116 - Keysha Brown

Shaun In October two thousand and four, a young mother was murdered in Las Vegas. Eyewitnesses saw a man enter her apartment and leave with a duffel bag, but with no leads or suspects. The case went ice cold and stayed frozen for nineteen years.

John Thanks to an observant cold case detective. Police finally named a suspect. The announcement that a serial killer was responsible for her death shocked the community. And everyone is wondering, will Keisha Brown ever receive justice?

Shaun Hi and welcome to Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast where we focus on cases that deal with domestic violence as well as missing persons and unsolved cases. I'm your host, Sean.

John And I'm your co-host, John.

Shaun I've been thinking about our intro, and while I think all of that is true, I think that over our almost three seasons, it's clear that we focus on a lot more than just those three kinds of cases. And this week's episode is an example of that. But before we get to that, we have another missing cold case to share with all of you. John, do you want to start us off?

John Yeah. This week we wanted to highlight the missing person case of David Baratta. David has been missing for just over eight years, since January fourteen, twenty eighteen, when he was forty eight years old. So he'd be fifty six years old today in twenty twenty six. Sadly, he was very recently married only three weeks before he disappeared on December twenty ninth, twenty seventeen. He's from Jerusalem, Israel, and he had been living and working in the US for about ten years, seemingly at an outlet mall in a kiosk for at least some of that time. This is one of those frustrating cases where there is very little information. We will share the Namus link for the case, but there's very little information there. And the same thing with the Metro missing site. There's very little information. What we do know is that he was last seen leaving the Las Vegas Premium Outlets south in a white van. The van was recovered, but David has never been seen again. Other information we found from other sources were that a person who said he was a long time friend of David claimed that there was an amount of blood in the van when it was recovered, though it wasn't clear if this is true and if it was true how much blood there was. David is a Caucasian male, five foot nine, between one hundred and sixty and one hundred and seventy pounds. He has brown eyes. He was bald, shaved, bald at the time he disappeared. He was last seen wearing a black hoodie with a Mortal Kombat silhouette, black pants and black shoes. He has tattoos on both upper arms, a tattoo on the back of his shoulder, and a tattoo of a nude angel with a sword on his ankle. We'll share the link to the Charley Project page in the show notes. We also found an Israeli docu series called Amudim, which is lost in Hebrew. In their eighteenth season in twenty twenty five, they did a four episode arc on David's disappearance, interviewing his friends and family, and following his mom searching for him here in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, I don't speak Hebrew and I can't seem to get the show to stream, so if anyone out there can speak Hebrew and get the show to stream in Hebrew or English with a VPN or something, please let us know. We will also share a link to that in the show notes, and those will be at podcast one sixteen Sources1 one six sources. As always, we'll share photos of David and what we have. But if you know anything about David's whereabouts, please reach out to Las Vegas Metro's Missing Persons unit at seven oh two eight two eight two nine oh seven, or email them at missing persons cold Com. Or you can remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at seven oh two three eight five five five five five or submitting a tip on the website at crimestoppers of NV dot com. But back to this week's case, we definitely don't cover a lot of serial killers on the podcast. We did cover Thomas Randolph, who might be considered a serial killer, though he was only convicted once. Also, when true crime podcasts share stories about serial killers, the focus typically gets pulled away from the victims victim advocates. Always say that you can name Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy, but it's rare that you can name any of their victims.

Shaun In this case is a prime example of that. In researching the case, we noticed that the facts and circumstances of Keisha's death and the other women's death were the focus. And the press twenty years ago did a very insufficient job talking about who these women were. The circumstances of their deaths were particularly horrific and were not going to go into detail about that. Our goal is to share everything that we were able to learn about the victims. Keisha Tamika Brown was born on October eight, nineteen seventy six, in Southern California. She had at least one daughter that I was able to find mentioned in the news coverage. Her mother's name was Anjanette and her family has roots going back to Southern California for several generations. Keisha lived in an apartment near the unlV campus near Flamingo and University Center Drive. She was barely twenty eight years old when her boyfriend found her deceased in the bathtub of her apartment on October nineteen, two thousand and four. The bathtub had hot water in it, and Keisha had been covered up with a towel. The investigation would show that she died from blunt force trauma. She also had been strangled and had drowned. We don't know a lot about the police investigation. Except they did interview her neighbors at the apartment complex. Witnesses described seeing a man pull up in a red sedan. He went to her apartment and came out carrying a duffel bag. Evidence from the scene that could possibly lead to a potential suspect was collected and preserved, though officers had little to go on at the time, the police were unable to identify a suspect, and her case remained unsolved for nearly two decades.

