Phoenix beheading: Neighbors react to slaying

A volatile relationship that reached a grisly end Saturday morning spilled chaos into a quiet central Phoenix neighborhood, but didn't completely surprise residents there.

For one neighbor, it was the last time she'd hear familiar early-morning screams from across the street. And for a next-door friend, peeking into a blood-soaked apartment where a 49-year-old woman was beheaded, left him "freaked."

Police identified the victim as Trina Heisch. Police said her 43-year-old husband is a suspect. Police did not confirm the name of the man, and continue to investigate the brutal slaying.

Heisch's friend, George Loney, went to check on the couple Saturday morning at about 9:30 a.m. He hadn't seen or heard much from the adjacent apartment in a few days, he said. After knocking on the door as he had many times before, the suspect answered.

He was missing his left forearm and right eyeball. Authorities said his injuries were self-inflicted.

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"I didn't realize his arm was cut off until probably a minute or two into the conversation after I proceeded to ask him 'What was wrong? What was wrong? What was wrong?'" Loney said. "He told me he killed three of his family members but that God had forgiven him so it was OK. 'Let me have a drag of your cigarette' he kept telling me."

Loney noticed blood on the floor and opened the door wider to get a better glimpse inside.

He saw "a bloodbath."

Authorities arrived to discover Heisch's beheaded body inside a bedroom walk-in closet. Two dead dogs were also discovered inside the apartment.​

Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Trent Crump described it as an "absolutely horrific scene."

Crump said the suspect was taken into custody and to a hospital for surgery.

Nothing prepared Loney for what he saw, but others on the cul-de-sac had long anticipated trouble from the Heisch apartment. Neighbors in Midcentury ranch homes near the shops on Camelback Road had grown weary of calling police to the apartment after repeated disturbances. Some thought the city should have done more.

Mark Vinci, 59, has lived at 13th Place for 20 years. He said police activity in the area "goes in waves," and wasn't surprised when units returned on Saturday morning.

"Most of it occurs where the homicide took place," he said. Vinci said he's made calls in the past about residents of the complex who had broken into his truck. He said he had seen drug-addled "emaciated" people walk down the street and eventually wind up in the seven-unit apartment complex.

Neighbor Heather Enderton described Heisch and the suspect's relationship as a chaotic, violent pairing that produced numerous noisy exchanges on the street multiple times during the week from the afternoon to the early morning.

"She'd run up and down the road screaming, going after him and yelling," Enderton said. "She just wasn't stable; every day it was something new with them."

Loney agreed.

"I never thought he would take it this far. Most of the time they fought, she was the aggressor," he said.

In March, Phoenix police arrested Heisch after a domestic-violence call. Police suspected her of attacking her husband with a knife. There is no record in court of any prosecution. Police said the suspect was arrested in 2003 after being accused of attempting to kill a family member. Details were not forthcoming.

It remains unclear to those who knew the couple what prompted Saturday's confrontation or why it escalated so violently. Nor is it known what kept the couple together or for how long. Both had a history of mental illness, according to police and court records.

Family members told officials that the couple married after meeting in a mental-health facility.

Court records show Heisch was convicted in 2000 in an attempted-murder and abuse case. She was found guilty, but insane. The court ordered that Heisch was to be committed to a mental-health institution and be involuntarily medicated.

On her public Facebook page, Heisch posted inspirational messages and much about her dedication to God. In one post from Jan. 27, Heisch shared an image that displayed a memorial for unborn children.

In another, she posted: "Drama exist in your life cause you create it, invite it, or associate yourself with those who bring it. Only you can eliminate the drama."

Christal Heisch, Heisch's daughter, said her mother was a deeply religious person who loved her dogs Scrappy and Petals, whom she regarded as family.

"My mom made mistakes but she is human," Heisch said.

"The last time I talked to her she said her husband was out of it and that he wasn't in her mind," she said, recalling checking on her about a week ago. "It's like we drove right into a nightmare."

Loney described the woman as an easy-going person who was religious and tried to spread Christianity.

Enderton also remembered a calmer, softer side to Heisch, who would often run after one of her dogs and wave hello to neighborhood children.

"When she was good, she was good," Enderton said. "She acted like she had her stuff together but later she wouldn't know who we were."

Enderton has lived on 13th Place with her husband and four young children for eight years. She said the apartment complex has been the site of much police activity over the years.

Once, Enderton's 4-year-old son told her and her husband that the suspect and Heisch "were wailing in the street" over a yogurt carton. She said it had gotten violent and that both were wrestling on the ground.

It spurred one of the numerous phone calls to authorities who could assist in ceasing the argument.

Enderton, who said she called 911 five times in the last three months about Heisch and the suspect's outside fits, said she was told by an officer in late July that the neighborhood calls were "wasting tax dollars by continually calling cops out here."

"He made me feel as though there was nothing to be done," she said. "I felt like if an officer told me there was nothing for him to do, that there was no reason for me to report it any more. They weren't protecting her or us."

She said she heard screams at about 6 a.m. Saturday morning and texted a neighbor about it.

"I assumed it was them. That was their thing; that's what they did," she said. "But I didn't do anything about it."

Neighbor Vinci was nonplussed by the city's response to calls for help.

"Some of the responsibility falls on the city. They knew it was a recurring thing because it's had innumerable complaints. Their reaction as a city has not been what it should be," Vinci said. "Phoenix PD is here quickly; but the city hasn't really acknowledged the problem."

Sunday, Vinci, Enderton and others were trying to live a normal life, away from police tape, TV cameras and unsettling questions.

Enderton and her family walked from their house to their vehicle outside police tape. She said a television reporter asked her in front of her children what she thought about the murder.

"I felt so uncomfortable," she said. "How do you explain to an 8-year-old what a homicide is?"

Once she and her family entered the vehicle, she said she described the incident to her children as an unfortunate "accident where he accidentally hurt her."

"This could have happened anywhere," Enderton said. "I used to feel comfortable letting my kids play in the front yard and ride their bikes, but at this point, I feel like I have to be outside with them."

The yellow porch light still shines outside of Heisch's brown stucco corner apartment. Like nothing happened.

But behind Unit 1's front door lies the scene where a woman lost her life. And what remains is only the stillness of normalcy the neighborhood has no choice but to adjust to.