Witness and best friend of 1996 cold case murder victim share new details after bombshell arrest
By Briana Whitney
Click here for updates on this story
PINETOP-LAKESIDE, Arizona (KPHO) — After nearly three decades, Pinetop-Lakeside Police made a bombshell arrest in the 1996 cold case murder of a music store employee. Police still believe there may be another person of interest out there, but for the first time, the woman who found the victim and called 911 is sharing what happened inside that music store so many years ago, and the victim’s best friend shares more about who he was.
“When I talked to you, I went to the hope chest and picked it up. Other than that, I haven’t ever opened it,” said Stephanie Jackson. The box had been sealed shut since 1996 and it admittedly opened wounds for Jackson that never got a chance to fully heal. “Two roses from his funeral,” she showed us among several newspaper clippings.
It’s what she has left of the man she looked up to, like a brother, Jody Hemphill. “Good memories, that’s what you remember. You remember the good memories. You try to ignore what you saw,” Jackson said.
Jackson worked at the Lakeside video store called Rent-A-Flik, just one door down from where Hemphill worked at the Mountain Edge Tapes & CD store. Hemphill would rent movies from Jackson all the time. “This is Jody’s last one. If you look, 11-4-96 was the last day that he rented one,” she showed us on Hemphill’s video rental card she still keeps in the memory box.
Because two days later, she found herself in a real-life horror film that’s left her numb for nearly 30 years. Hemphill was late to come meet her, so she walked over to the store and found his body behind the store counter. “He was stabbed multiple times and yeah. His throat was slit from ear to ear,” Jackson painfully recalled.
She called 911 right away and gave police a description of the man she saw lingering inside the CD store just about a half hour before; that’s how they created a sketch of the man they were looking for. But for years, nobody knew who did it. “Absolutely crazy. I just figured the guy got away with it,” said Jackson.
Until out of the blue, an unexpected social media post popped up from the Pinetop-Lakeside Police Department a week ago. “When I saw the release from the news the other day, I almost fell over,” said Shane Dodd, Hemphill’s best friend. Detectives announced last week new evidence came to light after a recent interview and led to the arrest of 45-year-old Romeo Massey Jr. from Whiteriver. “I just wish this would have come before his parents passed away. His parents were just wonderful people,” said Dodd. “We said everything there was to say. We knew, we knew we had each other’s backs at all costs.”
Neither Dodd nor Jackson recognizes the man now charged and believe it was a senseless crime of opportunity. Police are still looking for a person of interest that could have been involved, hoping people will share the sketch they have from 1996.
But for Hemphill’s friends, it’s not just a feeling of closure but a reminder that he mattered and his fate wasn’t forgotten even after all these years. “Like you see the cold case movies and all that, but I didn’t really think any of that was true,” said Jackson. “I guess it just takes the right detective to look at it.”
The police department wouldn’t share the new evidence that led to the arrest. Anyone with information on who that other person of interest could be is urged to call Detective Ricky Bunch at the Pinetop-Lakeside Police Department at (928) 368-8800 or the WeTIP anonymous hotline at 1-800-782-7463.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