John In late twenty twenty two, Las Vegas Metro performed a review of all their open cold cases, and investigators took another look at Kesha's murder. One of those investigators was Dan Long, a detective we mentioned a few times in our first season. Detective Long was a lead investigator on the cases involving Shauna TFA and Debbie Flores Narvaez, which we covered in episodes fourteen and eighteen. Detective long read the description of how Kesha was found. The circumstances were nearly identical to those of a case he had worked on in two thousand and five. Additional DNA testing was done for items found in Keisha's apartment, and police finally had a match. On February twenty third, twenty twenty three, Las Vegas Metro held a press conference and announced that after nearly twenty years, they'd identified a suspect who was about to be arrested and charged with Keisha's murder. That's strange, of course, because why would they announce that before they arrested the suspect? But there's actually a perfectly reasonable reason for that. In this case, though, the DNA matched a man named Norman Flowers who was serving three life sentences for the murders of three women in two thousand and five. Metro characterized flowers as a serial killer. They stated that now they believe Keisha had been his first victim, though they have no known motive for that crime.

Shaun We thought about not even sharing his name in this episode because, like we said, serial murderers tend to get a lot of attention and are the subject of intense investigation and analysis in true crime podcasts and documentaries. Flowers took the life of an eighteen year old woman Women and three mothers in two thousand and four and two thousand and five, and the sensational nature of the crimes completely overshadowed their lives. During our research, we attempted to find out as much as we could about all of them so we could share who they were with all of you. Sheila Puka Quarles was just eighteen years old and living with her mom, Deborah, in an apartment at Paco's in Washington Avenue. The area of Las Vegas known as East Las Vegas. Sheila had six brothers and two sisters and worked as a supervisor at Starbucks. On March twenty four, two thousand and five, Sheila stayed home from work. Deborah spoke with her a couple times on the phone that day. The last time being around one p m but when Deborah got home from work that day at three, she found her beloved daughter deceased in the bathtub, which was filled with hot water. Sheila had been strangled and also had drowned. The police collected evidence, but they did not have any suspects or leads. The guy Sheila was dating at the time had a serious criminal history, but he had a very tight alibi of being at work during the window when Sheila had been killed again, police collected DNA left by the murderer, but the investigation stalled and no suspect was arrested.

John What happened at the Silver Pines Apartments at Russell Road and Boulder Highway just six weeks later led police directly to flowers on the morning of May three, two thousand and five. Coworkers of Marilyn Coote at the Andre Agassi Preparatory Academy called her apartment manager after Marilyn didn't show up for work around ten a m. Marilyn, just forty five years old, was also found dead in her apartment. Merrilee was an immigrant from Belize and lived most of her life in El Paso, Texas, where she once worked at the speaking Rock casino. Her son, DJ, became a successful and well-known football player at Ventura College. He and his mom had an undeniable bond. An article from two thousand has a photo of DJ showing off his tattoo of his mom's portrait on his left arm. According to DJ, his mother was an extremely hard worker, working ten hour days Monday through Saturday, which he said she liked but he hated. DJ would eventually play Division One football at Oregon State University starting in two thousand and one. The article quotes Marley's mom telling the Ventura County star that Marley said she'd have another child if someone made her the promise that her next child would be as good as the one she already had. Evidently, no one could make that promise, and DJ was Marley's only child.

