Death raises concern for homeless

Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2003 | 9:25 a.m.

The body of an apparently homeless woman believed to be in her 40s was discovered Monday inside a hatchback car parked in a lot dotted with stored vehicles, Metro Police said.

"There was no apparent cause of death," Metro Sgt. Jim Young said, adding that police were not treating it as a homicide.

The woman may have died from the cold, Young said. The coroner's office will perform an autopsy to determine the cause of her death, he said.

Temperatures in Las Vegas for the past two nights have dipped to freezing or below.

Young said the woman appeared to be Hispanic or American Indian.

Police received a call about 5 p.m. Monday saying that a body had been found in the lot at Charleston Boulevard and Fremont Street, Young said.

The homeless are known to sleep on the ground and in cars in the area, Young said.

"She does appear to be a homeless person," he said.

Police found "a lot of empty beer bottles, a lot of empty food containers and a strong smell of urine" at the lot, Young said.

The woman was lying face down with her head hanging over the edge of a seat and she was covered in three or four blankets, Young said.

The woman had no identification, and other homeless persons questioned by police did not know her.

"That's tragic," said Linda Lera-Randle El, who advocates for better conditions for the homeless through the organization Straight from the Streets.

If the woman is identified as a homeless person, she would be the 58th such individual who has died in Las Vegas in 2003, Lera-Randle El said.

The coroner's office counted 50 homeless deaths so far this year, but Lera-Randle El said her organization has tracked another seven before Monday.

Lera-Randle El has tracked homeless people in the valley since 1996, when only a handful were discovered dead over the course of a year, she said.

"We not only need to find out who they are and why they died, but show them how to live," she said.

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