FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 17, 2008
CONTACT: Matt Barnett
Public Information Officer
623-930-3276

UPDATE**********UPDATE
Sawyer Gets 13 Years for Wife's Murder

On August 31, 1981, Glendale Police Officers and Detectives went to 5200 W. Phelps where an adult female had been found. The female was a victim of an obvious homicide.

The case was reviewed periodically through the years but nothing new came up. Glendale Police Department “Cold Case” Detective Roger Geisler traveled to Arvada, Colorado to re-contact the victim’s husband in an attempt to develop new leads. During the interview, Raymond Sawyer, the victim’s husband at that time, broke down and confessed revealing details he had never revealed before that only the murderer would have known.

On April 2, 2007, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office filed first degree murder charges against Raymond Sawyer and he was subsequently arrested by Arvada, Colorado investigators.

On March 17, 2008, he received a sentence of 13 years in prison for second degree murder handed down by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge T. Anderson.

Case Background

On August 31, 1981, Glendale Police Officers and Detectives went to 5200 W. Phelps where an adult female had been found. The female was a victim of an obvious homicide.

The victim, Frances Sawyer, originally appeared to have been sexually assaulted and had been strangled to death. According to her husband, Raymond Sawyer, she was on her way to Metrocenter Mall. That lead as well as others were pursued, but the case remained unsolved.

The case was reviewed periodically through the years but nothing new came up. Glendale Police Department “Cold Case” Detective, Roger Geisler, traveled to Arvada, Colorado to re-contact the victim’s husband in an attempt to develop new leads. During the interview, Raymond Sawyer, the victim’s husband at that time, broke down and confessed revealing details he had never revealed before that only the murderer would have known.

On April 2, 2007, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office filed first degree murder charges against Raymond Sawyer and he was subsequently arrested by Arvada, Colorado investigators.