Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
StumbleHuman remains found in home of missing woman
Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun
Billie Jean James carries a peace sign while marching with the Nevada Desert Experience in the annual Martin Luther King Day parade down 4th Street Monday, Jan. 18, 2010.
Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010 | 4:34 p.m.
Remains were found in the home of Billie Jean James, who had been missing since April. The coroner's office identified the remains as those of James.
Sun Archives
Human remains have been found at the home of Billie Jean James, a 67-year-old Las Vegas woman who has been missing since April 22.
The remains were found by James’ husband, Billy James, shortly before noon Wednesday as he was cleaning a cluttered back room of the home, police said.
At the time of her disappearance, James lived in the home with her husband. The couple had been married for 40 years.
In May, police said they believed James had left the home on foot.
James’ family met with the media in May to offer a $10,000 reward to anyone with information leading to her whereabouts. Police and family friends had extensively searched the area by that time, using helicopters and vehicles.
Billy James told KSNV-TV on Wednesday evening that he was distraught about finding what he believes are his wife's remains in the home.
"I don't really feel like talking about it a whole lot," he said.
James thanked the public for helping in the search.
A 7-year-old neighbor girl was inside the home playing dominoes with Billy James just before he found the remains in the back room, KSNV-TV reported.
Authorities conducted extensive searches of the house after Billie Jean James disappeared, but Metro spokeswoman Barbara Morgan said "clutter was just a major factor in the investigation."
The Clark County Coroner’s Office will identify the remains and release the manner of death, police said.
Metro Police said the investigation is ongoing.
Discussion: comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
No trusted comments have been posted.
Post a comment
Most Popular
- Viewed
- Discussed
- E-mailed
- Three dreams come true for Flamingo headliner Marie Osmond
- MGM results improve on Las Vegas Strip spending, China growth
- Federal agents join probe into fire at site of future Islamic funeral home
- Strip Scribbles: Shania Twain in town planning Caesars Palace residency
- Judge tosses out suit challenging motorcycle helmet law enforcement
- 15-month-old toddler tests positive for hallucinogenic drug
- Construction project — possibly for a mosque — damaged by fire
- Henderson man pleads guilty to kidnapping 7-year-old girl
- Mother left 3-year-old twins, 5-year-old alone prior to fire, Metro Police charge
- Highs to hit low 70s in Las Vegas
Blogs
The Kats Report
Post it: House of Blues tuning up for a Santana residency
In pursuing a tribute to Frank Sinatra, Robert Davi is no bad actor
High School Sports Scene
High School Basketball State Championship Picks
The Kats Report
Oscar Goodman goes Shecky as Mob Museum opening prompts a mob scene (2 Comments)
Elsewhere
MGM Resorts, Ameristar form marketing alliance to draw visitors
High School Sports Scene
High School Hoops Picks: Updated with Friday's regional finals (3 Comments)
The Kats Report
What a Whitney Houston residency in Las Vegas might have looked like (5 Comments)
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
WHAT?! Unbelievable.
Something smells or should have smelled.
I think her husband killed her and has just been playing us and now wants us to buy this new story!
A case of insanity, or the extreme result of hoarding. Seriously how cluttered can a room be to not look or find her ? Was there no odor ? 40 year marriage ? There wouldn't be any place I wouldn't look. The findings are going to be interesting.
The above referenced article from April 23, 2010 has the title....Metro seeks help finding missing woman, 67
The article starts with.....Metro Police are asking for the public's help in finding a woman last seen Thursday afternoon at her home in the south Las Vegas Valley.
You mean to tell me that Metro new the last place she was seen was at home and they never searched the home???
WOW!!!
Come on now. This makes no sense.
"Cleaning out the cluttered back of the home" and he finds a dead body -- his wife.
I thought they were searching in the desert for her because she may have "wandered off."
Something is not right here...
My condolences to her family.
I can't fathom that when she was reported missing that the investigators didn't ask have you looked in the house. And four months before entering that room, The husband is he mentally competent, I mean he could be suffering from alzheimer or dementia.
Impossible. He had to know.
Doesn't sound right. The first thing you do is search the house. Beyond that a decomposing body is going to give off an aroma few could miss. There has to be some sort of mental illness involved. Cops should have searched the house as well
Today, my friends, has been a BANNER DAY, a veritable TROVE, a FONT of feverish activity by many of the various characters in our Stephen King Novel,"LostVegas".
The Sun is replete with breathless accounts of the various goings on in our fictitious community!
What character are YOU playing?
This is unbelievable,didn't the house get searched,What is going on with the Henderson Police.He killed the wife and hide the body.Nobody can tell me a body lays behind some stuff in a room rotting and no one can smell it.I knew there was something fishy to begin with when this story broke.
Homicide plain and simple, unless she died from natural causes, and the husband is totally nuts and missed the odor;
And, of course, Metro missed the body when they searched the house after receiving the missing persons report.
Metro DID search the house....right?? (hint .. hint: JonBenet...).
Could they not get into that room to search it? Were they hoarders? Did they not detect a smell because the home in general smelled? This is totally weird and pretty creepy.
So...the police never searched the home? Great job.
What is a 7 year old neighbor girl doing in the house with this man? I would never let my daughter hang out alone with an adult male I did not know!
