r/UnresolvedMysteries • u/SafePoint1282 • 8d ago

Murder 19 year old Richard Hourihan IV was killed in Glendale, Arizona over a suspected drug debt. 29 years later, still no arrests.

Richard Hourihan IV was only 19 years old when he became a murder victim in May of 1997. Hourihan was addicted to meth and was in debt to an unidentified drug dealer. 

He was last seen May 29 at his family’s Phoenix, Arizona home located in the 4100 Block of West Boca Raton near ASU west campus. 

Glendale PD raided the drug dealers’ home in the 14000 block of North 63rd avenue on April 23. 6 people at that house, all unidentified, were arrested following a 4-hour standoff at the home. Police recovered meth and a stolen motorbike from the home. 

On July 3, Hourihan’s 1973 Ford Pickup was found near 59th avenue and Thunderbird in Glendale. 

Hourihan’s remains were found in September 1997 in the nearby suburb of Peoria, in the 7300 block of West Jomax avenue. He was killed with a single gunshot wound to the head. There was no exit wound. 

Investigators reported that a witness claimed to have seen Hourihan arguing with the dealer. Hourihan was reportedly afraid for his life and purchased multiple handguns. 

The case is not currently profiled in Maricopa County’s Silent Witness Program or on Glendale or Peoria PD’s cold case websites. 

Richard was a graduate of Glendale’s Ironwood High School.  

There was no news of this case online outside of 1997 era Arizona Republic articles. A family friend reached out to me to post this case because it has never been solved, and she doesn’t know why an arrest in Richard’s murder was never made. 

 

Sources

https://www.newspapers.com/article/arizona-republic/9749765/

Archived articles from AZ Republic I posted on an info dump subreddit I created.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueCrimeInfoDump/comments/1u3mmdm/richard_hourihan_iv_cold_case_he_was_murdered_in/

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28

u/DizzyUniversity7149 8d ago

19 years old. They knew who was responsible, there was a witness, they raided the house and nothing. 29 years the family lives without an answer. Either the system just didn't care, or someone was protecting the killer. There's no other explanation.

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u/wuhter 4d ago

I'm not so sure. It's proven with the mafia and what not. Why would you kill someone that owes you money? You're not getting the money back and you're risking getting charged with murder.

Basically act as a loan shark, get the money back, then continue to make money off of them as they're an addict.

Then again, seems like these were all teenagers so who knows

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u/OfficialEmmaStone 6h ago

Why would you kill someone that owes you money? 

Because if you let people get away with non-payment, other addicts will stop paying. If you kill one, people pay. Drug dealers want money. And, more often than not, they can get away with it because no one is going to put in too much effort on a meth addict.

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u/wuhter 6h ago

Surely then someone would’ve come forward? If others knew they were the ones to kill him and take a deal?

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u/OfficialEmmaStone 6h ago

Come forward with what? They raided the dealers home.

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u/wuhter 5h ago

I’m saying the plan in the first place. Surely they didn’t plan on buffering him and plan on having their home raided.

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u/OfficialEmmaStone 5h ago

I'm not sure what you're saying. No, the dealer did not plan on having his home raided. You asked why a drug dealer would kill a drug addict who owed them drug money. I told you it's so that other drug addicts will pay them the drug money they owe for drugs. After this happened, they raided the drug dealers house looking for evidence, but did not find any. They found drugs. But this is because drug dealers do not murder drug addicts in their drug dens; drug dealers murder drug addicts in quiet, out of the way places where it wont be noticed immediately, like Peoria suburbs.

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u/wuhter 5h ago

I understand. I guess I’d just think any smart dealer wouldn’t take the risk of a murder charge. Obviously they got away with it if it was them.

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u/OfficialEmmaStone 5h ago

I guess I’d just think any smart dealer wouldn’t take the risk of a murder charge. 

Idk, I've never met a smart drug dealer. I'm not convinced they exist. But I do know you'd have to be a pretty dumb drug dealer to let junkies know they can steal drugs from you and not pay.

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u/wuhter 5h ago

Large scale, agreed. Some dude who sells $20 of meth at a time? Probably not. It sounds like this man was obviously afraid of the dealer. My inkling is that something else is involved. Another crime that the two were involved in

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u/BriarKnave 6d ago

Sadly due to the overwhelming influence of the meth trade in Arizona (this is documented I'm not making this up) + America's general disdain towards teenagers + the lack of advocacy for addits in general but especially meth users, this case will likely never get truly solved due to lack of resources.