Police seek California man in bludgeoning death of LV woman

Keith Paul

Wednesday, Dec. 15, 1999 | 11:10 a.m.

Metro Police are searching today for a 41-year-old California man for questioning in the bludgeoning death of a 79-year-old woman found in her house.

Police would only say they have a cooperating witness that led them to their search for the suspect.

Doris Bair's next door neighbors called police Monday afternoon when they hadn't seen Bair for a couple of days. Police found Bair dead on the floor of the house she has lived in for 50 years in the 1400 block of Bracken Avenue.

An autopsy determined Bair died from several blows to the head and most likely died sometime Sunday. Several items were taken from her home including her car.

Police found her car, a 1991 white Mercury, in the downtown area Tuesday and watched the car for 24 hours hoping someone would return to it, but no one returned to Bair's car, Metro homicide unit Lt. Wayne Petersen said.

There were no signs of forced entry into Bair's home, but officers were able to get in through a back door that was locked, but not pulled closed all the way.

"From what the neighbors said the victim would never have opened the door to a stranger," Petersen said.

Friday night someone came up to Bair's front door. Then a short time later, the elderly lady heard a knock at her back door. The lights in her house then went off. The frightened woman called police to report the prowler.

An officer found that the circuit breakers in the outside electric box had been switched off by someone. The officer switched the power back on to her house and put a padlock on the box for Bair, Petersen said.

Police don't know if the prowler is connected to Bair's killing, but investigators are checking into it.

Detectives found signs of a struggle inside Bair home and suspect she died during a robbery or burglary.

"There were several items removed from the residence. We're not sure what is missing since she was living alone, and there was extensive ransacking through out the house," Petersen said. "We don't know how the suspect happened to choose that residence."

Police don't have a warrant charging suspect in connection with Bair's slaying, but Petersen said, "We certainly have probably cause to arrest him."

Police don't know of any connection between Bair and suspect.

The suspect is described as a light-skinned black male, 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 9 inches tall, about 240 pounds with a thin mustache, short hair and balding. He was last seen wearing a gray and brown plaid jacket, a maroon hooded sweatshirt, a white T-shirt, raggedy blue jeans and white tennis shoes. Police are unsure how long the suspect has been staying in Las Vegas.

Anyone with information about the suspect or in this case is asked to call Secret Witness at 385-5555 or Metro Police.

Neighbor's placed flowers outside of Bair's house Tuesday as a memorial for the quiet woman who mostly kept herself but was seen almost daily caring for her flower garden. She lived alone in the house except for her cat Rambo.

It was Rambo wandering around outside Monday afternoon that led Bair's neighbor to believe something was wrong. He looked inside the house and saw that someone had ransacked the place and called police.