Now you want Metro to search private residences without a warrant? If there had been some indication of a crime or a person in the residence in danger, sure, no warrant. But without that, had they found something it would not have been admissable in court. Then you would have condemned them for not having a warrant. Metro can't win when they are held to legal standards and your standards.
Of all the crazy stories lately, this is the most bizarre.
Was there also a large freezer underneath all that clutter?
Ummm"Metro never searched the house after the initial missing person report?
We need a new sheriff.
Who said anything about searching the property without a warrant?
If the owner of the property gives permission you don't need a warrant and if he will not give permission then go get one.
I agree with most here, only in Vegas!
Well this will make for one hell of a CSI episode.
When the autopsy is done, it will show that Billie Jean James died of natural causes. Like many good folks I know, she had her quirks, and one was that she was a hoarder. The house was essentially stuffed with items of clothing, like 4' high with little narrow paths. It is not too hard to imagine that she had a stroke, and in her panic pulled a thick covering of clothes on top of her.
Oh, and Metro did search the house. But the house is so densely packed with clothes, it would have taken a front end loader to find her.
Bill James is a sweet and loving soul and the allegations in this thread are like a knife in the heart of a fine man who is really hurting right now. Back off until you know the facts.
mensan, that story does sound likely. And it would make sense if the body was found within 2 weeks of her "disappearance." BUT - there is no way the smell would have been undetected for this long. Something else has happened here.
ooooops. Hope I don't get served with a lawsuit now.
Behappy
There was an episode of "Bones" that was about a hoarder. The investigators found the body under all this stuff.
But this is a bizarre story. With all due respect to Mr. James, but how did he NOT notice the stench of a decomposing body? Even all that "garbage" in the house couldn't mask that smell. And didn't he ever go in the back room????
This is very unbelievable. I can't believe the residence was not searched more thoroughly for a missing woman. How sad for this woman.
Las Vegas is in a dessert. Hot and dry. I've had grapes, oranges never rot but turn into a hard rocklike entity. The desert can suck the water out so fast before you know it. And clothes all over would help keep it dry even when humidity is above normal. So, seems very possible to me that he didn't smell anything.
If you have never been in a "true" hoarders home you will never understand this.
I have been in homes like this and sadly, I believe this could have happened.
Pic # 2, does not look like a home of hoarders. But at the same time, with someone in that pic, having a cast on their right arm, might suggest violence. I have been married for 35 years, and if my wife came up missing, I would want Metro, and anyone else to search everywhere. ALL rooms, and buildings around.
This is just crazy.
Others have reported that dogs were used to search the houses early in the investigation. If true, I do not see how a trained dog could miss a dead body in a small house...even with the clutter.
maybe they didn't miss the body it may have not been there when they searched it just saying.
Bill did report a smell a week after the disappearance and the cops said no a "decomposing body had a distinct smell and this was not the same". Billy Jean was a hoarder and kept stuff like boxes of clothes in a shed that was stuffed full. I fault the cops for not doing a complete search. they probably just opened the door, saw all the boxes and clutter and made assumptions. The young girl was a friend of the family and a personal favorite of Billy Jean trying to cheer up a heartbroken and distraught man who was in limbo and hell. Bill James is one of the finest human beings I have ever known and his wife was the same with a huge heart that gave out on her. No crime here except incompetence by the Police. The comments of the ignorant and hateful only show their insensitivity and inhumanity. Move on here nothing to see here but a grieving heart sick man who is innocent of all the horrible things you TROLLS accuse.
Bill also cooperated fully with the Police, gave them full use of his property with permission to search as they pleased. He took a polygraph test and passed completely. The shed is out away from the house at edge of a large natural desert garden. He did report a smell and he is not senile. Again the police failed him and the Valley.
Rabmag you are one of the trolls out there.
Halfacre is a half an acre short of a full acre.
This whole thing could have been staged. Maybe halfacre is in on it. I have always been suspicious of Mr. James demeanor the whole time. He just was not convincingly upset about his wife missing.
I worked at a cemetery in California and sometimes a crypt would leak and you definitely can tell the smell of a decomposing body from decomposing garbage and fecal matter!
Halfacre continued...
It could be that the real reason the police dogs did not find her body the first time is because there was no body at that time for them to find. She could have been placed there afterwards.
I will be very interested to see what the coroner finds in his autopsy!
God Bless her "Soul." But, those were some filthy, dirty and lazy people. That house must have smelled like a dirty cat litter box. I can't stand lazy people that live in filth. Hoarders, yes! What are hoarders? Lazy people. I don't have any sympathy for these scumbags.
woobert: How dare you suggest these people were filthy. Did you know them? Just because she was a hoarder doesn't mean they are lazy either. These were some outstanding people, so hold your tongue.
Everyone knows that the news never tells the whole story, it's horrible how they wrote it, so don't come to a conclusion about her demise or Bill. My heart goes out to him, friends and family.
There must have been other odors emanating from this place for the dogs not to be able to pick up the scent.
Disgusting to live like this. They might be nice people, but there's something wrong with living in filthy conditions.
Billie Jean was one of those folks who always brought the most labor-intensive dish to a potluck. The idea of her or Bill being lazy is laughable. For fun, they would go to a National Park and do volunteer work, like painting a bridge or working with picks and shovels.
They did not live in filth - the house just smelled kind of musty like old clothes.
Someone should have noticed a large amount of flies in that back room. Even if her smell blended in the flies would have been obvious.