Trace Evidence - Solving Stephanie's Murder

Episode #24 - Stephanie Isaacson

[Shaun] 

Stephanie Isaacson was finishing up her freshman year at El Dorado High School in Las Vegas back on June 1st, 1989. She walked to school, just like she did every day, walking up Stewart Avenue, then taking a left on Linn Lane. She often took a shortcut through a desert area, and June 1st was no exception. 

[John]

Stephanie never made it to school that day. In the wake of her murder, despite a vigorous investigation, the case soon went cold. It would be nearly 32 years before her family got the answers they deserved.

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[Shaun] 

Hi and welcome to Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast, where we focus on cases that deal with domestic violence. I’m your host, Shaun, and with me as always, is the one and only John.

[John] 

I am the only John in the room.

[Shaun] 

April 25, 2024 is National DNA Day, which honors the successful completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 and the uncovering of DNA's double helix structure in 1953. As true crime fans, we all recognize the importance of DNA evidence in criminal investigations. 

[John] 

DNA evidence has played a critical role in the exonerations of hundreds of individuals who were wrongfully convicted. One of the first episodes we covered on Sins & Survivors was the story of Gary Dotson, who was falsely accused of rape in 1977. 12 long years later, in 1989, when DNA analysis technology was still in its infancy, Gary was excluded as a possible suspect in that case through DNA testing, making him the first person in history ever exonerated by DNA evidence.

[Shaun]

DNA evidence has led to the identification of Jane & John Doe’s and as the technology has improved year after year, more and more police departments are turning to DNA analysis and forensic genealogy to close cold cases that have remained unsolved for decades.

In recognition of DNA Day this week, we want to bring you the story of Stephanie Isaacson. 

Stephanie was born on August 12th, 1974, in Lincoln, Nebraska. Her father, John Isaacson was in the military and was transferred to Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas in 1985. That meant that John, his wife Sharon, Stephanie, and her younger sister, Joanne, were all headed to Las Vegas. At the time, Stephanie was about 11 years old. 

Stephanie was very close to her dad. The two of them enjoyed a lot of the same hobbies, like hunting, camping, and horseback riding. Basically anything outdoorsy. They also enjoyed boating and got their scuba diving certification together at Lake Mead. 

[John] 

When John and Sharon got a divorce in 1987, Stephanie decided she wanted to primarily live with her dad, but she still spent plenty of time with her mom and younger sister, who she was also very close to. The two of them lived in an apartment in the northeast part of the valley about a 15-minute drive from Nellis Air Force Base.

After 4 years stationed here in Las Vegas, John got new orders in 1989, and they found out they’d have to relocate to Spain in August. According to her friends, Stephanie was very excited about the move and that new adventure.

By all accounts, Stephanie was fun, warm, understanding, and hardworking. She was a freshman at Eldorado High School, and she earned good grades. She loved swimming with friends, going to the mall, talking on the phone, and eating pizza, just like any other teenager in the late 80’s (and today too)

Stephanie had a passion for singing, and one of her favorite songs was “Wind Beneath My Wings” by Bette Middler. She was a member of the Eldorado High choir along with 8 of her closest friends. They called themselves the “little team.” In late May 1989, the choir took a trip to California for a special concert performance and had also gone to Disneyland together. 

[Shaun]

Stephanie’s choir director, Jocelyn Jensen, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal “She cared so much about her father, and she spoke often about her family. She was close to her classmates, she was a very cooperative person.. Just a very, very good girl.” 

The choir had a concert on the evening of May 31st, 1989, here in town, and sadly that would be the last time her teachers and her “little team” would ever see her. 

[John] 

In Las Vegas, up until very recently the school year used to finish very late in the summer, going well into June despite that being during the time of year when temperatures are regularly over 100 degrees (~38 degrees Celcius for our metric-minded friends).

