Henderson Police arrest man in wife’s slaying

Jen Lawson

Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2003 | 9:39 a.m.

Henderson Police arrested a 57-year-old man early today for allegedly killing his wife in their apartment on East Lake Mead Drive near Warm Springs Road.

Robert Eugene Allen went to Metro Police headquarters at 400 Stewart Ave. about 11:30 p.m. and told an officer that he had gotten into an altercation with his wife, Officer Shane Lewis, spokesman for Henderson Police, said.

Metro notified Henderson Police, who went to Allen's Victory Village apartment, at 501 E. Lake Mead Drive, to check on Allen's wife. They found her dead.

The Clark County coroner's office had not released her name this morning. The cause of death wasn't clear, Lewis said.

"There were no apparent gunshot wounds," he said. "Some instrument caused the trauma ... During their fight, she ended up dead."

Allen was taken into custody for murder with a deadly weapon.

This is not the first time Allen allegedly became violent with his wife. In June, Henderson Police arrested him for domestic battery, Lewis said.

The victim has two grown children, Lewis said. One of the children lives in the home, but was not home at the time of the woman's death.

This is the fourth homicide in Henderson this year. The last killing, which occurred Aug. 4, also involved domestic violence.

In that case, Joel Michael Rakers, 29, allegedly killed his wife of nine months, Katherine Concepcion Nauta, 31, in their home on North Valle Verde Drive.

The same week, 38-year-old Raynna Bunyou was shot to death outside a bar, and her boyfriend, Vannasone Quanbengboune is charged with her murder.

Domestic violence-related homicides "are always distressing because it represents a failure of the system and we are part of that system," Lisa Lynn Chapman, spokesman for Safe Nest, an agency that operates shelters for domestic violence victims.