Chilling theory after dancer found tortured to death with face soaked in bleach

Police believe one of the suspects in the murder of Mercedes Vega threatened her at gunpoint outside the club where she worked and that she was due to testify against him.

The dancer's remains were found inside a burning car with her face covered in bleach in April 2023. She was planning to meet her friend in Tempe, Arizona, but never arrived. Police had already charged two men but now believe a third person could have been involved in her death.

It has been revealed suspect Cudjoe Young was charged with armed robbery before - and Ms Vega had named him as the suspect. Back in 2020, she was ambushed by a masked gunman who demanded she handed over all her possessions. The criminal then threatened to kill her, before shoving her to the floor and running from the scene.

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Police have confirmed she was due to appear in court on the day she was found dead. NBC News report that the Maricopa County force believe Young should be charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Gloves and bleach were discovered in the front of the car, with lighter fluid found in the backseat.

“We’ve felt like we’ve been drowning in a sea of despair and grief for two and a half years,” said the dancer's mother Erika Pillsbury. “And now we’ve been thrown a life preserver. The people that are responsible for murdering my little daughter are hopefully going to face justice."

The man attempted to hack into Vega’s phone after snatching her mobile, police believe. He was unable gain access A spokesman for the Scottsdale Police Department, which investigated the robbery, said investigators did the best they could with the information they had at the time.

Two other men have been charged in connection with her death. Jared Gray, currently in a Georgia jail, faces first-degree murder and kidnapping charges. Sencere Hayes has also been charged with her murder. He has pleaded not guilty. Police say his fingerprint was found on a bloody grocery bag in her car.

Her father Tom Pillsbury spoke outside court of his torment at coming face-to-face with Hayes. “It’s very hard for me to sit there and not want to reach over the counter and grab him and basically take his life," he said. "It’s what we needed to do. But to know that this person is still on this planet and my daughter’s not, and this is the person that supposedly did this, is very hard to swallow.

“He had to figure out Mercedes, what she did, where she was at, where she lived and all that stuff, and there’s no way he could have figured that out without somebody helping him." Makenzie Lockhart, a long-term friend of the tragic woman, says he is convinced multiple people were involved in her death.

“You change your pain a little bit,” her mum Erika said as 22-year-old Hayes appeared in court. “It changes. It’s been a year and a half since she was murdered so horribly. And that was the main, main focus that I would think about all the time before I knew that somebody was going to be held accountable.”