers, and residents can request vacation checks through Avondale PD dispatch as an added layer of community monitoring.
