Tempe police are asking the public to help them track down a gray 2012 Ford Focus SE hatchback that investigators believe is connected to the unsolved murder of a pregnant 23-year-old woman shot to death in her apartment nearly eight years ago. Shiann Peace was killed on January 3, 2019, in the area of Rural and Broadway roads, and because she was pregnant at the time of her death, Tempe police classify the case as a double homicide investigation.
Police released photos of the gray hatchback Wednesday, saying investigators believe the vehicle is connected to the case even though they do not believe the suspect owned the car, according to 12News. Anyone with information is asked to contact Tempe police at 480-350-8311. It remains unclear how detectives pinpointed the make and model of the car so many years after the shooting, or who may have been driving it that night.
A Chaotic Scene on Granada Drive
When officers first responded to the apartment complex at 2012 S. Granada Drive near Rural and Broadway roads back in January 2019, they found a scene marked by roughly a dozen bullet holes across the victim's apartment door, wall, and window, according to 12News's reporting from that time. Baby car seats were visible inside through a shattered rear window. Neighbors told reporters they heard gunshots late that Thursday night, followed by people fleeing the apartment screaming.
Those same neighbors said the unit where Peace lived had a reputation for late-night gatherings and loud verbal arguments after midnight in the period before the shooting, the earlier report noted. At the time, Tempe police said the investigation was in its early stages and they did not have an immediate suspect description, a gap that has apparently persisted for close to eight years.
Why This Counts as a Double Homicide
Arizona law explains why Peace's death is being treated as two homicides rather than one. Under Arizona Revised Statutes § 13-1105, a person commits first-degree murder if they intend or know their conduct will cause death and do cause the death of another person, and the statute explicitly defines that victim to include an unborn child at any stage of development in the womb, according to the state legislature's published code.
A related statute, Arizona Revised Statutes § 13-1104, classifies intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causing the death of an unborn child — or causing the death of an unborn child while causing the death of the mother — as second-degree murder, a Class 1 felony, per AZ Defenders. Arizona is among at least 38 states with fetal homicide laws that recognize an unborn child as a separate victim in violent crimes, according to background compiled on Wikipedia.
How the Public Can Help
Tempe police did not detail how tipsters should reach detectives beyond the phone line, but Maricopa County's broader Silent Witness program offers cash rewards of up to $2,000 for anonymous tips that lead to a felony arrest or indictment in homicide investigations, per the City of Tolleson, Arizona. That program coordinates tips across municipal law enforcement agencies throughout the county.
Tempe police also maintain digital tools, including a Real Time Operations Center and direct evidence upload portals, that let community members submit security camera footage or vehicle video tied to active investigations, according to the City of Tempe. The department, accredited under the Arizona Law Enforcement Accreditation Program, serves a municipal population of more than 190,000 with round-the-clock patrol and emergency response.
Cases like this one now fall under the National Incident-Based Reporting System, which the Tempe Police Department fully adopted in January 2022 to track multiple offenses and victim relationships within a single incident, per the city's own crime-statistics page. FBI data cited by Wikipedia put Tempe's 2024 violent crime rate at roughly 470 per 100,000 residents, with a murder rate near 2.6 per 100,000 — figures that offer some context for a city where a case like Peace's homicide has gone unsolved for years. For now, investigators are hoping the image of a gray Ford Focus succeeds where nearly eight years of silence has not.
