It may have happened in January 2001, but Betty Chairez remembers it like it was yesterday.
It was the day her 17-year-old son Joey Alvarez was gunned down during a party inside an apartment in South Escondido.
“Right when I got home from church I got a phone call and they said Joey’s at the hospital he’s been shot, and I just started screaming," Chairez told NBCSanDiego.
“He died within 20 minutes of when he got shot."
Escondido police interviewed dozens of witnesses and got warrants for two documented gang members named Juan Valdez and Luis Reyes (pictured L-R).
Detectives from the department's cold case unit said on the night of the murder Alvarez got into a fight with both suspects and knocked out Valdez.
When Valdez woke up, he allegedly left with Reyes and got some hand guns.
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Investigators said Valdez shot Alvarez in retaliation for the fight and Reyes made sure no one stopped him.
“Luis Reyes was armed with a gun and held some of the other people at bay with his hand gun so they couldn’t come to the aid of Joey Alvarez," said cold case detective Chuck Gaylor.
It's unclear exactly where Valdez and Reyes have been hiding all of these years, but it's likely they are living somewhere in Mexico, according to investigators.
In a strange twist, Chairez is currently living at a friend's apartment, which is right next door to the apartment where Alvarez was murdered.
Chairez is hoping Valdez and Reyes will turn themselves in.
“I would like to let them know, I forgive them and my family forgives them,"Chairez said.
Anyone with information about the two suspects is asked to call Escondido police or San Diego County Crimestoppers.
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