Police: Search for crack ended in murder

Jen Lawson

Tuesday, May 13, 2003 | 10:58 a.m.

As family and friends of murder victim Simone Hirst scattered her ashes Monday in the mountains of Utah, a beach in California and a bay in Australia, Metro Police were arresting the 25-year-old man who allegedly killed her.

Shod Walker was arrested at about 3 p.m. at Metro's homicide offices after detectives asked him to come in for an interview regarding his possible involvement in Hirst's death.

He was booked into Clark County Detention Center on a charge of murder with a weapon.

Lt. Tom Monahan said Hirst, who lived in Park City, Utah, caught a cab at the Bellagio in the wee hours of May 5 and went downtown in search of crack cocaine. She encountered Walker, who allegedly killed her in an alley near 11th Street and Stewart Avenue.

"We're confident we arrested the right guy," Lt. Tom Monahan said. "It was simply a matter of slow, methodical police work -- lots of shoe leather."

Hirst's mother, Gailey Vollmer, who has a home in Henderson, said the news that police solved her daughter's murder is "absolutely fabulous."

Hirst, a former model, was visiting Las Vegas two weeks ago with her former boyfriend to celebrate her 39th birthday. After a night out on the town, the pair returned to the Bellagio. They were seen arguing in the valet area, then Hirst took a cab downtown to buy crack, Monahan said.

Monahan said she got out of the cab outside of Binion's Horseshoe, but didn't go in. She took a second cab from Binion's to the area of 15th and Fremont streets.

"She arrived at 15th and Fremont and found herself among people who could get her crack," Monahan said. "She smoked crack with those people, then encountered Walker" while looking for more crack.

"I understand this wasn't her first sojourn into smoking crack," Monahan said.

Walker led her to the area of 11th and Stewart, where he allegedly hit her on the head with a blunt object, he said.

Vollmer thought Walker might have made advances toward Hirst, and "she didn't fancy him."

According to Vollmer, people who lived in the area reported hearing a woman yell "Get away from me!" When Hirst was found, her shoes were off and her pantyhose was ripped as if she had been running, she added.

The day after Hirst's funeral, Vollmer and other family members placed flowers where she had been found. Vollmer found her daughter's lipstick there, which she turned over to detectives.

Michael Signorelli, who was romantically involved with Hirst, said she "just made a bad decision."

"She had been drinking, and her judgment was definitely impaired," he said. "Obviously she was upset and angry over something. If she had been in her right mind, she never would have done that."

Signorelli said he intended to go to the homicide offices to shake the hands of the detectives who investigated the case.

"It's not going to bring Simone back, but I'm so grateful that they caught him," he said.

Hirst's family and friends spread her ashes Monday at Sydney Harbor in Australia, near where she was born; Newport Beach, Calif., where she spent her childhood; and the top of a mountain in Deer Valley, Utah, where she loved to ski.

Vollmer planned to attend Walker's court hearings, but she said she wants to move out of the Las Vegas area soon and return to Los Angeles to escape the bad memories.

"It was so senseless," she said. "I just want to look at him and say, 'Why?' "