News briefs for June 9, 2004

Wednesday, June 9, 2004 | 9:31 a.m.

Woman who died in house fire ID'd

The 37-year-old Las Vegas woman who died Monday morning in a house fire that may have been part of an elaborate suicide was identified Tuesday.

Misty Bennetts of Las Vegas died in the bedroom of her rented four-bedroom home in the 7600 block of Shore Haven Drive off North Buffalo Road, the coroner's office said. The cause of death was listed as a suicide.

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.

Bennetts lived at the rented four-bedroom house with her three children and her ex-husband, Monahan said. Both the man and the couple's children were visiting relatives in Arizona when Bennetts died, Monahan said.

Child in car a false alarm

Metro Police, news media and an ambulance flocked to the parking lot of a Vons grocery story at the intersection of Nellis Boulevard and East Sahara Avenue Tuesday afternoon after a woman reported seeing a child suffering from a bloody nose left alone inside a parked vehicle.

Officers arrived to find a 10-year-old girl seated in the vehicle, holding a tissue to her nose, confused as to why police were approaching the car.

After speaking to the girl, officers learned that the child had gone inside the grocery store with her mother, when she noticed her nose was bleeding. The child's mother told her that there were tissues in the car and sent her daughter to fetch them.

The child decided to sit inside the car until the bleeding stopped, and a woman walking by spotted the girl and called police immediately.

Police said no charges would be filed against the mother.

Metro Police said this was the first false alarm they have responded to and encouraged citizens to still report when they see a child left alone in a car.

Murder-suicide victims named

The coroner's office has identified two people involved in a murder-suicide Friday night.

Fred Tunbridge, 27, is believed to have killed his wife, Alexis Tunbridge, 26, before taking his own life with a knife, the coroner's office said.

Metro Police arrived at the Oasis Heritage apartments near Nellis Boulevard and Cheyenne Avenue before 6 p.m. on Friday after someone discovered the two bodies inside their unit, officers said.

Detectives said that it appeared the woman was killed during a struggle before the man killed himself.

Welfare worker's firing is upheld

A state hearing officer has upheld the firing of a state welfare worker who was caught with more than $6,000 worth of state computer equipment in his home.

Hearing Officer Angela D. Cartwright, in a decision released Tuesday, said the evidence at a hearing showed that Zacchaelus Easler, a computer network technician, "engaged in dishonesty" in taking the property home.

Easler said he took the units home for testing and for research.

Cartwright said Easler's immediate dismissal was appropriate because, as a computer specialist, Easler "posed a threat" to the information technology system of the welfare division.

Authorities were alerted to the computer equipment in Cartwright's home by his live-in girlfriend, who was not identified.