Bookmaker’s murder probe zooms in on partners

Bob Shemeligian

Thursday, Sept. 12, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The investigation of the murder of local bookmaker Bruce Weinstein is focusing on two people: his former live-in girlfriend, who is in jail in Maryland, and her former business partner, who is on the lam.

Amy DeChant, 48, who was living with the 46-year-old Weinstein when he disappeared July 5 from his southwest Las Vegas home, was arrested three weeks later in Bel Air, Md., after police found more than $100,000 in cash, false birth certificates and wigs in her car.

"She is a suspect, although she has not been charged in this case," said Metro homicide Sgt. Ken Hefner. "We're continuing with our investigation."

Police also are searching for Robert Wayne Jones, 57, DeChant's business partner, who vanished July 12, five days after homicide detectives began investigating Weinstein's disappearance.

A warrant has been issued for Jones' arrest, and Weinstein's family has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to his whereabouts.

"I've come to the conclusion that if he hasn't been in touch with me by now, he has to be dead," said Jones' wife, Cheryl, a former floor supervisor at the Bourbon Street poker room, which Weinstein and DeChant frequented.

Weinstein's remains, which were discovered Aug. 11 in a makeshift grave off the Old Alamo Highway about a half mile west of State Route 168, were positively identified Wednesday.

Clark County Coroner Ron Flud has listed the case as a homicide.

Because the body was badly decomposed, it took investigators a lot of time and effort to make a positive identification.

"We had to get the dental records and do some additional work," Hefner said.

But Weinstein's family is not happy about the delay.

"We're very upset," said Sylvia White, Weinstein's mother. "We've waited and suffered an extra four weeks, and it's seemed like an eternity. If we had known earlier, we could have put a lot of this behind us."

A funeral service for Weinstein is planned at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Memory Memorial Park on Lone Mountain Road.

After the funeral, White says she will look forward to only one thing: "I hope to find justice. I want the person who has committed this crime to answer for the pain she has caused."

White makes no secret of the fact that she believes DeChant murdered her son.

"I can't tell you I'm 100 percent sure, but the police believe it, and I believe it, and no one just runs away and wears and changes her looks and her identity."

But not everyone who knew the businesswoman and former casino worker believes she is guilty.

"I just can't believe that she can do this," said Roy Seider, 53, a former poker room supervisor at the old Vegas World casino, who got to know DeChant after she worked there briefly three years ago as an extra board poker dealer.

Possibly because DeChant and Seider both are from northern New Jersey, the two immediately hit it off, and over the past three years Seider has remained one of DeChant's closest friends.

"We got to be good friends, and she was always very nice," Seider said. "She helped me out a number of times. When I was short, she'd pay for dinner. She'd loan me money, stuff like that."

DeChant last telephoned Seider from prison on Sunday.

"She said she's going to come back here and clear her name because she's innocent," Seider said.

To do so, DeChant will have to come up with answers to some very serious questions.

Investigators point out that DeChant operated a carpet cleaning business and police found blood stains in the freshly cleaned carpets of Weinstein's home after searching for clues to his disappearance.

Other sources point out that a rolled-up spare piece of carpet is believed to be missing from the garage of the home, and that DeChant changed her story about the events leading to Weinstein's disappearance before she and Jones disappeared.

"Bobby seemed as normal as pie when I last spoke with him over the telephone," said a family friend who has worked as a casino supervisor.

"The last time I spoke to him was at 9 a.m. the morning of July 12, and I think the police spoke to him at 9:45, and by noon he was gone," the friend said. "He disappeared. He left without clothing, money, even a toothbrush."

Meanwhile, Cheryl Jones said life has not been easy in the weeks since her husband's disappearance.

"I'm just taking it one day at a time," she said.

Others who knew DeChant and Jones said they'd like to believe that all this has been a bad dream.

"I would like to believe that she's innocent, and perhaps she somehow got in something over her head and got caught in the middle," Seider said.

But another acquaintance said she would like to believe DeChant is innocent but she has her doubts.

"I could never take to Amy," the casino worker said. "She's too sweet -- the type that's always smiling."

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