Man who killed woman, self had been suicidal

The 20-year-old man who shot and killed himself after killing his ex-girlfriend June 24 was suicidal in the past and was involved in a domestic violence incident in 2007 with similarities to the shooting.

Friends remember victim in murder-suicide

On Tuesday, mourners packed Central Christian Church of the East Valley at a memorial for Ashley DeWitte, the 18-year-old, 2009 Mountain View High School graduate gunned down in front of her house in the 2000 block of East Encanto Street.

"She was a great, great kid," said Holly DeWitte, Ashley's stepmother. "She just made a mistake by picking the wrong person at the wrong time."

Mesa police say she had recently ended a six-month relationship with Eric Serdechny, and he had come to her house to discuss the breakup, then opened fire with a handgun as she opened the door.

According to a Pinal County Sheriff's Office report, a deputy arrested Serdechny on Sept. 22, 2007, at 1:30 a.m. in Maricopa, when he refused to leave the home of a woman with whom he had just had a split. The deputy arrived to find Serdechny in front of the house of Tiffany Murphy, who said he had thrown a video game at her window and was looking around for rocks to throw.

Serdechny said he was looking for his glasses, which he dropped when he started crying.

Murphy told deputies they had lived together for six months in Phoenix, but they had broken up and he was upset.

She had asked him to leave, and he asked her to return his video game, and when she gave it to him he stayed on the porch before chucking the game at the house.

"Ms. Murphy stated she was afraid of him and wanted him to leave," the report states.

Serdechny told the deputy he was asked to leave, but he stayed because "he wanted to talk to her about their relationship."

"I asked Mr. Serdechny if he wanted to harm Tiffany and he stated no," the report states. "Mr. Serdechny stated he should have just left and not had got mad."

Serdechny was booked into Pinal County jail on suspicion of disorderly conduct and criminal trespass, but the city of Maricopa prosecutor dismissed the case for reasonable likelihood of no conviction, according to court records.

He had another run-in with cops a year earlier, according to a Flagstaff Police Department report.

On Sept. 8, 2006, Flagstaff police got a call from his mother reporting that he had been threatening suicide with a .40-caliber pistol.

Police stopped his truck and asked him if he were suicidal.

"Absolutely," he said. "I am."

Police found the gun in his truck.

He was taken to a hospital in Flagstaff for a mental-health evaluation.