Shaun According to the police report, Marley was found on the floor of her living room and it would be later determined that she died from strangulation. Police discovered about ten inches of hot water in her bathtub, along with some paperwork, a phone book, bills and jewelry boxes all covered with a towel. In these cases, it was the bathtub that stood out to investigators and helped them connect the dots. About six hours later that day, police were again called to the Silver Pines Apartments. A nine hundred eleven call came in from a nine year old boy, who told the operator that his friend's mother was passed out and wouldn't wake up. When police arrived, they found twenty five year old Rina Gonzalez had been strangled. Her apartment was just about two hundred feet from Merrillees. When Rina's two young daughters had come home from school that day, around four o'clock, they found their apartment door unlocked and their mother inside. They tried to wake her up before going to find their friend, the boy who had called the police for help. The brief information we were able to find out about Rina was that at the time of her death, she was unemployed, and some of the reporting seems to indicate that she was living with a disability. Police canvassed the complex and discovered that one resident had seen a man named Norman Flowers in the complex that day, going back and forth to Rina's apartment. She said she knew who he was because he had dated her neighbor. She said he was acting strangely, knocking on her door multiple times, asking for water or to use the bathroom. Once the police showed up on the call about merilee, she could tell he was trying to hide from the officers, and he told her that he was very nervous to see the police because he was on parole and didn't want any trouble. At one point he tried to kiss her and this upset her very much. Police then spoke to Flowers's ex-girlfriend, who lived in the apartment next door to Merilee. She hadn't seen flowers in more than two months, but he had taped a note to her door the day her friends Merilee and Rina were killed. According to the police report, she found it very odd that on the day that her two friends were found deceased, living within several hundred feet of each other, he had left a note on her door knowing she was at work. She told police that her ex flowers knew both Merilee and Rina. He had an extensive criminal history in nineteen ninety two, when he was eighteen years old, he was arrested for a series of burglaries and stealing a vehicle from a car dealership at gunpoint. He also killed a pet dog when he left it inside a house he set on fire after burglary. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eighteen years. He was released on parole after serving about ten. That parole was revoked soon after when he violated a temporary protection order against his wife. He had most recently been released on parole on March four, two thousand and five.

John Police were able to collect DNA from Mali when they ran it. It came back as a match to the DNA from Sheila's murder. Officers were able to obtain a DNA sample from flowers, and it was a match linking him positively to the murders of both Sheila and Mali. However, it did not match the DNA sample they collected from Rina. When the police questioned flowers, he said that he did not speak to Mali that day. But he said he knocked on Rina's door and asked her to give a message to his ex-girlfriend when she got home. He denied going into her apartment. Police also questioned him about knowing Sheila, and he tried to say that he didn't know who she was, but then corrected himself, saying he did know her but by her nickname, Pooka. When they asked Sheila's mom, Deborah, about him, it turned out that Deborah had dated flowers briefly back in two thousand and four, two weeks before Sheila's murder. Flowers visited Deborah and Sheila at their apartment and told them he'd been hired to do maintenance work at the complex. They spoke for about twenty minutes, but it was later determined by property managers that he was lying about, that he was never hired to do any work there. Horrifically, after Sheila was killed, he had comforted Deborah, urging her to seek counseling. He even drove her to counseling appointments. He was also asking her for updates about the investigation. Remember when we mentioned that he was released on parole on March four, two thousand and five? It was just twenty days later that he killed Sheila. Flowers was arrested and charged with the murders of all three women. Police were unsure about charging him with Reena's murder at first due to the lack of DNA evidence, and worse than that, the DNA evidence they had excluded him. However, several witnesses placed him in the complex that day, as we mentioned. Also, several jailhouse informants stated that he confessed to strangling Reena.

