Woman with body in yard faces murder trial

Erica D. Johnson

Monday, Aug. 11, 2003 | 11:08 a.m.

A woman who police say buried a body in her back yard will face murder charges, a judge decided this morning.

Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Douglas Smith ruled after a preliminary hearing that there was enough evidence to try Ana Mitchel, 36, in the death of the buried victim, who has not been identified.

Mitchel will be arraigned before District Judge Sally Loehrer Aug. 25.

Mitchel's roommate, Christopher Laudermilk, testified that he was in the bedroom of a home shared with Mitchel in downtown Las Vegas on July 21 when Mitchel approached him and asked him to leave the residence temporarily.

"She brought me in the room and told me that she killed somebody and buried him in the back yard," he said.

Mitchel offered Laudermilk $100 to stay in a hotel for the night while she and a friend transferred the body, he said.

Laudermilk said he left the house and went to a nearby Budget Suites with a friend, but returned a few hours later to confirm whether what Mitchel told him was true.

In the early morning hours of July 22, he said, he went directly to the back yard of the home and discovered a hole between the shed and the brick wall, he said.

"I found a hole in the backyard which seemed to be some kind of remains of some sort," he said.

Victoria Thomas, a friend and co-worker of Mitchel at the Stardust hotel, where they were both dealers, testified that on a visit to Mitchel's house the night of July 21, Mitchel told her that she had buried someone in the back yard and asked Thomas to help her move the body.

Thomas asked if she had shot the man, and Mitchel said no, "It happened in the living room."

Metro Patrol Officer Samuel Underwood testified that he was on patrol on the night of July 21 when he was called to a home in the 1200 block of Eighth Place, in the historic John S. Park neighborhood.

"A man called stating that his roommate told him she'd killed her boyfriend and was digging a hole in the back yard to get rid of the body," he said.

When Underwood and other officers examined the scene, he said, they discovered a fresh pile of dirt about 14 inches in diameter near the shed.

"It was about 14 inches around with a very dark, black something in the hole with a real bad odor and bugs all on it," he said.

The officer used a broom to dig up the dirt and pulled something out of the ground, he said.

"It appeared to be a human hand," he said.

Dr. Rexene Worrell, the coroner who performed an autopsy on the body, said the remains were badly decomposed.

Still, it was obvious that considerable damage had been done to the body before it was buried, she testified.