Jim Chafin Update (Sept. 2026): DNA Names a Suspect in a 1987 Arizona Killing, 39 Years On

Short version — Arizona says it knows who killed Jim Chafin in 1987. It will never prove it in a courtroom, because the man identified by DNA died days after he handed investigators the sample that named him.

Attorney General Kris Mayes announced the result on Tuesday, Sept. 15, with the Glendale Police Department. It is the kind of ending true crime television rarely gets to film: an answer, and no trial.

Who was Jim Chafin?

Orison James Chafin — Jim to the people who knew him — was 54, and he had served in the Navy. He was found dead in a Glendale cemetery on Aug. 8, 1987, in the suburbs northwest of Phoenix.

Witnesses that night reported a sedan sitting at the scene with its headlights on. It drove off when someone approached. For 39 years, that was close to the whole file.

How did the case get solved?

Slowly, and then all at once. The attorney general's cold case unit reopened the file in 2025 and went back to the physical evidence collected in 1987 — including bottles and cigarette butts left at the scene, the sort of items that meant little to a lab in the Reagan era and mean a great deal to one now.

That evidence produced a profile. In June 2026, investigators tracked down Gary Wayne Billups and interviewed him. He agreed to give a DNA sample voluntarily. It matched.

What did the suspect say?

He denied all of it. According to investigators, Billups said he did not know Chafin and had not lived in Glendale in 1987 — and old arrest records placed him there anyway.

Several days after the interview, Billups died by suicide. No charges were filed, and none can be.

Does a DNA match mean he did it?

It means his DNA was on evidence from the scene, and that authorities believe the match identifies the killer. It has not been tested by a defense lawyer, weighed by a jury or reviewed by an appeals court, and it never will be.

That distinction matters even when the conclusion feels obvious. Compare it with the cases where the fight is precisely over how evidence was handled — the retrial ordered this year for Adam Montgomery turned on trial structure, not on whether anyone doubted the facts.

Why do 1980s cases keep breaking now?

Two reasons, and neither is luck. Labs can now build a usable profile from trace material that would have been consumed or discarded by older testing. And investigative genetic genealogy has given agencies a way to narrow a suspect pool without a database hit — the same route that produced a name in the Gilgo Beach investigation years after the bodies were found.

The cost is timing. A file reopened in 2025 reaches a 1987 suspect who is 39 years older, and often gone.

FAQ

Was anyone charged in Jim Chafin's death?
No. Gary Wayne Billups died before charges could be brought, so the case closes without a prosecution.

When was the announcement?
Sept. 15, 2026, by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes with the Glendale Police Department.

Has this case been on Dateline, 20/20 or 48 Hours?
Not so far. Cold cases resolved without a trial rarely get an hour, because there is no courtroom act to build the last 15 minutes around.

More from the case files

Unfinished cases are the running theme here: the Delphi appeal, the search that is still open in the Suzanne Morphew case, and the second trial Lindsay Clancy's lawyer is trying to head off. Trials in progress are in Ohio and Cleveland, and everything else sits in Case Updates. This week's newsmagazine listings are in the grid.

Sources

• Arizona Attorney General — DNA evidence identifies suspect in the 1987 murder of Navy veteran Orison James Chafin
• CBS News — Navy veteran's 1987 murder solved after suspect's DNA matched evidence

By the True Crime On Air desk · Updated Sept. 17, 9:13 a.m. ET