Missing woman’s body lay in yard for 8 months

Karen Zekan

Tuesday, Aug. 6, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

FOR eight months, CeCe Parker's petite body lay on the concrete driveway of a Las Vegas ranch-style house.

With a warped frame and cheap artwork tossed atop it, the blanket-wrapped mound looked like just another pile of rubbish in the weed-strewn yard hidden from the road by electronic gates and dense shrubs.

Neighbors dismissed the putrid stench, assuming it was a dead cat.

And to this day, still frustrating Parker's family is why Metro Police's missing persons detail never searched the grounds at 5840 W. Edna Ave. where Parker, 60, was headed Jan. 17 when she disappeared.

Tamara Ilene Anderson, 55, who had been renting the house near Sahara Avenue and Decatur Boulevard for the past year, was arrested early Saturday in Parker's murder.

"Anderson was evicted last week," said homicide Sgt. Bill Keeton. "She realized she had a hell of a dilemma on her hands. A body was on her property that she had to get rid of."

Some friends whom Anderson asked to help her move notified police of the skeletal remains shortly before midnight Friday, Keeton said.

"(Anderson) imparted to them that a body was on the property in a certain location, and they immediately called us."

The coroner's office confirmed Monday that the remains -- about 30 feet from the front door -- were Parker.

Property owner Bonnie Saxe said Anderson was several months behind in rent on the sprawling four-bedroom luxury home, complete with a rehearsal studio, stable and a blue-tiled pool and spa now blackened with mold and mossy water.

"This place was immaculate when I rented it to her," said Saxe, whose "Showgirls of Magic" program is at the San Remo hotel-casino. She is also the mother of magician Melinda Saxe.

"I met Tammy through an estate antique shop in town," Saxe said. "She was always smiling and friendly. I assumed she was OK."

A title company handled the rental and the eviction. The only time Saxe and Anderson talked was last week when the tenant asked for more time to get her things into storage.

Homicide investigators removed their locks from the gates Monday night, permitting Saxe to enter and start cleaning up the mess of cat litter, clothes, stuffed animals and pictures bearing thrift store price tags.

As Saxe stood in the house she bought 18 years ago and once lived in, the wind swirled dirt and and bird seed across the driveway stained from Parker's body.

"I'm just in shock," Saxe said about Anderson, who was known to be a nudist. "It's sickening. I can't help but wonder what else might be hidden here."

Investigators believe Parker drove to the Edna Avenue home Jan. 17 to retrieve a $4,000 loan she made to the woman she once called her best friend.

"Tamara and my mom used to go thrift store shopping," said Ron Johnson, the victim's son. "I think my mom could see Tamara's true colors beginning to show. My mom was a very tolerant, giving person. She was retired on disability with a limited income and wanted a friend."

Parker was born Arden Lee Fox, and also used the last names Johnson and Parker from previous marriages.

Among her proudest moments in life was a lawsuit she led decades ago to fight sex discrimination in the then-male-dominated world of card dealing on the Strip.

"She won, and for years was a 21 dealer at the Desert Inn," Johnson said. "She even appeared on Gary Moore's 'To Tell the Truth' show because of it."

Johnson, 42, said his mother had a neurological disorder that impaired her driving, so Anderson often drove his mother's car when the two went shopping.

Parker's black 1992 two-door Subaru was found Feb. 25 in a Gold Coast hotel-casino lot. The blood on the passenger seat Keeton attributed to Parker's fatal gunshot wound.

Anderson, heavyset and about 5 feet, wasn't strong enough to bury Parker, so she dumped her out of the car onto the driveway and covered her up, police speculate.

Sgt. Al Bechyne of Metro's missing persons detail told the SUN months ago that "persons close to the case" were not making themselves available for interviews.

Although not technically responsible for the case, Keeton said homicide detectives stayed abreast of the investigation because they sensed it would come to them.

Police have not found a murder weapon. Keeton declined to comment on missing persons detectives' progress, saying only that "we've had to start the entire investigation over from the beginning."

"I'm outraged because I pointed out to (missing persons detectives) that I believed Tamara was involved in my mom's disappearance," Johnson said. "They never went to Tamara's property. They said they could not ascertain a motive, that $4,000 wasn't enough for Tamara to kill my mom, and didn't think she was capable of it."

Instead, Johnson said he was told by a missing persons detective that he was a suspect.

"So I hired an attorney. And I hired a private investigator," Johnson said.

"I learned there are several people who know Anderson to be distrustful. They know something's not right with her. This is the freakiest, most grotesque, morbid thing I could ever imagine."