Back in 1989, school was still in session on June 1st, and Stephanie got up that Thursday just like any other day and left for school between 630 and 7am. It wasn't a long walk just one block on Stewart Avenue, and then 4 blocks north on Linn Lane

El Dorado is in what we’d consider North Las Vegas today, about 5 miles south of Nellis Air Force Base, where the famous Thunderbird squadron is stationed. As we mentioned, Stephanie’s father John was stationed and worked at Nellis as a staff Sargeant (I learned that’s a mid-grade enlisted rank where you have some supervisory responsibilities)

[Shaun]

Stephanie often took a shortcut through a desert area instead of walking all the way to Linn Ave. Back in 1989, there was a LOT of desert in that part of the city. Las Vegas has grown a lot since then, and that entire area is completely developed now. 

The area she would cut through is now a subdivision with sports-related street names like Stanley Cup, Super Bowl, Wheaties, and Heisman, but at the time, it was just open desert. She cut through that area all the time, and as a freshman in high school who didn't like a good shortcut?

After school, Stephanie didn't arrive home on time which wasn't like her. Her dad, John grew worried and called the school. He was surprised when they told him that she’d never made it to school that day, and they assumed she stayed home for some reason.

It seems like it was a case of the school assuming she was at home, and John assuming she was at school. It would make sense that no one was particularly concerned until after school when it became obvious no one knew where she was.

Her choir teacher Jocelyn had noticed she was absent from school that day, and was somewhat concerned because Stephanie and her friends often hung out with her in the choir room at lunchtime, and as we said, it was the day after a concert which she attended.

[John] 

When John realized that the school had no idea where she was, he started calling her friends, and quickly realized they had no idea where she was either. 

At that point, he called Metro and explained that his daughter was missing, and only 14 years old. He also emphasized to them that she was a good kid and would never run away, and they opened a missing person case right away

John headed out with a few of his friends on horseback to look along the route he knew she always took to school, and Metro, to their credit, really leaped into action bringing K9 units in as well as a helicopter to search from above. 

Shortly after starting to search, John and his friends located Stephanie’s books and other belongings, which indicated to them that as John said, this was no runaway case.

Just a little while later, a K-9 unit located Stephanie. She’s been murdered and her body was hastily covered in a discarded orange carpet. She was only partially dressed, had been raped, and had indications of blunt-force trauma to her head.

[Shaun]

The police said that the killer must have pounced on her along her path and dragged her to where she’d been discovered. A medical examiner confirmed that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to her head and strangulation. He also determined that she had put up a fight until the end.

The heartbroken family organized two funerals. The first was in Las Vegas and was mostly for Stephanie’s friends, and the second was back home in Lincoln Nebraska where they were from. She was laid to rest in the Lincoln Memorial Park.

After the first funeral, John realized that her friends were also in pain so he did something unusual. He allowed them to go into her room and each take a memento to remind them of their lost friend.

Initially, the police followed up with the neighbors in the area. They were told there was a weird car in the area but it was a dead end. No one seemed to be able to give them any more information like make, model, or even color. The police had essentially nothing to go on.

[John]

A $2,000 reward ($5000 today) was offered for information leading to an arrest in the case, but no one came forward.

The FBI developed a personality profile of Stephanie’s murderer which they shared with the press and the public on July 25th, 1989. Metro said at the time they had never released a profile before, but with the case starting to grow cold, they were hopeful it would lead to a break in the case. Keep in mind that this description is from 1989. 

The profile suggested that the person responsible for Stephanie’s murder was a male of high school age or potentially in his early 20’s who either lived or worked near the crime scene at Steward and Linn. 

He was described as having only basic social competencies and limited intellectual abilities. People who know him would describe him as an isolated loner. He would be “weird”, impulsive, and would fantasize a lot.

