Editorial: Life mimics TV show

Wednesday, March 9, 2005 | 9:04 a.m.

The top-rated CBS TV show, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," brings a lot of positive attention to Metro Police. It features six Las Vegas officers whose forensic skills and attention to minute detail at crime scenes help bring murderers and other criminals to justice. The show is riveting because it does not stray too far from reality.

It shows how even the tiniest pieces of evidence can be used to identify suspects. This was the case for real in the death of a 34-year-old Las Vegas woman in September 1997. Devi Ives had been missing for five days when target shooters found her body in the desert. She had been wrapped in garbage bags and partially buried. Metro investigators found enough evidence at the scene, including paint chips from a 1986 BMW, to link a man who had been dating Ives to the crime. A warrant for the arrest of Eugene Anthony Linder was issued on Feb. 13, 1998.

Because of Metro's work, Linder was arrested last month near Atlanta after police there stopped a vehicle in which he was a passenger. He was extradited to Las Vegas on Saturday and faces a murder charge. It's nice to know that thorough crime-scene work by Metro is not just the stuff of TV writers.