William Atwood Morse was 32 years old and Tillie Fernandez was 24 when their daughter Susan Amy Morse was born in Mesa, Maricopa County, Arizona, United States on August 21, 1967. Susan died at the age of 22.

Susan lived alone in an apartment near Country Club Drive and Southern Avenue in Mesa. At 6:35 p.m. on October 16, 1989, she was found dead in the apartment.

Investigators found no sign of forced entry and that Susan died of asphyxiation after being sexually molested. She was buried in the City of Mesa Cemetery on North Center Street in Mesa.

On November 13, 1990, another woman, 23, was sexually assaulted in the same apartment in Mesa where Susan lived and was killed. The name of the woman was not revealed and the suspect is still unknown.

Aside from sexually assaulting the woman, the suspect also stole cash and a videocassette recorder (VCR) from the apartment before fleeing the scene. The woman, unlike Susan, was not killed.

Mesa was registered as a 1-square-mile townsite on July 17, 1878 and was incorporated in 1883. Located in the Sonoran Desert, the city has a hot desert climate.

Carl Hayden, who represented Arizona in the U.S. Senate from 1927 to 1969, died in Mesa on January 25, 1972. Elected in 1988, Margaret “Peggy” Rubach is the incumbent mayor of the city.