Police still searching for child missing after mom found dead

Jen Lawson

Thursday, April 8, 2004 | 10:53 a.m.

An Amber Alert was still in effect this morning in the effort to find a 5-year-old boy whose father is being sought in the strangulation death of the boy's mother Tuesday.

But Lt. Brad Simpson of Metro's missing persons section said the alert may be pulled before the boy is found because it loses its impact the longer it is active.

"People might ignore it after a while," Simpson said.

If police are not getting good leads out of the alert, they will rely on other methods, such as a new reverse 911 system, which calls residents in a particular area with a recorded message asking them to look for a missing person, and old-fashioned police work. But the electronic highway messages and media bulletins could be pulled.

The public has been made aware of the search for Craig Bingaman, 23, and his son Donovan, so police believe leads will still come in if the alert is terminated.

Sightings of Bingaman and his son were still being reported this morning, Simpson said.

Bingaman is being sought in the death of his wife, Tiffany, in their apartment in the 5300 block of Redberry Street near Rancho Drive and Cheyenne Avenue.

Lt. Tom Monahan of Metro's homicide section said this morning that the investigation has changed from a homicide investigation to a missing persons probe.

Finding Donovan Bingaman is the top priority, police said.

"I believe he is in danger because of his dad's willingness to kill his wife, and that scares me a lot," Simpson said.

Simpson said at least 40 or 50 calls have come in since the Amber Alert has been issued.

"We had a cluster of sightings up on Boulder Highway," he said. "The descriptions were good and we did some extensive searching," but their efforts didn't pan out.

Police released a surveillance videotape Wednesday taken at a gas station market at Alexander Road and Rainbow Boulevard that shows Bingaman and his father, Roy, at a cash register the same day Tiffany Bingaman's body was found.

The child did not appear on the surveillance tape.

For the first time police used the services of a Florida-based nonprofit organization called A Child Is Missing, which uses a "reverse 911 system" to quickly call citizens when children are reported as missing.

Detectives in the missing persons section received training on the system in January.

When a child is engangered and missing, the program's telephone technology can place 1,000 phone calls within one minute asking residents of a targeted area for help.

Police used A Child Is Missing's system about three times Wednesday night and limited the calls to residents living within the ZIP codes in which Bingaman was possibly spotted.

When Amber Alerts are issued, the description of the suspect's car is a key piece of information that has led to the discovery of missing children in other states.

But Bingaman doesn't have a car, which complicates the search. Simpson said he is known to use the Citizens Area Transit bus system, however. Police have asked CAT bus drivers to watch for him.

Detectives spoke to Bingaman's family, who live in Las Vegas, Wednesday night but family members have not been cooperative, police said.

"I think the family knows more than they're telling us," Simpson said.

Police have been searching for Bingaman since Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier that day Tiffany Bingaman's co-worker called police and said she hadn't shown up for work. Police went to the apartment and found the door locked and nothing amiss.

Hours later another concerned co-worker called police and, about the same time, Craig Bingaman phoned a detective and said he had hurt his wife.

Police went back to the apartment, forced their way inside and found Tiffany Bingaman's body. The Clark County coroner's office conducted an autopsy Wednesday and determined she had been strangled.

The Amber Alert, issued about 3 p.m. Wednesday, was not issued immediately because police were tracking down good leads, Simpson said.

This is the second Amber Alert issued in Clark County since the system was put into place in 2003.

The first alert was issued in June when a mother left her 16-month-old son in the car while she went into a store. The car was stolen and the boy was found in the car five hours later in a convenience store parking lot.

Bingaman is described as white, 6-foot-1 and 150 pounds. He has short hair and is missing several teeth. He has a tattoo of a boy with baggy pants on his lower left arm.

Donovan Bingaman is 4 feet tall and 70 pounds. He has blond hair, blue eyes and was last seen wearing matching blue shorts and shirt and sandals.

Anyone with information on them is asked to call the missing persons section at 229-2907, the homicide section at 229-3521 or Crime Stoppers at 385-5555. Persons giving information that leads to Bingaman's apprehension could be eligible for a reward through Crime Stoppers.