Unsolved but not Forgotten

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:15):
Las Vegas is consistently listed among the cities with the
highest rates of domestic violence and domestic violence homicides, but
was also recently ranked thirteenth in the highest rates for
all homicides. The rate here is lower than in places
like Memphis and Detroit, but the rates are four times
as high as in a much safer city like San Francisco.

(00:37):
Not only that, but the clearance are solve rate for
homicides is lower here because of various factors such as
funding and how transitory the population in Las Vegas can be.
People are always moving in and moving out.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Today, we're going to talk about four unsolved murders in
Las Vegas that have been open for a while. It's
so important that we keep these cases on people's minds,
making it more likely that anyone with information will come
forward and help solve them. It's four tragic and baffling
stories of lives lost and four families devastated by those losses.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Hi, and welcome to Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas
true crime podcast where we focus on cases a deal
with domestic violence, as well as missing persons and unsolved cases.
I'm your host Sean.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
And I'm your co host John.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
After our three part anthology series on the Lake Mead
Recreational area, we came across a list of unsolved homicides
that have occurred here in Las Vegas, and we decided
to take the opportunity to bring them to you in
another anthology episode. Some of the cases weren't covered in
much depth by the local news, something we complain about often,
and as a result, we have relatively little information about

(01:52):
the victims, but will tell you what we were able
to find and hopefully someone listening will come forward and
bring these families the closure they've been waiting for a
long time. So today we're talking about the murders of
Eugene Bell, Celia Luna Delgado, Britney Biggs, and John Norris.
Do you want to get us started with our first
case this week? Eugene Bell.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Sure. Eugene Bell was born on October twenty eighth, nineteen
eighty four, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was the son
of Priscilla Cobbs and Eugene Bell, and had three sisters,
named Tanisha Britney in April. His family described him as
having a loud voice, a big smile, and a great
sense of humor, always wanting to make people laugh. They

(02:34):
also said that he had a huge appetite. He just
loved to eat. According to them, he was a very
caring guy who was never afraid to show it in
the photos his family shared. All of that comes through
his large family, seemed to always be having fun and
laughing when they spend time together. Eugene graduated from West
Mesa High School in Albuquerque in two thousand and four.

(02:55):
He played varsity football there for the Mustangs for all
four years, and before that he had played with the
New Mexico Young America Football League. He was also a
huge Dallas Cowboys fan, and you could often catch him
talking football with his friends and family. After high school,
he pursued a degree in film at Central New Mexico
Community College, one of the digital media degrees they offer.

(03:17):
He had two children, a son, Dijon and a daughter, Amari,
who he was very devoted to. He always did everything
in his power to make sure they were happy and
taken care of. There are so many photos of him
with the kids, and even videos of him having a
dance party with his daughter. When he was a teenager,
he worked for the City of Albuquerque in the Thomas

(03:38):
Bell Community Center, which is actually named for his grandfather.
He also worked as a chef at a nearby sheraton,
and according to his family, he often used them as
taste testers for his recipes there, which I'm sure they
must have loved. In twenty thirteen, he took a job
driving an eighteen wheeler, which allowed him to travel a
lot and not surprisingly, build up a lot of long

(03:59):
distance friendships as he criss crossed the Southwest. He'd visit
those friends when he drove through, often stopping to spend
time with the people he'd met. One of his favorite
places was Las Vegas, and he had friends here too.
His sister April said that Las Vegas was where he
came to play during that time. He kept in touch
with his family and especially his kids, over FaceTime from
the cab of his truck when he took breaks from

(04:21):
the long days on the road. Being the great dad
he was when he was home, his friends would know
it based on the big rig parked out in front
of his mom's house. For his thirty third birthday in
twenty seventeen, he decided he was going to spend it
in Las Vegas. He came into town in October and
for the days leading up to his birthday, he hung
out with friends, drinking in various locations. But sadly, this

(04:43):
visit ended in tragedy and a mystery. On the morning
of October twenty sixth, around six twenty a m. Las
Vegas Metro was called to a Terribles gas station at
forty one fifty South Durango, near the corner of Flamingo.
A woman who was very intoxicated had driven to the
gas station looking for help because her friend had been

(05:04):
shot in the chest. That friend was Eugene. When the
police arrived, they discovered that Eugene was in the back
of her car and sadly, he had died. Because of
how intoxicated she was, she was not able to provide
the detectives with much information about what happened, just that
they'd been drinking in several places. They quickly determined that

(05:25):
the shooting probably happened at an apartment complex nearby, but
there is no information on what, if anything, they learned
when they investigated at the complex when they surrounded it
that morning and attempted to gather what information they could. Also,
very strangely, some new sources say that the woman who
brought Eugene to the gas station for help was cleared
and isn't a suspect, and that she was cooperative. But

