Investigators identify suspected killer in 1987 Glendale cold case. But questions remain after suicide

The Arizona Attorney General’s Office and Glendale Police Department believe they’ve identified who killed Jim Chafin in 1987, resolving a nearly 40-year-old cold case. But questions about the circumstances surrounding Chafin’s death remain.

Orison James Chafin, better known as Jim, was a Navy veteran who served in the Korean War. He was 54 years old when, according to investigators, his body was found in the Resthaven Cemetery in Glendale after a night spent at a local watering hole.

Chafin’s body was discovered in the early morning hours on Aug. 8, 1987, by a group of teens who decided to take a drive through the cemetery. Investigators said his throat was cut three times and he had multiple bruises.

“There were three individuals who were friends who decided that they were going to take a drive through the cemetery and try to scare each other by driving through the cemetery that night,” said Roger Geisler, a special agent with the attorney general’s Cold Case Unit and a former Glendale homicide detective.

For 39 years, the case remained unsolved.

Geisler said a tip and DNA evidence provided a breakthrough.

Geisler said a tipster from out of state relayed information about a man she knew who “may have been involved in something in Arizona.” Investigators ruled that man out as a suspect, but it prompted investigators to go back through the entire case file, he said.

That’s when they found out that another man seen with Chafin at the bar, Gary Wayne Billups, had never been interviewed by police because he couldn’t be located.

Geisler said, this time around, investigators were able to interview Billups, who was then linked to the scene by DNA evidence, including a cigarette butt and beer bottle found near the body.

“His whole story was, ‘I didn't live in Glendale. I wasn't around. I didn't know anything. I don't know this person,’ which we know is not the truth,” Geisler said.

Billups committed suicide in June, about a week after the interview with investigators.

Geisler said he left a note stating “that he had nothing to save his a**.”

Nick Klingerman, the attorney general’s criminal division chief, said he believes the office had enough evidence to prosecute Billups for murder if he had not taken his own life.

“Talking with our prosecution team, reviewing the evidence of the case in its entirety, that they felt there was a reasonable likelihood of conviction as to Mr. Billups to charge in this case,” he said.

Did he act alone?

According to investigators, the original witnesses saw a vehicle in the cemetery when they arrived. It was parked at the location where they would later discover Chafin’s body and fled when they approached.

The witnesses also saw two men walking around the vehicle.

Geisler said two other men, brothers William and Kenneth Mayfield, were also seen with Chafin that night and investigators now have DNA evidence linking them to the scene. William Mayfield was also Billups’ roommate.

Despite that, investigators would only pin responsibility for Chafin’s death on Billups.

“We have to make decisions as prosecutors and as investigators about how far we can go in terms of declaring responsibility, and you know we've got a team of investigators from the AG's Office and Glendale that made the determination, especially after we got that essentially a suicide note, that this person was most culpable,” Mayes said.

Klingerman said there was just more evidence pointing to Billups.

“I think it's pretty unusual when you get when you go take a buccal swab for DNA to have somebody then commit suicide and leave a note explicitly saying ‘I don't have anything that could save my a**,’” he said.

Both Mayfields passed away several years ago, Geisler said.

When pressed on the issue, Geisler wouldn’t rule out the possibility that the Mayfields were involved in Chafin’s death.

“They may be equally culpable,” he said.

Geisler concluded that Chafin’s death was likely the result of a social gathering at the cemetery that “went bad.”

He said Chafin was known to become "cantankerous, especially when he was drinking,” and that witnesses reported he argued with Billups at a bar earlier that night.

Evidence and cold cases

Mayes praised the Glendale Police Department for preserving evidence in the 40-year-old case, which allowed investigators to now link Billups to the case.

“They collected evidence. They preserved that evidence. They handled it correctly for nearly four decades through changes in technology that no one could have imagined at the time,” Mayes said.

She said the case shows the importance of the cold case unit her office opened in 2025.

“To every family in Arizona still waiting, we have not forgotten your case,” Mayes said.

Geisler said Chafin has two living relatives, a niece and nephew who reside out of state.

“They were just ecstatic over the fact that somebody even cared to even look at the case again. They thought it was done, gone forever,” he said.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The story has been updated to correct who Roger Geisler interviewed. The story has also corrected who committed suicide in June.