Pattern investigated in prostitute’s death

Keith Paul

Thursday, Jan. 20, 2000 | 11:13 a.m.

Metro Police detectives talked with prostitutes and reviewed past sexual assault cases in search of a possible link to a Las Vegas man who was found with a dead naked woman in his kitchen.

But detectives were unable to link Ronald W. Collins, 30, with any unsolved sexual assault crimes, Lt. Wayne Petersen of Metro's homicide unit said.

After Collins was charged with murder in the Jan. 11 stabbing death of Agnes K. Ready, a 37-year-old Las Vegas woman with a history of prostitution arrests, detectives wanted to check if other prostitutes may have encountered him.

Ready, whose name was released Tuesday afternoon when coroner officials located her family after a week of searching, had several prostitution-related arrests in the downtown area since May 1998.

Detectives checked not only Collins' description against suspects in unsolved sexual assaults, but also attacks in which a knife was used.

"We haven't linked him to anything else," Petersen said.

Detectives looked into other cases because of the circumstances of the discovery of Ready's body in Collins' town house in the 4000 block of Castle Cove Drive.

The events leading to the discovery of Ready's body in Collins' house began the night before, when Collins apparently came home drunk. Frightened by his behavior, his wife, Melanie Collins, left the home with her son to spend the night at her mother's house.

Melanie Collins told police she feared for her safety because of previous domestic violence situations between the couple. She returned to her house about 5 the next morning believing her husband "maybe had slept it off," but instead she found her husband and a dead woman, Petersen said.

Metro officers had gone to Collins' home several times on domestic disturbance calls, the most recent visit being Dec. 22. On that occasion the officer gave a verbal warning, according Metro records.

Police said Collins apparently had wrapped Ready's body in a plastic sheet. There was a large amount of blood in the kitchen. Police also found the driver's seat of Collins' pickup soaked with blood and two hunting knives lying on the floorboard.

Police arrested Collins after a four-hour standoff when SWAT officers found him hiding in an air conditioning duct in the attic. Collins, a registered felon on an attempted grand larceny auto conviction, was held without bond this morning in the Clark County Detention Center on murder charges.

Collins has a lengthy police record. "He has a pattern of violence," Petersen said.