(05:48):
other sources say very specifically that she refused to cooperate
with the police and that they think she knows more
than she's willing to tell. But she was certainly determined
to be a friend of Eugene Meanes, but beyond that
there isn't much info. It seems reasonable that if she
didn't cooperate, she would have been brought in for questioning,
but that doesn't appear to be the case based on

(06:08):
the record. It's frustrating, but you often see conflicting reports
like this which make the details hazy. It was also
reported that by the time the police got to Eugene,
he had been dead for several hours. Eugene was the
one hundred and eighty sixth homicide in twenty seventeen, a
horribly high number. His little sister, April, has said that
she feels like Las Vegas killed her big brother, Eugene,

(06:31):
her fun, funny brother who is such a great dad, son,
and friend to so many people. When she was interviewed,
she reminded us that everyone loved him and he was caring,
maybe too caring. She refuses to come to Las Vegas
or set foot in the city that she feels took
her brother, while she knows his murderer walks free. It's
been nearly eight years since Eugene was murdered. His kids,

(06:55):
his family, and all the people who loved him deserve answers,
and Eugene deserves justice. Any information, however seemingly insignificant, might
be the bit of information detective's need to crack this case.
As always, you can remain anonymous or leave a tip
with crime stoppers by calling seven oh two three eight
five by five by five, or by visiting crime Stoppers

(07:18):
of env dot com, or you can always call Metropolice
Homicide directly at seven oh two A two eight three
five two one. We will share photos of Eugene and
the car he was found in on our social media,
along with the photo of the terribles gas station where
all of this happened. In case that helps jog someone's
memory about the events of that morning.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
The next case we have to share today is the
unsolved murder of twenty four year old Britney Briggs, also
in twenty seventeen. Britney was born in nineteen ninety three.
Her parents are Kimberly Briggs and John Shafter. She has
a younger brother named Austin Schafter, and she has a
young daughter who is only three years old when she
lost her mom and what you'll probably agree is the

(08:00):
most traumatic way imaginable. In an interview with news Channel three,
her loving and obviously devastated family talked about her, describing
her as very kind and very loving and a great
mom to her daughter. On February eighth, twenty seventeen, Brittany
announced on her Facebook page that she just got a
job as a tax preparer at Universal tact and was

(08:22):
excited about it and things seemed to be going well
for her. On February ninth, she came back to her
home of about four years in the nineteen hundred block
of Spindriff Court near East Lakemead Boulevard and Mount Hood
that's in the northeast part of the Las Vegas Valley.
The next morning, though she didn't show up for an
appointment with a friend. Concerned, her friend came by her

(08:45):
house around eleven thirty a m. On the tenth and
knew something was wrong right away. Britney's front door was
ajar and she could hear her daughter crying inside the house.
She came in to discover her friend in the main
bedroom murdered, with her daughter in the next room. Police
arrived quickly and initially noted that they didn't think they

(09:05):
saw any visible signs of trauma, but the next day,
the Clark County Coroner determined that she had in fact
been beaten and strangled to death, again with her toddler
daughter in the next room. To the police, her house
seemed like it had been ransacked, but they determined the
only things that were missing were her debit and EBT
cards and her cell phone. Later, her daughter told her

(09:28):
grandparents some truly terrifying and heartbreaking things about that night.
She told them that someone had come into her room
and told her to be quiet and then put a
blanket over her, and in the morning she'd come into
her mom's room and tried to wake her up several
times for she was discovered by Britney's friend. Police were
left with a lot of questions about who could have
committed this crime. It turned out there were no signs

(09:50):
of forced entry into the home, so was it possible
she knew her murderer. She was known to sell things online,
like clothing and other items, so initially they thought it
might have been related to one of those transactions, but
if they found any evidence to support that theory, they
didn't share it. Her family believes that her murderer knew
her because the home was ransacked, but that person only

(10:13):
took her EBT, debit card and cell phone, three of
the most traceable things that there are. Their thinking is
that her cell phone might have contained text messages or
other evidence that the murderer might have wanted to dispose of.
They also have theories about other potential suspects. Brittany had
a new boyfriend she'd been seeing for only a few weeks,
and her family found his behavior suspicious, but we couldn't

(10:36):
find any information indicating he had been investigated or even questioned.
The family did mention that he seemed genuinely upset over
her murder. Another person they suspected was someone they described
as a creepy guy from her church. Allegedly, on the
very day Brittany was discovered, he posted online that a

(10:56):
friend of his had been strangled, but the coroner hadn't
deterred that was Britney's cause of death until the next day.
Of course, we should note that it's possible this could
have just been a guest on his part, and that
person hasn't been charged. The family has also called out
Metro for not doing a DNA analysis looking for DNA
under Britney's fingernails. They said, there's no way someone is

