Phoenix, Arizona: Arrest Made 13 Years After Security Guard Jeffrey Bellemare Was Killed in Maryvale

Nearly 13 years after an unarmed security guard was shot and killed at work at a Maryvale apartment complex, Phoenix police say they have made an arrest in the cold case. Police announced on Monday that cold case detectives identified the suspect as Joe Gerardo, 43, and that he was arrested in Globe on November 3.

Gerardo was booked into the Maricopa County Jail on one count of first degree murder in the death of Jeffrey Bellemare, 59, the Arizona Republic reported. Details about Gerardo's criminal case, including his attorney, were not immediately available on November 9, and police have not said what the possible motive was.

The night Bellemare was killed

Bellemare was working an overnight shift at Graybriar Apartments, at 3810 North Maryvale Parkway near 55th Avenue and Indian School Road, when he was shot at about 1:30 a.m. on November 29, 2013. He was unarmed and in uniform. His shift had begun on Thanksgiving Day, and he had left his family's Thanksgiving dinner to go to work, the Republic reported.

Police have said two people confronted Bellemare in a dark portion of the apartment complex and shot him twice with a .40 caliber weapon before getting back in a car and driving away. He was pronounced dead within 15 minutes. Witnesses said a man and a woman ran from the scene.

New information broke the case

Phoenix Police Sgt. John Buchanan said homicide detectives worked numerous leads in the months and years after the killing. "Through further diligent investigation, Homicide Cold Case detectives identified the suspect in this incident as 43-year-old Joe Gerardo," Buchanan said, in remarks carried by FOX 10 Phoenix.

Police say new information received this year gave detectives their break. The department has not described that information. Bellemare's widow credited the cold case work of Detectives Dominick Roestenberg and Kendall Nunley, the Republic reported.

A family that waited 13 years

Bellemare was a husband and a father of two. He had worked most of his life as a commercial carpenter in Orange County, California. The family moved to Surprise in 2005, and he retired about five years later, then trained and got certified as a security guard to stay busy and to add to his retirement income, his wife Karan Bellemare told the Republic.

"It's always been a hard time of year for us. ... You never get over it," Karan Bellemare said on November 9. "All of us feel bittersweet. We miss him. He's missing out on things he should be here for." She said her husband did not deserve what happened to him: "He just did not deserve this at all."

The family is not certain whether more arrests will follow in the case. Gerardo is charged, not convicted, and his case will move through the Maricopa County court system. For the family, the arrest lands just before Thanksgiving and just before the 13th anniversary of the killing, in the same stretch of the calendar that has been hard for them every year since 2013.

Karan Bellemare said she hopes the arrest gives hope to other families with cold cases. After 13 years, Phoenix police say the man they accuse of killing Jeffrey Bellemare is in jail in the county where the shooting happened, and the case is in court hands now.