Shaun Prosecutors were not able to try him for all three murders at the same time. They were allowed to try Merelli and Rina's murders together. But Sheila's was separate and it was the first one he was prosecuted for. Prosecution sought the death penalty. And based on the DNA match and the information we shared earlier, the jury convicted him of first degree murder, sexual assault and burglary. Deborah told the RJ her life meant nothing to him but everything to me. Flowers's mother gave detailed mitigating evidence about his childhood and upbringing, which resulted in the jury deciding against the death penalty. He was sentenced to life without possibility of parole, Trying merrily in Rena s murders Together presented numerous challenges as the lack of DNA evidence we mentioned connecting him to Rena was also an issue for the prosecution. We've spoken before about prior bad acts being admitted as evidence, and it's clear from the court documents in this case that the prosecution saw the connections between the three crimes, including that flowers had used hot water in the bathtub to try and conceal evidence every time. The pre-trial motions went on for years, until June ten, twenty eleven, when flowers pleaded guilty in an Alford plea to the murder, sexual assault and burglary of both Mary Lea and Rena. He was sentenced to two additional life sentences. Despite his attempts to appeal, his convictions were affirmed by the Nevada Supreme Court in twenty twenty.

John As a result, when Norman Flowers was identified in February twenty twenty three as a suspect in Keisha's murder, he was already incarcerated at High Desert State Prison. Keisha's daughter, now an adult, spoke at the press conference through her tears that she was thankful that the police were able to provide some closure for her. She said I went this long without knowing anything about what happened to my mom. It's been three years since the announcement of flowers as a suspect and his arrest. However, according to the court records, we were able to access, a grand jury failed to indict him of the charges. So while Las Vegas Metro stated this was justice, he won't be brought to trial for Keisha's murder, and he won't be sentenced to any additional time for what he did to her or her family. It's very easy to find out information about flowers. We found his victims mentioned in passing in several blogs and forum posts about fascinating American serial killers. Articles in the Las Vegas Review-Journal went into great depth about the testimony his mother gave about his childhood during his sentencing for Sheila's murder. The journalists believed that it was her statements that led to the jury deciding to sentence him to life, rather than impose the death penalty. We have decided not to discuss those details about his life history.

Shaun In contrast, we didn't find any articles with victim impact information or detailed interviews from Kesha's daughter, Sheila's mom Deborah Merrill, son D.J., or anyone from Reena's family, which, of course, may have been their choice not to speak to the press. But the reporters covering these cases did not hesitate to share the horrific details about how these women died, the injuries they sustained, what they were wearing and the information about their dating histories with just a passing word about their family members or their career. We are very disappointed that we know so little about their lives, interests, hobbies and personalities. It was next to impossible to find any photos of these women. While Flowers's photo appears in nearly every article. Reporters and bloggers repeatedly spelled Rina's name incorrectly, which made information about her even harder to track down. Our goal today was to stress a few things. One, that there are cold cases out there that can still be solved with DNA testing and clever detectives who are willing to put in the time to review old cases. We are grateful that Keisha's family now has an answer. We also wanted to take the time to try and uncover more information about these women who were part of our community. Four daughters, one very young woman and three young mothers who were beloved by their families and are missed nearly twenty years later. Unfortunately, our efforts were not as successful as we hoped they'd be. But certainly what we've covered here is more than you'll find in any blog about their deaths. Lastly, we want to note that these four women were women of color and from working or middle class families, and we always want to call out how victims will never get the care and attention of others. And we always want to call out how certain victims will never get the care and attention of others. A broke mom in an apartment in East Las Vegas will never get the attention of a blonde mom living in anthem, but their lives and their family's quest for justice matter. If there are any updates, we will of course share them with you. John and I are going to continue this conversation in the Swing Shift bonus episode that we record every week after our episode. You can hear that and all of our back episodes ad free if you visit our Patreon or subscribe on Apple Music. You can go to podcast. Subscribe for more information on that. We'll be back next week with an all new episode. Until then, remember what happens here happens everywhere.

John Thanks for listening. Visit sinspod.co/subscribe for exclusive bonus content and to listen ad free. Remember to like and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and threads @Sinsandsurvivors If you're enjoying the podcast, please leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice. You can contact us at Questions@SinsAndSurvivors.com

Shaun If you or someone you know is 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 and survivors. Dot Signs and survivors. A Las Vegas True crime podcast is researched, written, and produced by your host, Shaun and John. The information shared in this podcast is accurate at the time of recording. If you have questions, concerns, or corrections, please email us. Links to source material for this episode can be found on our website. sinsandsurvivors.com

John 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.