Man apparently killed in N.Y. winds up in car trunk in Laughlin

Karen Zekan

Thursday, Feb. 18, 1999 | 11:55 a.m.

A retired New York schoolteacher, whose body was found in the trunk of a car his roommate was driving, died from being hit in the back of his head, an autopsy has found.

The victim, identified by Monroe County, N.Y., authorities as James Domm, 51, of the affluent Pittsford suburb outside Rochester, is believed to have suffered the fatal blunt trauma at least a week ago.

Detectives on Monday found the man's upstate New York bedroom soaked in blood, leading them to believe that Domm was killed inside his home, which police said he had been sharing the past three months with Michael M. Bradley, 38.

Bradley was arrested Tuesday in Laughlin where the body was found. He is currently jailed on a murder charge in Clark County Detention Center.

The discovery of Domm's body about 6 p.m. Tuesday marked the second homicide investigation Metro launched in a 27-hour period in Laughlin. About 3 p.m. Monday, the body of a 63-year-old Flagstaff, Ariz., man whose name authorities have yet to release was discovered beneath some bushes near State Route 163 by a motorist who had stopped to fix a tire.

Metro Police were in the process today of extraditing David Dunkle, 27, from a northern Utah jail to Clark County on murder and robbery charges in connection with the Arizona man's death, which authorities believe occurred sometime during the day on Sunday.

Dunkle was arrested about midnight Sunday by the Utah Highway Patrol after a trooper spotted him in a car parked alongside the road near Farmington, north of Salt Lake City. The trooper reported that the light tan 1984 Buick Regal had a bullet hole and splattered blood on one side.

When asked about the damage, Dunkle told the trooper he'd killed someone in Laughlin, and then he stopped talking, Metro homicide Lt. Wayne Petersen said. The trooper found a loaded handgun and the victim's credit cards inside the car, which was registered to the victim, Petersen said.

Police have yet to determine why the Arizona man was killed. He was last known to be alive about 7:15 a.m Sunday -- a fact detectives discovered from the man's slot machine card, which recorded the last time he inserted the piece into a Laughlin casino's slot machine.

In the other unrelated homicide case, neighbors in New York told police they last remember seeing Domm around Feb. 6 or 7, about the same time the man's newspapers began piling up outside his door.

After several days, they used a spare key on Monday to enter Domm's home and called police after seeing the bloody bedroom.

Police entered Domm's name as missing under suspicious circumstances, along with details about his missing red 1996 Pontiac Grand Am, into a nationwide database.

A Metro officer on patrol in Laughlin Tuesday randomly ran the New York license plate through his computer and hit a match with Domm's Grand Am, Petersen said.

The officer stopped the car, and when the driver could not state Domm's whereabouts, the officer searched the vehicle.