Slaying suspect is returned after 18 months on the run

Keith Paul

Thursday, Nov. 29, 2001 | 9:37 a.m.

Two detectives flew to Florida Wednesday to bring back a Henderson killing suspect caught last week after using an inheritance to fund his 18 months on the run.

Stephen A. Briller, 41, is accused in the death of 33-year-old Teri Roberts, whose decomposing body was found March 22, 2000, in her Henderson apartment. Briller was arrested Nov. 20 in Miami Beach, Fla., by FBI agents and local authorities.

Briller, who waived extradition, was expected back in Henderson today, said Officer Terry Bowler, a Henderson Police spokesman.

Two Criminal Apprehension Team detectives, including one from Henderson Police, will guard Briller on the plane and take him to the Henderson jail after landing in Las Vegas. The detectives will inform the pilots and flight crew they will have a prisoner on the flight, Bowler said.

"He will be handcuffed and shackled like any other prisoner during transport," Bowler said.

A murder warrant was issued for Briller in May 2000, but by that time he had the remaining $70,000 from a $170,000 inheritance he received after his mother's January 1999 death.

The cause and manner of Roberts' death is still listed as undetermined. Her body was decomposing for about three weeks before it was found. However, Briller's actions, such as pawning Roberts' belongings, taking her dogs to the pound to be euthanized and getting his uncle to withdraw the rest of the inheritance -- in addition to Roberts' apparent expressed desire to leave him -- prompted police to obtain the arrest warrant.

Briller had been getting checks twice a month from his uncle in Los Angeles, who was handling the inheritance. But on March 8, 2000, Briller showed up at his uncle's office unannounced and said that he needed money. He later said to his uncle he was going to Florida to get a new identity, according to a Henderson Police report.

Biller also started telling people various stories when Roberts didn't show up for work. He told some people she had left him and others that she went to California for a few days, according to the report.

But Roberts was last seen alive on March 1, 2000. Police suspect she was killed then, but Briller was seen leaving the apartment on March 9, according to the report.

When Roberts' mother went through her daughter's belongings, a note was found indicating she was planning to leave Briller. The note, which included things to do such as "sell or throw out kitchen stuff, keep only computer, cameras and Rainbow (her dog) and buy a mini-kennel for Rainbow," the report states.

Briller was on "America's Most Wanted" four times, most recently in July, before his capture last week.