Fatal fire believed a suicide

Stephen Curran

Tuesday, June 8, 2004 | 10:08 a.m.

The house fire that left a 37-year-old Las Vegas woman dead Monday morning may have been part of an elaborate suicide, Metro Police detectives said.

The woman, whose name was not released this morning, died in the bedroom of her rented four-bedroom home in the 7600 block of Shore Haven Drive off North Buffalo Road.

The fire started near the main stairway about 6:45 a.m. Monday, Las Vegas Fire Department spokesman Tim Szymanski said.

Evidence at the scene -- including previous oral and written statements -- led investigators to believe the woman's death may have been an unorthodox suicide, Metro Homicide Lt. Tom Monahan said.

"There's considerable evidence to support that (theory)," Monahan said. "As the investigation proceeded, things pointed away from homicide and toward suicide."

Fire investigators initially determined the fire was an arson attempt. Police and fire investigators later Monday morning determined the fire was deliberately started.

The fire was confined to the stairs and was quickly extinguished. Szymanski said damage is estimated about $50,000, mostly smoke related.

The woman was pronounced dead at the house. She had no visible injuries other than slight burns from heat and smoke, authorities said. An autopsy was scheduled to begin today.

Neighbors said the woman lived at the house with a man they believed to be the father of her three children. The man had taken the children to visit relatives in Arizona, where they were when the fire started, Monahan said.

Police officers were later able to track down the man in Arizona, he said.

The home had smoke detectors, but fire investigators do not know if they were working at the time of the fire.

Mike Morris, who lives across the street, said he saw firefighters approaching the house and watched the action from his driveway.

"I just heard the sirens coming up," he said. "I came out before they took her out."

Morris and his wife, Roxanne Morris, and other neighbors living near the scene said they did not know the family across the street.

The neighborhood is especially popular with investors who purchase the single-family homes, built in the late 1980s, as rental properties, Roxanne Morris said.

Neighbor David Kitchen was leaving his home three doors away from the woman's house about 5 a.m. when he smelled the smoke. He did not call 911, thinking the smoke was coming from another direction.

Kitchen said he had never met the family.

"Now I'm sorry I didn't call," he said, watching firefighters leave the scene. "I'm so sorry."