Two boys find dead body in ravine

Jace Radke

Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2000 | 10:32 a.m.

Two boys hiking around a desert area near their Green Valley homes came across a gruesome discovery Monday afternoon.

They spotted what looked like a person's leg, and on closer examination found a dead man's body partially hidden by bushes at the base of a 75-foot-tall ridge, near Whitney Ranch Drive and Russell Road.

The Clark County coroner's office today was working on identifying the man, who Henderson Police believe may have lost his footing at the edge of the 75-foot fall behind Vo-Tech High School at 5710 Mountain Vista St.

The high school sits on top of a plateau, and a few hundred yards from the back of the school is the drop to a large desert area surrounded by homes, apartments and Thurman White Middle School, 1661 Galleria Drive.

Theron Young, a 14-year-old who attends Thurman White, said he didn't know if the two boys who told him and his friend about the body were telling the truth.

"My friend and I were walking home from getting a smoothie when the two kids from our neighborhood told us they had found a body in the desert," Young said. "We didn't know if they were telling a story, so we went with them to check it out when we saw a policeman. The two kids showed the officer what they saw, and it was a body."

The two boys who found the body were about 10 years old, and both were a little shaken by their discovery, Young said.

Police believe the body had been in the desert, about a half-mile from the middle school, for at least a day and possibly longer, Lt. Jutta Chambers said.

Because of the body being located at the bottom of the ravine, and the rough terrain surrounding it, Henderson firefighters were called in to help recover the body for the coroner's office.

On Nov. 26 Antonio Albitos, an 89-year-old Henderson man suffering from Alzheimer's disease, was reported missing on Mountain Vista Road near Vo-Tech.

Investigators do not know if Albitos is the man who was found Monday, but detectives said they would pass on information about Albitos to the coroner's office.