(11:19):
strangled to death without fighting back, and it makes sense
to collect DNA evidence, and of course we agree with
that given all of the DNA solves we've covered in
the past two years, but unfortunately we don't know if
that's part of the investigation. It's entirely possible they have
that evidence, but Metro isn't sharing that. The apparent lack
of progress in the investigation has led Britney's bomb to

(11:40):
say that she believes the police aren't interested in solving
her murder. Unfortunately, and heartbreakingly, Britney's daughter's Bio Dad has
moved to California and taken his daughter with him and
cut off all contact with Britney's family. She's their last
tie with their beloved Brittany and they would very much
like to know how she's doing, and we truly hope

(12:00):
they get back into contact. It's been more than eight
years since Britney's murder and it's not clear to us
if this is considered a cold case. Some sources indicated
it was, but the contact on the Metro website is
still listed as the Homicide Division. As we talked about before,
though Metro does have an active cold case unit, including
Detective Terry Miller, who said it's still an ongoing investigation.

(12:25):
Anyone who has any information about who could have been
responsible for Britney Briggs's murder should contact Metro Homicide, the
Cold Case Division, or crime stoppers. All of the contacts
for those are in our resources at sinspod dot co
slash resources.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
The next case we have for you seems very random.
The police even described it as the victim being in
the wrong place at the wrong time, with tragic results
for her and the loved ones she left behind. Celia
Luna Delgado was born in nineteen sixty two. She was
the matriarch of her family. She has three adult children
named Shila Padilla, Carlos Perez Luna, and Isiu Felix Junior,

(13:07):
and she has three grandchildren, not to mention brothers and sisters, and,
as her family tells it, a never ending number of
friends who have turned into family. From everything we've read
about her, family was the most important thing to Celia.
Before nine am on January eleventh, twenty eighteen, Celia, who
was fifty five at the time, went to work as

(13:27):
she had for the previous three years, at the Express
check Cashing location at fourteen eleven North Jones Boulevard near
Vegas Drive. Company policy was apparently that only one person
opened the store, so Celia was alone. As she was
opening the store, she was confronted by two young men
in their early twenties or late teens, who, according to police,

(13:48):
had likely been casing the location waiting for an employee
to arrive just after Celia opened. They forced her into
the back room of the business and demanded she give
them all the money in the safe. This Express check
Cashing wasn't in the safest area, and other nearby businesses
had been robbed in the past, so this was something

(14:08):
Celia had thought about. Her family was worried about her,
especially since it was a check cashing business that had
a lot of cash on hand, and she had talked
about this with her daughter, Sheila. She told her that
she'd never risk her life for this business because she
valued her own life over the business, which of course,
is the right way to think about it. She said,
they're insured and she wasn't going to play at being brave. Also,

(14:31):
we should note that before the robbery, Sheila said her
mom never felt threatened or scared at work. When the
young men forced her into the back room, she did
everything they said, but they got frustrated and enraged when
they found out she couldn't get into the safe because
it was a time based lock she had no control
over when it opened. The two men must have panicked

(14:52):
because they ended up shooting her in the back and
fleeing the scene. Celia was able to call nine one
one and tell them that she'd been shot. Much responders
arrived quickly and she was transported to University Medical Center,
but unfortunately, she passed away just two hours later. Considering
it was a check cashing store, and it was twenty eighteen.
You might expect that they have a great or at

(15:14):
least functional surveillance system, but it turns out that their
cameras weren't working at the time. Police pursued various leads,
including surveillance video from nearby businesses, but no identification could
be made. The two young men had fled into a
nearby residential area, and no one could be located who
had seen them. They even left a piece of clothing behind,

(15:35):
but eight years later, no suspects have been found and
no arrests have been made. Ray Spencer, a detective with
Las Vegas Metro Police, said that it was one of
the cases that bothered him the most from twenty eighteen
because it was just so senseless. Celia did exactly what
they said, and she had no ability to give them
what they wanted. They had no reason at all to

(15:56):
shoot her. He said that in crimes like this, someone
always talks about it, so it's very possible that someone
here in Vegas knows something about who did this. The
police and her family have pleaded with the public to
come forward with any leads they might have. However, seemingly
smaller and significant her devastated family knows that finding the
people responsible won't bring Celia back, but as they've said

(16:20):
and we agree, she deserves justice because of the outrageous
incompetence of the business for not having a working alarm system,
security personnel, or a surveillance system. The family brought a
wrongful death suit against the company in twenty nineteen. While
this also won't bring Celia back, it is important to
hold companies accountable. The most important part now for her

(16:42):
family is to find the people responsible for this senseless crime.
If you were in the area of Jones and Vegas
Drive on January eleventh, twenty eighteen, or you have any
information that could help with the investigation, please call Metro
Homicide or Crime Stoppers to remain anonymous.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
The final case we have for you today is another
very frustrating one with relatively little information to go on
beyond the location where the crime occurred. Alton, Illinois native
John Norris was a fifty one year old Navy veteran
living in Las Vegas in two thousand and nine. His
family described him as a jokester and a dedicated fan
of the Saint Louis Cardinals. He was extremely close to

