Crime scene analyst, pathologist describe body in storage unit

Jace Radke

Tuesday, April 10, 2001 | 10:17 a.m.

Alice Wilsey says she was told her 68-year-old friend and neighbor Christine Smith was moving to San Jose, Calif., to live with her son, but that never seemed quite right to her.

Wilsey visited Smith at her West Sahara Avenue apartment the night before the move in February 1998, but didn't notice any boxes or signs of packing, and soon lost all contact with a woman she had visited nearly every day for more than a year.

"I don't think there ever really was an address" that Smith was moving to, Wilsey said. "I didn't believe the story in the beginning. I didn't believe that she was going to live with her son."

Three years after Wilsey last saw her friend, Smith's decomposing body was found sealed in a plastic trash can in a rented Las Vegas storage unit, and Smith's daughter, Brookey Lee West, had been charged with murder.

Wilsey was one of four witnesses at West's initial appearance before Justice of the Peace William Jansen on Monday. Deputy District Attorney Frank Como plans to call his final witness, a Metro homicide detective, on Thursday before Jansen decides if there is enough evidence to hold West over for a jury trial.

West, 47, was arrested on Feb. 7, two days after police were called to investigate an odor in a storage unit at Canyon Gate Mini Storage, 8055 W. Sahara Ave., where they found Smith dead inside a trash can.

Metro crime scene analyst supervisor Joseph Matvay was one of the first to arrive at the storage unit, and opened the green garbage can, finding Smith's body.

"There was a lid on the can with duct tape around the circumference of the container fixing the lid in place," Matvay said. "Three large green trash bags were put over the can, and over the upper portion there was a layer of cellophane wrap that when unrolled was about 150 feet long.

"Inside I observed a human form in the advanced stages of decomposition at the bottom of the can, and there were also some fluids, mold and maggots."

Both Matvay and Dr. Gary Telgenhoff, a forensic pathologist with the Clark County coroner's office who performed the autopsy, said there was a plastic bag covering Smith's nose and mouth that was tied behind her head.

Matvay also testified that a fingerprint matching West's was found on the cellophane wrap around the can, and that religious texts including books on witchcraft and satanic rituals were found in the storage unit. Testimony on the books was allowed into the record over the objections of Deputy Public Defender Scott Coffee.

"This is simply an attempt to put prejudicial things against Ms. West into the record," Scott said. "It's irrelevant unless someone can connect it to some kind of nefarious plan."

Jansen allowed the testimony, saying it was relevant because of the unusual way the body was found.

Telgenhoff estimated that Smith's body was in the can for at least six months, and that it could have been sealed inside for years, but during the course of his autopsy he could not determine the cause or manner of death.

"There was very little left to view or examine," Telgenhoff said. "Internally the majority of her organs were liquefied. I could identify the remnants of organs at best. I did not feel I had sufficient evidence to make a determination (on cause and manner of death.)"

Detective Dave Mesinar is expected to testify about West's arrest as well as what a search warrant turned up at her apartment when he takes the stand Thursday, Como said.