Elderly woman slain in apparent robbery

Jace Radke and Ed Koch

Tuesday, Dec. 14, 1999 | 11:16 a.m.

By all accounts, 79-year-old widow Doris Ruth Bair kept to herself, quietly residing in a modest home at the corner of 15th Street and Bracken Avenue for 50 years.

Sometime over the weekend, that quiet existence was shattered by an intruder who ransacked her home and killed her, Metro Police said.

Police believe robbery was the motive as they found jewelry boxes emptied and lying on the floor. Bair's cat, Rambo, her only companion, is missing, police said.

"It was a senseless, brutal murder," Metro homicide Lt. Wayne Petersen said, noting that police are still trying to determine how many culprits were involved.

Clark County Coroner Ron Flud said an autopsy was pending today.

Little is known of the longtime Las Vegas resident. Bair's family told police she was well off, having invested in property.

According to Clark County records, Bair was co-owner of the property on which the Best Western McCarran Inn at 4970 Paradise Road sits.

The value and quantity of the items taken from her home were not immediately known.

Bair's neighbors say she was so quiet they probably would not even have known she was around if not for her green thumb that she was always putting to use tending her lawn and garden.

"We moved in about eight years ago, and she was always out in her garden," Bair's next-door neighbor Jim Shuppe said.

Shuppe noticed something was out of place at his neighbor's house when he did not see Bair outside working in her yard over the weekend.

"I noticed Rambo was out and her shed was left open so I went over and looked in her window, and I saw that her house had been ransacked," Shuppe said. "That's when I called the police."

Metro officers arrived about 4:30 p.m. Monday to find Bair dead, the apparent victim of what appears to be a home invasion robbery.

"It just makes me sick," Sharon Shuppe said. "She was such a kind and gentle soul who loved her cat and her flowers."

Petersen said it appears that whoever entered the house at 1437 Bracken Ave. did so through a side door.

"We found the side door onto the carport locked, but not completely shut," Petersen said. "We found the victim dead on the floor. The house was ransacked."

Petersen said there was no obvious sign of a forced entry.

Sharon Shuppe visited with Bair Saturday afternoon and is the last known person who saw Bair alive.

"I went and visited her because on Friday night she saw a prowler outside her house and had called police," Shuppe said. "She was scared to death."

Petersen confirmed that Bair had called police about a possible prowler on Friday night and that units from Metro's downtown area substation responded.

"There is no way to know if that (the prowler call) is connected with what happened here," Petersen said. "We do know that there are things missing including her car."

Bair drove a white 1991 Mercury four-door with Nevada license plate CBA-502. Jim Shuppe noticed the car was not parked at Bair's house about 3 a.m. Monday.

"We think the break-in occurred sometime between 1 p.m. Saturday and 3 a.m. Monday," Petersen said.

Bair had lived in the bluish-green house on the big corner lot for about 50 years, the Shuppes said.

Flud confirmed that Bair was a widow but did not know her late husband's name. A longtime friend of Bair said his name was Larry. Neither the coroner's office nor police knew what the woman had done for a living in her prime.

Petersen said Bair's only known survivors are a sister and brother-in-law who live in Texas. He said they are en route to Las Vegas.

Neighbors told police that Bair had a son who died about 10 years ago.

Jim Shuppe said that the neighborhood bordered by Maryland Parkway to the west, St. Louis to the south, Charleston Boulevard to the north and Eastern Avenue to the east is usually pretty quiet.

Anyone with information about the slaying can call Metro homicide at 229-3521 or Secret Witness at 385-5555.