They also thought it likely that he experienced a confrontation with a woman in his life right before the murder (wife, mother, girlfriend etc) That might have escalated his anger toward women in general. They also asserted that he might have started acting differently for a day or two after the murder, but would have then gone back to “normal”

[Shaun]

The police followed up on leads for years following the murder in several different states including Washington state, Idaho, and Texas, but despite their attempts to keep the investigation going, the case was just growing cold. Retired metro deputy chief Mike Hawkins expressed his regret about Stephanie’s case before his 2001 retirement. He said, 

• “What bothers me the most is I know there is someone out there who got away with murder,”
• "I still feel bad about not getting that solved for the family,"

Right around the same time as Stephanie’s murder, on June 9th, 1989, there was another abduction in Las Vegas.  A 12-year-old girl who attended paradise elementary school was abducted and raped but then dropped back off at her home. 

The police said the cases were not likely connected, but the school district did add additional security patrols and sent home flyers in English and Spanish for families offering safety tips to discuss with their kids. The warnings were the types of tips most of us Gen Xers grew up hearing, about stranger danger and telling the police when you see unfamiliar cars or people lurking around. 

Just as it is in 2024, finding the funding for the additional security at the schools was brought up by administrators. 

After that, there was ANOTHER incident, a failed kidnapping attempt of an 8-year-old boy on July 20th, 1989. You can imagine how on edge the city was by that point.

[John]

In 1989 when this crime occurred and was being investigated, the use of DNA in criminal investigations was in its infancy. We talked a while back about the case of Gary Dotson, the first person ever to be exonerated using DNA evidence. If you haven't listened to that one you really should. In the history of wrongful convictions, his case is where it all began. 

Its important to note that eliminating a known suspect or convicted person from having committed a crime using DNA is different than collecting DNA at a crime scene and searching for an unknown person with nothing to compare the DNA profile against. 

Remember that st that time, there was no DNA database, so any DNA that was collected at Stephanie’s murder scene could not be tested in the way it would be in 2024. 

The National Registry of Exonerations reports that since 1989, DNA testing has proven the innocence of 575 individuals who were wrongly convicted, with 196 of these cases being clients of the Innocence Project.

Kimberly Murga joined the Las Vegas Metro Police Crime Lab team in 1996. She previously worked at the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory and is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors, and the Academy Standards Board DNA Consensus Body. She has earned two bachelor's degrees in biology and criminal justice from Chaminade University, and a master's degree in forensic science from George Washington University, so you can tell that even back then, she was one of the premier experts in the industry. She’s still with the lab today as its director.

The lab analyzed the DNA from the crime scene in 1997, but unfortunately, the process failed according to Murga. 10 Years later, a semen sample lifted from Stephanie’s shirt was successfully sequenced and analyzed. 

At that point, the profile was uploaded to the FBI DNA Database where it could be added to CODIS, the “Combined DNA Indexing System, which allows state and local crime labs to store and compare DNA from crime scenes and compare profiles with known offenders.

In May 2007, CODIS contained about 4.5 million offender profiles and more than 175,000 forensic profiles. As of August 2023, the National DNA Index (NDIS) within the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) contains over 16.5 million offender profiles, 5.2 million arrestee profiles, and 1.2 million forensic profiles.

Between 2007 and 2020 the DNA from Stephanie’s murder was compared with 30 potentially matching DNA samples, but a match was never found.

Because of how the DNA analysis process works, each time a sample is sequenced, some of it is consumed and destroyed, so by 2007 there was very little DNA evidence left, and by 2020 it was very degraded.

[Shaun]

In 2020, Othram, a Texas DNA lab, reached out to Kim Murga and the Metro Lab with a proposal. They told the lab they had been given an anonymous donation which was earmarked to have them assist in a Las Vegas-based cold case. It turned out that the donation was made by Justin Woo who is a local Las Vegas Philanthropist who founded

• Project Justice
• The Vegas Justice League, and 
• Vegas Helps

Justin found out about some work that Othram had been doing in the field of forensic genetic genealogy and made that donation to them asking them to take up a case in Las Vegas.

