Woman slain at school had obtained protective order against brother

Stephen Curran

Friday, Dec. 17, 2004 | 9:50 a.m.

The man charged with killing his younger sister Wednesday outside her 6-year-old daughter's private school in Green Valley had systematically harassed and threatened the woman over the last several years, documents from the Clark County Family Court indicate.

Susan Bivans, the 49-year-old woman shot to death outside Warren-Walker Elementary School on Windmill Parkway in Henderson, had been granted a protective order in 2002 against her brother, Robert C. Lamb, as a result of his harassment at her home in July of that year.

The protective order expired in October 2002 and no subsequent orders were issued, according to court documents.

In January 2002, Lamb had received a permit to carry a concealed weapon, a Ruger 9 mm handgun. According to a police report, Bivans was killed with a .22-caliber revolver.

In her application for the protective order, Bivans, a registered nurse, had asked the court to require Lamb, who the paperwork shows was then unemployed after moving to Henderson from Florida, to stay at least 100 yards from her home and her daughter's school.

"I feel threatened, uncomfortable and not secure in my own home due to the recent arrival of my brother, Robert Charles Lamb ... to the Henderson area," she said in the hand-written application. "My brother has in the past threatened to kick my teeth in, bash my face ... I have asked my brother to stay away from us and not call but he has continued to call. I take this very seriously and feel that my brother may cause physical harm to any one of us."

Bivans' request stemmed from an incident six days earlier in which Lamb entered her home on Lost Mountain Court, near Wigwam Parkway, through an unlocked door, according to the court paperwork.

Bivans, who then was caring for her elderly parents, told officers her brother had moved from Florida to get "his fair share" of their dying father's estate, according to the Henderson Police report.

Their father, Robert J. Lamb, had written his son out of his $200,000 estate, threatening to "disinherit" anyone who disobeyed his wishes. The elder Lamb died in August 2003 from pneumonia brought on by Crohn's Disease.

Henderson Police spokesman Keith Paul would not comment on whether or not the will is considered a motive in the crime, although a police statement acknowledged a "history of tension" between the siblings.

Henderson Police arrested the younger Lamb Wednesday afternoon at his apartment near the intersection of Sunset Road and Eastern Avenue. The 54-year-old man remained jailed this morning at Henderson Detention Center facing one count of murder.

According to a police report, Bivans was shot several times at close range, which officers at the scene said "indicates a deep seated aggression from the suspect to the victim."

Police and school officials said Bivans was dropping off her 6-year-old daughter at her private elementary school before she was shot. The school was locked down while police looked for the shooter. No children were believed to have witnessed the crime.

The report indicates witnesses saw a man fitting Lamb's description near the school and at least one parent said it struck as "odd, so much so she actually walked her son into the school."

Other parents heard a woman yell "no" but did not see what happened, according to the report.

The school has since returned to its normal schedule, as almost all students expected in class were in attendance this morning, Headmaster Ron Bennett said.

Bivans' daughter, 6-year-old Sarah Bivans, even performed in the school's annual Holiday Program on Thursday, Bennett said.

"It was quite brave of her," he said. "It was the way the family wanted to treat it. It's something they wanted. It was quite emotional but I think Sarah was the strongest one here."

In his 37 years as an educator, Bennett said he routinely faces tragedy but had never faced one "so close to home."

He said he did not know how much the children understand about what happened.

"That's very hard to say because each individual child understands differently," Bennett said. "They told her (Sarah Bivans), 'Mommy was injured and Mommy's not coming back.' How long it takes her to understand the finality is another thing. ... She's going on with her routine. Hopefully she and her family will be healing like the rest of us. Not forgetting but moving on."

Neighbors in the middle-class cul-de-sac where Bivans lived with her husband Stuart and their daughter remembered a pleasant woman who doted on her young child and was a fixture for many youngsters in the family-friendly development.

Members of the Bivans family, whose ranch-syle home was decorated with three snowmen with the names "Pop," "Mommy" and "Sarah" painted on them, were not available for comment Thursday afternoon.

A neighbor, on the way to pick her children at school, declined to give her name but remembered Susan Bivans as a "great mother who had all the neighborhood children in her home."

Josie Garofalo and her husband, Bob, had known Susan Bivans since her family moved to the neighborhood four and a half years ago. In that time, the couple had been to their neighbor's house for get-togethers and routinely borrowed kitchen items.

Among her neighbors, Susan Bivans was known for her exercise regimen, which sent her jogging past the Garofalos' home every morning at 6, she said.

"What a wonderful woman," Garofalo said. "What a great neighbor and a great wife. She did everything."

Garofalo said she had not known of the restraining order against Lamb until she learned of her neighbor's death on television.

Though he had been aware there was a problem, Bob Garofalo declined to talk about the trouble between Susan Bivans and her brother.

"I think that was a private problem," he said. "But there are too many people alive who are bad people and too many good people who die."

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