Woman arrested after body found in storage unit

Keith Paul

Thursday, Feb. 8, 2001 | 11:21 a.m.

A 47-year-old woman was in the Clark County jail this morning accused of killing her mother, sealing her in a large plastic trash can and leaving her body in a rented Las Vegas storage unit.

Brookey Lee West of Las Vegas was arrested about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday in a convenience store near her West Spring Mountain Road and booked into the jail on murder charges, Lt. Wayne Petersen of Metro Police's homicide unit said.

Monday police were called to a self-storage business in the 8000 block of West Sahara Avenue about a foul odor coming from one of the units. After a search warrant was obtained, police found a decomposing body in a trash can that had the lid taped shut, Petersen said.

Also in the unit appeared to be all or most of the belongings of 68-year-old Christine Smith, West's mother. Police do not have a positive identification yet on the decomposing body but do know it is that of a woman and deduced it is Smith. The Clark County coroner's office have not made an official identification or cause of death.

The storage unit was rented to West under a different last name. She apparently had several last names she has used at various times.

"We have several addresses we need to follow up on to determine when the victim was last seen," Petersen said. "We do not know when the victim was killed. It could have been anytime since 1998 (when the storage unit was rented) until this year."

Police are attempting to contact people who knew Smith and West to determine the last time Smith was seen.

The storage unit keeps track electronically of when people come in and out of the property. Detectives are going through the listings to determine when someone went into West's storage unit.

Police searched West's apartment Wednesday night and recovered some evidence that may link her to the slaying. Police would not reveal what evidence was recovered, Petersen said.

West does not have any previous convictions or arrests in Metro's computer files.