Trafficking and Murder Under the Desert Sun
The discovery of the bodies of three women in the desert outside of Las Vegas in 1996 received barely any coverage in the local press. Police speculated the three victims may have been associated with massage parlors serving as fronts for illicit prostitution. (Google Maps; Las Vegas-Clark County Library District).
An off-roader discovered a torso protruding from a shallow grave in the desert on the east edge of Las Vegas on March 25, 1996. When police arrived, they discovered the bodies of three women in a shallow grave covered by about a foot of dirt. The burial site was in the desert about 200 yards from a waste treatment center bordering the Las Vegas Wash not far from the intersection of Hollywood and Vegas Valley. The women had each been wrapped in a 30-gallon green garbage bag and bound with packing tape. Children’s clothes were found inside the bags with some of the victims, and a suitcase containing bloody clothing was found near the grave.
Two of the women were nude and the third was wearing only panties. All three women were Asian with shoulder-length dark hair, though one of the women had a few strands of gray hair, and all were described by police as “very slender.” The coroner determined one woman was in her late-30’s to 50’s, and that the other two women were about 25 years old. The older woman had dentures. One victim had died of blunt force trauma to the head and suffocation, while the other two died of strangulation. Police ran the victims’ fingerprints through national databases, but no records were located.
One of the few articles in the local press about the triple homicide. Next to the article is an ad for an area strip club, demonstrating the ubiquitous presence of advertisements for the sale of sex in Las Vegas. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District.)
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police detectives worked with the LAPD Asian Gangs Unit and Missing Persons Unit to develop the theory that the women likely were murdered as part of an organized crime-linked human trafficking ring. The lead detective on the case speculated the women balked at working as prostitutes at Las Vegas massage parlors and were murdered by their captors as a result.
It’s also worth noting that the bodies of several women, many believed to be prostitutes, were found in a 4 square mile area of the desert between the east side of Las Vegas and Lake Mead from mid-1994 to early-1997. One of these young women, Margaret Hicks, was found less than a mile from the grave where the three Jane Does were found.
Read more about this tragic unsolved triple murder and the horrors of human trafficking in Las Vegas at the link below: