A 25-year-old Arizona woman reported missing earlier his month was found shot to death in a car next to the body of a man her family said had been stalking her.
Doris Maricela Aguilar was reported missing on July 1, after she told family she was heading to the store and didn’t return, KPNX reported. Her car was found abandoned, with her personal belongings inside.
Days later, another car was found with the bodies of a man and a woman inside. On Friday, police identified them as Aguilar and 51-year-old Juan Jose Velis Cuellar, a former co-worker of Aguilar’s that her family said had been stalking her for months.
Both Aguilar and Cuellar died from gunshot wounds, and Cuellar’s was self-inflicted, according to the Office of the Medical Examiner.
Steve Fischer, a private investigator hired by the family to find Aguilar, said that Cuellar had been stalking her for more than a year. They met when both were working at a distribution center, he said, but Cuellar was fired after allegedly making inappropriate advances toward Aguilar.
“She had made it clear to her family that she was scared of him to the point that where she had told family that something happened to her, that it would be him that would be responsible,” said Fischer.
After he left the job, Fischer said, Cuellar followed Aguilar to multiple gyms, sending her dozens of messages alternating between telling her he loved her to sending threats.
“The poor girl was just scared to death of him,” Fischer said.
Police did not confirm Fischer’s information but did say that Cuellar and Aguilar were acquainted.
Cuellar and Aguilar were found dead in a car parked at a steakhouse parking lot in west Phoenix, KSAZ reported. Police said the bodies appeared to have been in the car for several days.
A firearm was found in the vehicle.
