Litchfield Park couple found buried in backyard; son sought in international manhunt

Coverage spread: 2 sources — 2 unrated

Lean ratings via AllSides / Media Bias-Fact-Check. How this works.

Where they agree

Matthew Flores, 27, is named the primary suspect in the killing of his parents, Hector and Larissa Flores, whose bodies were found buried in the backyard of their Litchfield Park home.
The case began with a family-requested welfare check after relatives couldn’t reach the couple or their son.
Officers found a large amount of blood and signs of an attempted cleanup inside the home before finding two shallow graves in the backyard.
Matthew Flores is believed to have fled the country, prompting involvement from federal and international authorities.

Where they differ

FOX 10 includes the family’s use of the surname “Flores Semyonov,” describing it as Matthew’s pre-adoption Russian surname, a detail AZFamily’s report omits.
AZFamily’s Aug. 9 piece leads with a forensic psychologist’s analysis of the suspect’s likely panicked mental state, a framing FOX 10 does not include.
FOX 10 draws on a family friend, Xavier Walker, and neighbor accounts describing the couple as friendly and quiet; AZFamily’s coverage does not include neighbor characterizations.
AZFamily separately covers an unrelated Tucson case (Varun Batchigari’s arrest in Germany) as a parallel example of international manhunt cooperation, which the other outlets do not reference.

Avondale police say 27-year-old Matthew Flores is the primary suspect in the murder of his parents, Hector and Larissa Flores, whose bodies were found buried in shallow graves in the backyard of their Litchfield Park home. The couple had been reported missing by family members, and investigators believe Flores fled the country before officers discovered evidence of the killings.

How did the case start?

The investigation began earlier this week when relatives of the family contacted Avondale police because they hadn’t heard from Hector and Larissa Flores or their adult son at their home near Litchfield Road and Wigwam Boulevard. Officer Daniel Benavidez said family members expected all three to be at the residence. When officers went inside to conduct a welfare check, they found signs of a struggle and a large amount of blood, along with apparent attempts to clean up the scene. A search of the property led them to the backyard, where they found two shallow graves. By Thursday, Aug. 6, officers had unearthed two bodies.

Who are the victims and suspect?

Police have not formally released the victims’ identities, but the Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner lists pending autopsies for a couple in their 60s, Hector and Larissa Flores, with a date of death listed as Aug. 6. Their son, Matthew Flores, 27, has been named the primary suspect and is believed to have fled the United States shortly after the killings. A family statement released through a representative referred to the family as “Flores Semyonov,” using what FOX 10 described as Matthew’s pre-adoption Russian surname. The statement said the family is “devastated” and “fully cooperating with law enforcement,” and asked for privacy while thanking neighbors and the community for their support.

What does the search for Matthew Flores involve?

Local, federal and international agencies have joined the effort to locate him, according to FOX 10, which reported that both the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service are involved in tracing his movements abroad. As of the reporting, no arrest had been announced. Neighbors described Hector and Larissa Flores as friendly and quiet, and said the killings have left the neighborhood shaken.

What do experts say about the suspect’s behavior?

AZFamily consulted forensic psychologist Dr. John Delatorre, who described the evidence as showing a mix of planning and panic. He noted that whoever buried the bodies spent considerable time doing so, yet did not clean the crime scene thoroughly enough to delay discovery, which he said pointed to a panicked decision to flee rather than a fully thought-out plan. Delatorre said Flores could have bought himself weeks by telling relatives his parents were away, for instance at the Grand Canyon, while he left the country — but instead the crime was discovered quickly. Delatorre also spoke more broadly about parricide, saying children who kill parents often blame their parents for problems in their own lives, externalizing responsibility rather than accepting it themselves.

Is this connected to another Arizona case involving a fleeing suspect?

AZFamily also reported a separate, unrelated case out of Tucson that shares a similar pattern of a suspect fleeing overseas after an alleged killing. In that case, 20-year-old Varun Batchigari is accused of killing his girlfriend, 19-year-old Julissa Rubi Salazar, whose body was found during a welfare check at a Tucson apartment near Euclid Avenue and Elm Street. Police say Batchigari flew from Tucson International Airport to Germany the day of the killing, intending to continue on to his home country of India, but he was intercepted and arrested at a German airport before boarding his connecting flight. Tucson police credited coordination with the FBI, CBP, Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Munich Police Department for his capture. He faces first-degree murder and kidnapping charges and is awaiting extradition to Pima County. This case is separate from the Litchfield Park killings but was covered by AZFamily around the same time as an example of international law enforcement cooperation in tracking fleeing suspects.

Why this matters

The Litchfield Park case remains an active, unresolved manhunt, with no confirmed arrest of Matthew Flores at the time of these reports. It highlights the scale of coordination — spanning local police, federal agencies and international law enforcement — required when a suspect crosses borders after a violent crime, a dynamic echoed in the separate Tucson case where a suspect was caught only after landing overseas.

Sources

Featured photo: Marine 69-71 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)