What began as a first date arranged on social media ended with the discovery of a shallow grave in the Arizona desert, police said, after 21-year-old Arianna Bailey Jones disappeared and the man accused in her killing allegedly blamed two unidentified attackers.
Glendale police said Monday that 24-year-old Dominic Rodolico was taken into custody after investigators found remains believed to be Jones’ in a shallow grave in an isolated desert area north of the Phoenix metro region.
Rodolico has been charged with first-degree premeditated murder, Fox 10 Phoenix reported.
In a Facebook post confirming the arrest, the Glendale Police Department extended condolences to Jones’ family, saying officers “were hoping to bring a different type of closure” before announcing Rodolico’s arrest in connection with her disappearance and murder.
Investigators said Jones and Rodolico first connected through social media, exchanging messages online before agreeing to meet face to face.
Detectives believe the two went out on what appeared to be their first date, starting with a movie before traveling to the remote desert location where police say the crime took place.
During questioning, police said Rodolico denied killing Jones and claimed instead that two men emerged in the desert and attacked them both.
“He is saying that the two of them were in this remote area and that two individuals showed up and attacked them,” Glendale Police Department Public Information Officer Jose Santiago said at a news conference. “At some point, he made his escape, and Ms. Jones stayed behind.”
Investigators, however, said physical evidence, surveillance video and digital evidence gathered during the investigation linked Rodolico to the crime.
Police said detectives developed sufficient evidence to establish probable cause for Rodolico’s arrest. Authorities also said his account changed repeatedly during interviews.
“His story continuously changed,” Santiago said. “The attack became a little bit more dramatic, less dramatic.”
Detectives also found it suspicious that Rodolico never reported the alleged attack to law enforcement or called 911.
“He never reported the incident to us,” Santiago said. “He never made a call to police or to anyone to let anyone know about this attack.”
Santiago added that Rodolico told investigators Jones was “probably not alive” after the alleged attack despite never contacting authorities to report what he claimed had happened.
Investigators said surveillance video captured Rodolico cleaning out the back seat of his vehicle after Jones disappeared.
Police also said he had wounds consistent with stab injuries, though Rodolico claimed those injuries were inflicted by the alleged attackers.
Authorities credited the department’s Real Time Crime Center, surveillance cameras and cellphone data with helping investigators reconstruct the couple’s movements.
Police said they tracked the pair from Jones’ apartment to a movie theater and then to the remote desert location.
A movie theater concession cup recovered at the crime scene helped investigators connect the burial site to the couple’s date.
Detectives also uncovered evidence showing Rodolico had traveled to the secluded area several times before Jones disappeared, though investigators said they have not determined whether the killing was planned.
“We don’t know if he was planning this or if this was happenstance,” Santiago said.
Jones’ family reported her missing July 7 after they had not heard from her for several days.
Police said her family told investigators the lack of communication was highly unusual because they were normally in frequent contact.
When officers executed a search warrant at Jones’ apartment, they immediately noticed troubling signs.
Police found Jones’ cellphone still inside the apartment and discovered her dog locked inside a crate, where it had apparently been left without food and sitting in its own waste for several days.
“That was enough of an indication that there at least had been some kind of suspicious nature,” Santiago said.
Detectives eventually located what they described as a shallow grave in a remote desert area north of the Valley.
While the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office is still working to determine the official cause and manner of death, investigators said clothing and other physical evidence recovered with the body matched Jones, allowing detectives to identify the remains.
Santiago said the case came together in just four days with help from the department’s Special Investigations Unit, the US Marshals Task Force and advanced investigative technology.
“We were able to pinpoint him attending her apartment. We were able to pinpoint him attending these different areas, going to the movies,” Santiago said. “We were able to pinpoint their cellphone usage in different areas. All of that combined helped us really solve the case on top of the good detective work from our folks.”
According to police, Rodolico has a prior arrest history involving theft-related offenses and was on probation at the time of his arrest.
He is being held on $2 million cash bond.
The murder charge comes less than a year after Rodolico was sentenced in a separate criminal case involving the burglary of two Valley QuikTrip gas stations, according to court records obtained by Fox 10 Phoenix.
The outlet reported that Rodolico was arrested in May 2025 after investigators accused him of impersonating an employee at a QuikTrip along Peoria Avenue and stealing about $200 from a cash register before allegedly carrying out a similar theft at another QuikTrip in Phoenix.
Court records show he pleaded guilty to criminal impersonation and was sentenced in November 2025 to two years of supervised probation.
Investigators said they are still awaiting additional forensic testing and the medical examiner’s findings as they continue working to determine a motive.
