Lack of employee list slows murder probe

Karen Zekan

Friday, July 18, 1997 | 11:08 a.m.

An investigation into the murder of a 69-year-old restaurant bookkeeper has been slowed by his employer's inability to produce a complete list of past and current employees, police said.

"They did not even know the last names of some of the people working there, or where they lived," said Metro Police homicide Sgt. Kevin Manning of the management of the newly opened Rob Roy's restaurant at 2797 S. Maryland Parkway.

"Until we get that list, we won't know if we've talked to everyone we need to talk to."

Only people with inside knowledge of Rob Roy's would have known the bookkeeper was going to be working alone with cash on July 10, prompting investigators to prioritize interviews with all employees.

Despite what authorities described as numerous stabs and slashes suffered during the attack, an autopsy has determined that blunt trauma to Duke Bunnell's head killed the Las Vegan who also worked as a real estate broker.

A broken knife was recovered from the murder scene, but police have not determined if it was used in the crime, Manning said.

Still to be unraveled are many grisly details of that fateful morning inside the 8x8-foot blood-soaked office crowded with file cabinets and a desk where co-workers found the man's body.

Investigators have combed the place for clues, sifted through trash cans on the property and even called in Metro's helicopter and a Clark County Fire Department ladder truck to search the roof for clues.

Manning said the Bunnell murder investigation has put them in a unique situation. "We have more possibilities in this case" about how the killer got to his victim sometime between 7 and 8:30 a.m.

The business should have been locked during those hours -- the time when Bunnell typically came in to count the previous night's receipts, prepare the bank deposit and put cash in the register. A temporary cutback in the 24-hour restaurant's hours meant Bunnell would have been working alone.

Police found no sign of forced entry to the restaurant and the back door unlocked from the inside, leading investigators to theorize that Bunnell must have let his killer in and then returned to the desk where he was murdered.

The killer left the building after looting several thousand dollars in cash from the register, which the owner and the first shift employees found empty upon arriving at the business around 9:30 a.m.

"The suspect most likely didn't stay inside after the business closed for the night (at 3 a.m.)," Manning said. "He wouldn't need four hours to rob the place."