KOLD News 13Arrest in 1990 Tucson mosque murder
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By Toby Herschler - email
Tucson Police cold case detectives says they've cracked one of the city's most enduring murder mysteries, one that attracted worldwide attention amid the rise of Islamic extremist groups.
52-year-old Glen C. Francis is jailed in Calgary, Canada on a warrant for the murder of Dr. Rashad Khalifa.
In January of 1990, Dr. Khalifa was stabbed dozens of times at the mosque he founded near the University of Arizona. Investigators learned that Dr. Khalifa had received numerous death threats stemming from his mathematical interpretation of the Koran.
The TPD cold case unit took up the Khalifa killing in 2006. Last December, DNA evidence found at the scene matched up with Glen Cusford Francis, a citizen of Trinidad who'd been studying Islam with Dr. Khalifa and using the name Benjamin Phillips. Police say Phillips/Francis left Tucson following the murder. Investigators traced him to Canada through family in Georgia.
Canadian police arrested Francis April 28. He is awaiting extradition.
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