LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Seven years ago, just two days before Thanksgiving, someone killed Jesús Peña, a man who migrated to Little Rock many years ago, finding work doing different odd jobs. 

Authorities say that on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016, on a rainy afternoon, the 59-year-old Peña was murdered and robbed while working to remove a floor inside of an apartment on North Taylor Street.

Peña’s daughter Lupe recently went back to the scene of the murder for the first time since his death, describing her knowledge of what happened on the fateful day.

“My dad turned around and saw the assailant at the door,” she recalled. “Being a good macho Latino, he lifted up the shovel to defend himself.”  

Those efforts were to no avail as the suspect fired the gun multiple times.

“He fell, the assailant turned him over, took his cell phone, took his wallet, ripped off a gold chain, took jewelry off the other two witnesses and left,” Lupe said.

According to a police report, the two witnesses were a mother and her 12-year-old daughter. Police questioned them at the scene.

Lupe said her father came to the United States looking for a better life for himself and his family. Two weeks before his murder, she had a revelation and asked her father a question she’ll always remember.

“Poppy you’re getting older, are you thinking about moving back to Mexico?” she recalled asking him. Lupe said her father answered by saying with all the injustices in that country, he would probably be dead in two weeks.

Sadly, Peña was killed two weeks after that conversation.

While his killing is considered a cold case, a detective with the Little Rock Police Department tells FOX 16 News that the case is open and being actively investigated.

Anyone with information that might help solve this case is asked to contact the Little Rock Police Department.