PHOENIX — For nearly 40 years, the family of Valerie Pride and her two daughters have wondered and waited for when they will get justice.
On Labor Day, 1982, Valerie Pride and her two daughters, Shonita and Duana, were murdered in their own home.
“It was brutal, it was bloody.” Dominick Roestenberg, with the Phoenix Police Cold Case Unit, said. “They were brutally and repeatedly stabbed.”
Pride had just moved into the new home. Around 9:30 pm Pride's daughters were dressed for bed while she was on the phone with her brother. She reportedly told her brother she had to go to the front door.
She would be found by her boyfriend less than 30 minutes later.
“It was so intentional, they slaughtered them.” Denice Pride, Valerie's former sister-in-law said.
"They were literally slaughtered, and I thought who could have done that too little children?” Vickie McDonald, Valerie's sister, said.
Vicky McDonald and Denice Pride both looked up to Valerie.
They said she was a single mother ahead of her time. She was one of the first female electricians at the Palo Verde Power Plant. She had just bought a house and a car before her murder.
“It’s the kinda pain that doesn’t go away.“
“There is someone out there that knows what happened to this family,” Roestenberg said.
Police believe the killer escaped through the backyard and may have left a bloody handprint on the back fence.
Police say whoever killed Valerie and her two daughters likely knew the family.
“How do you walk around knowing lives were cut down and not talk about it?” McDonald said.
Police are asking for the public's help to break the case, as they will look into new technologies to help with the investigation.
“Is there something we could do now that we cant do back then? Or is there something we missed back then that we could bring closer to fruition?” Roestenberg said.
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