Navy Veteran's 1987 Murder Solved 39 Years Later

DNA Gives a 1987 Murder Case an Answer

Arizona investigators say DNA has identified Gary Wayne Billups as the suspect in the 1987 killing of U.S. Navy veteran Orison James “Jim” Chafin. The announcement came 39 years after Chafin was found dead at Resthaven Cemetery in Glendale.

Chafin was 54 and had served in the Navy during the Korean War. His killing remained unsolved for decades, with no DNA match and no arrest. The Arizona Attorney General’s Cold Case Unit reopened the case with Glendale police in 2025 and began reviewing the original file again.

Investigators re-interviewed surviving witnesses and returned to evidence collected in 1987. That review led them to Billups, who had lived in Glendale around the time of the killing but had not been interviewed during the original investigation.

A Voluntary DNA Sample Became the Turning Point

Investigators first tried to speak with Billups in March 2026, but he declined. On June 19, detectives located him again, and he voluntarily went to the Surprise Police Department for an interview.

According to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, Billups denied knowing Chafin and denied living in Glendale in 1987, even though arrest records placed him in the city around that period. He also provided a DNA sample before being released.

Billups died by suicide five days later, on June 24. Laboratory results were returned Aug. 6 and, authorities said, matched his DNA to evidence recovered from the 1987 scene.

The timing meant the case would not proceed toward an arrest or trial. Two other people who had been investigated in connection with the homicide had also died.

The Case Closed Without a Courtroom

Because Billups is dead, prosecutors cannot file charges and a jury will never hear the evidence. That makes this resolution different from a cold case that ends with a conviction.

The Arizona Attorney General’s Office and Glendale Police Department nevertheless consider the case closed based on the DNA evidence and their renewed investigation. Officials said the result provided an answer in a case that had remained open for nearly four decades.

Chafin is survived by a niece and nephew. For them, the new conclusion arrives without the possibility of a criminal prosecution, but it does end the long period in which authorities could not identify the person they believed was responsible.

Old Evidence Had One More Chance to Speak

The case turned not on a newly discovered witness or a confession, but on preserved evidence and a DNA sample collected in 2026. That combination allowed investigators to compare material from two different eras of the same case.

For decades, there was no match. Once modern testing gave investigators one, the mystery narrowed quickly. The result came too late for a prosecution, but not too late for authorities to say they had identified the suspect they had been seeking since 1987.

References: Arizona Attorney General - DNA Evidence Identifies Suspect in 1987 Murder of Jim Chafin | People - Navy Vet Was Murdered in 1987. Suspect Recently Gave DNA Sample

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