Police say murder investigation slowed

Friday, July 18, 1997 | 12:37 p.m.

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

"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 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 the murder 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.

"We have more possibilities in this case" about how the killer got to his victim sometime between 7 and 8:30 a.m., Manning said.

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.