New blood evidence confirmed in Mercedes Vega unsolved murder case

TEMPE, AZ (AZFamily) — Forensic testing in the Mercedes Vega murder case shows the young woman was attacked in her apartment parking garage one day before she was found burning alive in a car in April 2023.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that blood found in the garage next to her car parking spot is a match to Vega.

This new information confirms Vega was attacked and badly hurt inside the parking garage seconds after we see her walking to her car on surveillance video, which is the last time she’s seen alive.

Her parents believe the little bits of new information we’re learning mean her murder is closer to being solved, but it’s unfolding at a time when they must also be Vega’s voice in a different court case where she was a victim years before her death.

“Based on the way the car was parked and where the blood splatters were, I believe she was turned backwards and opening her door, and they hit her from behind,” said Tom Pillsbury, Vega’s dad.

Vega’s parents, Erika and Tom Pillsbury, said that shortly after she was found burning alive in a car off Interstate 10 near Tonopah, they went back to The Aubrey apartments in Tempe to retrace their daughter’s steps.

Erika said she saw a bloody tennis shoe print and had hoped it wasn’t Vega because she often wore heels or flip-flops, but when they saw the surveillance footage of her walking to her car in the parking garage on April 16, 2023, her heart sank.

“I saw she was wearing tennis shoes. [That] completely further confirmed to me that it was her blood,” said Erika.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said Vega was found the next day miles away in the burning car. Her autopsy showed blunt force trauma, a gunshot wound, and bleach in her throat.

That parking garage crime scene was in a place her parents thought was safe for their daughter.

“We purposefully went to The Aubrey because we felt it was safe and she wasn’t on the first floor,” said Erika.

The reason why she moved in the first place was because of an incident years prior.

A Phoenix Police report shows in October 2020, Vega was held at gunpoint and robbed of her belongings by a man named Cudjoe Young.

Her mom was called to the scene when it happened.

“She was shaking so bad, she was so terrified, so I took her. She wanted the police to stand there until we actually drove away,” said Erika through tears.

Phoenix Police charged Young with armed robbery after Vega picked him out of a photo lineup.

Before Vega died, she had prepared a victim impact statement for the case.

“She read it to me, so I know her cadence and what she was really focused on,” said Erika.

Despite Vega’s death years later, this armed robbery case is still in court but keeps getting delayed.

As of now, a trial is set for early October, but Erika said whether it makes it to trial or ends in a plea deal, she will read Vega’s victim impact statement in front of the suspect and be her daughter’s voice in court.

“She sounded so strong and I’m going to feel empowered by her to read it and take her words, and the fact that he is going to have to sit there and listen to them,” said Erika. “She’ll be right there with me, and I know it.” The next status hearing in the armed robbery case is later this month.

Young was arrested in November of last year in a separate Tempe narcotics operation and has been in custody ever since.

MCSO said right now, they cannot link Young to Vega’s death.

They said at the time of her death, Young was not in custody but was wearing an ankle monitor.

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