This summer, the Phoenix Police Department has launched a new initiative to bring attention to cold case homicides. "Hot Desert, Cold Cases" will be a series of videos and other posts on the department's social media profiles, highlighting cold cases. In addition, Silent Witness is upping the reward for information leading to the arrest and/or indictment of the suspect/s of the crime. The reward will be $5,000 for the first four cold cases.
The series continues with the murder of Mark Papp.
"Mark was my best man at my wedding," William Kroncke said. "There's a little bit of an age gap between us and I know some people will look at us and go 'Is he your dad?' And I'm like 'No he's not my dad, he's my best friend.'"
William said he and Mark Papp go way back—nearly 20 years. They met through mutual friends and ended up becoming best friends. William describes Mark as loyal, trustworthy, a bit of a rough exterior, but deep down very caring.
"He was everything to me," William said of Mark. "He was the person who...he advised me. And he was my confidant. Best friend."
But in June of 2019, William lost his best friend. Mark was a security guard at a UPS facility, and was walking home from work the night of June 22nd, when he was attacked.
The 65-year-old was found lying on the side of Osborn Road near 31st Avenue. He was breathing, but unresponsive. He was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital where he died a week later.
"They might not even know that they killed him," William said of the suspect(s). "They might have thought they just beat up a guy and left him."
William said Mark had no enemies, making this murder unexplainable.
Phoenix Police Detective Tim Reese has been on the case from the very beginning and agrees this killing seems senseless.
"This one stands out to me because this victim was doing nothing but trying to go home after work," the detective said.
Area security cameras have helped put parts of this investigation together. On that night, Mark left the guard shack and walked toward Osborn Road where a dark colored four door sedan pulled up, a suspect got out, Mark backed away out of video frame, and not long after, the suspect got back in the car with Mark's backpack, and left.
Detective Reese said there are still so many unanswered questions.
"I'm doing everything I can to try and figure out who did this to this man," Det. Reese said. "It appears that this is just a blatant disregard for life. But every lead that we've tried to pursue has come to a dead end."
If you have any information regarding this case, contact Silent Witness at 480-Witness, or leave an anonymous tip on the
Silent Witness website. You will remain anonymous and could earn a cash reward.
Republished courtesy of Phoenix Police Department.