Friday, Aug. 3, 2001 | 10:51 a.m.
Metro Police detectives are comparing the unsolved brutal slaying of an 84-year-old Las Vegas woman in her home to two murders of elderly women in Southern California for any possible links.
Detectives also compared the killing of Virginia Peart to a slaying of an elderly woman in Washoe County, but found the crimes were not similar, said Lt. Wayne Petersen of Metro's homicide unit.
Homicide detectives met with an FBI agent Wednesday to discuss the Southern California slayings to determine if there are any connection in hopes of identifying a suspect in Peart's killing.
"We don't know why she was targeted, that's why we are looking at all the options," Petersen said. "We have some physical evidence, but we need a suspect to match it to."
Peart was found dead in her Linn Lane home, near Owens Avenue, June 25, but police believe she was killed the previous Thursday or Friday -- June 21 or 22. Her son found her dead after not hearing from her for several days. Police found that her home had been ransacked and that she died from asphyxiation.
Detectives entered the circumstances of Peart's killing into an FBI database called VICAP -- Violent Criminal Apprehension Program.
The information was compared at Quantico, Va., to other slayings throughout the country also entered into the database, said Special Agent Gayle Jacobs, a spokeswoman for the Las Vegas FBI office.
The Southern California slayings and the one in Washoe County came up as having possible similarities. A local FBI agent then took the information and met with the Metro detectives.
The FBI and Metro would not comment on any of the other cases being compared to Peart's slaying.
Petersen said detectives enter unsolved slayings into VICAP to see if any other departments have had similar killings.
"We don't know what motivated this crime," he said. "Robbery or burglary may have been the motivation. We are looking at all the possible options as we do in other cases."
A man was seen driving Peart's car June 22 -- three days before her body was discovered. The man was chased by Henderson Police after he refused to pull over for a traffic violation.
The officer spotted the car pulling out of a lounge parking lot off Boulder Highway.
"The driver ignored my signal for it to stop and then accelerated out of the parking lot cutting off two southbound vehicles," the officer wrote in the report. "It should be noted that other vehicles on the roadway had to swerve and slam on their brakes in order to avoid striking the vehicle."
He pursued the car south on Boulder Highway with his police car's emergency lights on. When the driver sped up and started running red lights, the officer broke off the pursuit because of danger to other motorists.
The officer, however, continued to follow the car as it ran a red light and sped east on Lake Mead Drive, police said. The officer turned off his police lights and siren in an effort to get the driver to slow down, his report says.
He followed the car to the entrance to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, where the driver apparently went around the gates and crashed the car down a 20-foot embankment. He was gone when the officer arrived. Police searched for the man, but were unable to find him.
The car was registered to Virginia Peart, and Henderson Police asked Metro Police officers to knock on the woman's door, but no one answered. Police returned later and knocked again. When they got no answer a second time, officers left a card on the door asking the resident to contact police.
Metro Police didn't see any signs the house had been broken into or other evidence a crime had been committed, Petersen said.
Peart's car had been seen in front of her house the day before the Henderson Police pursuit.
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