Woman killed by robbers

Keith Paul

Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2001 | 10:54 a.m.

Friends gathered outside a southeast Las Vegas home Monday afternoon hugging each other and comforting those who rushed to the neighborhood after hearing the horribly brutal news.

Their friend, a 27-year-old woman, had been bound and killed Monday morning by two home invaders as two of her roommates were left bound and battered in another room.

Two men broke into the house in the 5000 block of Hayward Avenue, near Nellis Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue, about 9 a.m. as the three occupants slept.

"One of the male victims was hit over the head with a wine bottle and the other was woken up with a gun in his face," Lt. Wayne Petersen of Metro Police's homicide unit said.

The woman, whose name was withheld until her family could be notified, was bound in another room, then later killed.

"We don't know at this point why this house and these people were targeted," Petersen said.

Friends gathered by the side of the house trying to comfort each other as detectives searched the house for clues. The roommate who was hit with the bottle stood shivering in the cold with his head bandaged. Dried blood from the wound could be seen under the bandage as he hugged a weeping woman.

Friends and roommates of the woman didn't want to comment Monday afternoon.

Police say five people lived at the house and another person was a guest. Three people had left the home some time before the attack to go to work.

The robbers ransacked the house, but police were still trying to determine what was taken. The robbers fled in the slain woman's white Nissan Pathfinder, police said.

The robbers apparently broke into the house about 9 a.m. The two roommates, who were unable to free themselves until about 10:45 a.m., called police.

The roommates had a party Sunday night, but police don't believe the party had anything to do with the robbery.

There was only a vague description of the robbers, since one of the residents was hit on the head while he was still sleeping and the other awoke with a gun in his face, police said.

Anyone with information in this case is asked to call Metro Police at 229-3521 or Secret Witness at 385-5555.