Woman fatally stabbed, possibly protecting cat

Karen Zekan

Thursday, Oct. 16, 1997 | 10:03 a.m.

A 68-year-old woman found stabbed to death in her northeast Las Vegas home Wednesday night may have been killed trying to protect an abused cat, police said.

Metro Police were told by neighbors that the woman recently had taken in a neighbor's cat that some teenagers allegedly had been torturing.

Any links among the cat, the victim and her killer, however, remained an element of the investigation on which police were not yet prepared to comment.

"We've heard about (the cat)," homicide Sgt. Kevin Manning said. "It's still too early in the investigation to know what happened. There's no indication if one or more suspects is involved."

Investigators spent their first few hours at the scene with animal control officers and friends trying to gather up at least nine cats and three dogs from the woman's two-story home at 4420 Shalimar Ave., near Lamb Boulevard and Alexander Road.

Authorities have withheld the woman's name until relatives can be notified. Police said she apparently died earlier in the day from being hit on the head and several stab wounds.

A friend discovered the body about 7:30 p.m. inside the home's attached garage after entering through the unlocked front door.

"The friend was supposed to meet with the victim, and when the victim failed to show up or call, the friend came over to the house to check up on her," Manning said.

K-9 Officer Bob Hindi and his German shepherd, Ex, were called in to search the neighborhood for possible evidence, one item of which is a piece of jewelry discovered on the sidewalk outside the home. Police were hesitant to link the jewelry to the victim or the killer until the woman's home could be searched.

Investigators said the house did not appear to have been ransacked, and declined to comment on whether a murder weapon had been recovered.

A group of neighbors, many of them teenagers, gathered under the full moon across the street from the woman's home.

The youths had heard about the woman rescuing the abused cat from a neighbor, but none recalled seeing anyone near the woman's home Wednesday or hearing anything suspicious.

A 16-year-old girl said she knew the victim as an animal lover. The two met for the first time about a month ago when the elderly woman brought her three small dogs out on her front lawn.

"She was really proud of them. She was telling us that day about the awards they had won in shows," the teenager said. "She had a fourth dog, it was bigger than the miniature collies she was showing us, and she said that it was up in Alaska being trained. She really loved her dogs. They were like her life."

Police had no witnesses to the crime, found no sign of forced entry into the home, and remained today without a motive for the brutal slaying.