(17:19):
his younger brother, Matt, who he spoke to nearly every day.
He moved here around two thousand and five for a
reason we've heard before, to make a better life for
him and his teenage daughter, Whitney, who was nineteen. In
two thousand and nine, he was putting himself through massage
therapy school and working two jobs to pay rent and
make ends meet. Just a few years earlier, Las Vegas

(17:41):
was absolutely booming. Cranes dotted the skyline, building, new high
rise casinos, and new neighborhoods were springing up all over
the valley Overnight. Real estate prices were sky high, and
it had never been easier to get a mortgage. There
were people who you'd consider middle class who were buying
several homes way more than their income could really pay for,

(18:02):
with no scrutiny at all. In two thousand and nine, though,
Las Vegas was at the center of one of the
worst economic collapses in US history. That housing bubble burst
and we entered the Great Recession. Home prices collapsed, people
lost their jobs, and foreclosures were extremely common. There were
layoffs in construction, obviously, but also in real estate and hospitality.

(18:24):
In a given neighborhood. Sometimes half the homes were abandoned,
foreclosed on by the bank, or worse, occupied by squatters.
The previous owners often left in the middle of the night,
leaving most of their belongings and even their cats and
dogs behind. They just walked away. Streets were like ghost towns.
It felt like the fabric of the entire community was unraveling. Burglaries,

(18:45):
property crime, and theft skyrocket that year, and homicides were up.
At the time, people thought Las Vegas would cease to exist.
As crazy as that sounds. The unemployment rate was eleven
percent in two thousand and nine, but it went as
high as fourteen percent, the highest in the country, because,
of course, when the entire economy collapses, tourism is one

(19:05):
of the first things to go. In the midst of
all this, in two thousand and nine, when it was
getting worse, one of John Norris's jobs was delivering pizza
for Pizza Hut, and on January twenty fourth, two thousand
and nine, it was a work night like any other,
hustling and delivering pizzas.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
At seven point thirty that evening, Metro Police responded to
a report of shots fired in the fifty eight hundred
block of Rose Sage Street, near Anne and Camino Holdorte
in the north end of the valley. When police arrived,
they found John and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
He had been shot. The house he had been delivering
the pizza two was abandoned, so the theory was that

(19:42):
he was ambushed, possibly as part of a robbery or
gang initiation ritual. He was identified the following Monday. One
of the side effects of all the foreclosures was that
there were fewer witnesses to these crimes. In the aftermath
of his murder, police circulated a photo of an individual
they thought might have been in the area, which we
will share, But there have been no arrests in the case.

(20:04):
As his brother rightly said, John's murder became cold right
away because there was no motive. Whoever murdered John had
no idea who would be delivering the pizza, so there
are no avenues of investigation there. John was laid to
rest in his hometown of Alton, Illinois. He is survived
by his daughter, Whitney, who was nineteen at the time
and is twenty five today. His family had a celebration

(20:27):
of life for him including a video presentation his friend
Mike Jacobs put together and a balloon release. The celebration
wasn't specifically a fundraiser per se, but they did raise
eighteen hundred dollars, which was donated to help Whitney. There
are twenty two thousand dollars in rewards available for information
leading to the arrest of John's murderer, ten thousand dollars
from Pizza Hut, ten thousand from Meadow Gold, and two

(20:49):
thousand from crime Stoppers. If you or anyone you know
has any information, please reach out to Crime Stoppers or
Metro Homicides Cold Case Division. This is another case where
it's likely that there is someone out there with information
that can lead to this case being solved. Unsolved in
cold cases like this can be frustrating, but it's important
to keep talking about them so there's a chance we

(21:11):
can get some resolution for the victims' families. We appreciate
you listening, and if you're enjoying the podcast, please leave
us a review on your favorite podcast platform. These positive
reviews really help us get these episodes out to a
wider audience and increase the chances that the right person
will hear them, possibly leading to closure until next week.
We remind you that happens here happens everywhere. Thanks for listening.

(21:53):
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Speaker 2 (22:15):
If you are someone you know as affected by domestic
violence or needs support, please reach out to local resources
or the National Domestic Violence Hotline. A list of resources
is available on our website, Sins and Survivors dot com.
Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast, is research, written,
and produced by your hosts Sean and John. The information
shared in this podcast is accurate at the time of recording.

(22:37):
If you have questions, concerns, or corrections, please email us.
Links to source material for this episode can be found
on our website, Sinsensurvivors dot com.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely
those of the podcast creators, hosts and their guests. All
individuals are innocent until proven guilty. This content does not
constitute legal advice. Listeners are encouraged to consult with legal
professionals for guidance.

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