The crime lab took them up on it and they decided to have them analyze the last remaining DNA evidence in Stephanie’s case. It wasn't an easy decision, though. If the lab somehow botched the analysis, the DNA sample could have been lost, and with it any chance to avoid Stephanie’s case going cold forever.

The amount of DNA that was left that could be tested was extremely small. It was 120 picograms, which is the equivalent of only 15 human cells. For comparison, the DNA tests you might have done with 23 and Me will collect between 750 and 1000 nanograms. Othram would be dealing with only .12 nanograms.

Think of it like the difference between $1,000 and $0.12 (12 cents). It's a big difference. Not only that, the sample was 30 years old and quite degraded, not to mention the fact that it was likely a mix of DNA from the victim and the murderer.

[John]

This case was a challenging one even for Othram. 120 picograms is the smallest amount of DNA they had ever used to build their forensic genealogy profile.

It took over 7 months, but Othram built a genetic profile, and then their genealogists reconstructed the branches of a family tree, not unlike what you might have done on a site like Ancestry.com. 

Forensic genetic genealogy is incredibly powerful and it’s the same approach that led to the identification and arrest of the Golden State Killer, Joseph James DeAngelo, in 2018. 

The profile Othram was able to produce of Stephanie’s killer revealed an ancestry mix of French Canadian descent from New England and more recent French Canadian descent from Canada. In the end, they provided Metro with two possible family members, and Terri Miller with Metro did the investigation across several states.

Finally, after 32 years, on July 21st, 2021 the department announced a match. The murderer was Darren Roy Marchand. 

Marchand was born in Plattsburgh, NY on July 31, 1965. He was approximately 23 years old when he murdered Stephanie. According to court records, he was married in 1987 and divorced in 1990. He had a son born in 1989, a daughter born in 1987, and at least one other child from a previous relationship. 

Marchand had an extensive criminal history and Las Vegas Metro police had multiple encounters with him over the years. 

In January of 1989, Marchand was indicted on 5 counts of open and gross lewdness – He was accused of exposing himself to 5 different women. In April of 1989, he pleaded guilty to one of the charges, but the remaining were dropped, and he was sentenced to a maximum of 1 year of probation. He was discharged from probation only 9 months later. 

[Shaun]

We found another interesting piece of information in the Review Journal archives about Darren Marchand and his relationship with the Las Vegas Metro police department. In 1991, the RJ published an article about the Board Of Inquiry that was looking into cases of excessive force used by Metro. Officer Bryan Evans was accused of using excessive force on Marchand after a “lengthy foot pursuit” on March 9, 1991. The article stated he was wanted for “non-support” – which based on the court records we reviewed was either child or spousal support— and what the paper called “several minor charges”

A witness to the arrest told the Board that Officer Evans beat Marchand with a flashlight. Evans claimed he had “TAPPED” Marchand in the head. Marchand had suffered a head injury, but a doctor told the board that the wound was from a fall – not a flashlight. The Board concluded Evans did not use excessive force. 

[John] 

The revelation that Darren Marchand was the man who had murdered Stephanie was particularly alarming, given that he had been arrested in 1986 for the murder of a woman named Nanette Vanderburg. 

Nanette was born on June 22, 1960, in Virginia. She moved to Las Vegas in the mid-1980s, and was renting an apartment on East Tropicana. On February 27, 1986, her boyfriend hadn’t heard from her for a day or two, so he went to her apartment, and to his utter shock and horror, he found her body in her bathtub. She appeared to have been asphyxiated by a towel and strangled. She was only 25 years old. 

During the investigation, detectives discovered fingerprints at the scene that belonged to Marchand. 

[Shaun]

We tried to find out more information on Nanette, but unfortunately, the articles do not have very many details about her. Reporters couldn’t even seem to agree on how her last name was spelled. 

On March 10, 1986, Darren Marchand was arrested and charged with open murder. At the time, he was 20 years old. He told police that he was with Nanette on the night before she was murdered. According to the Review-Journal, Marchand and Nanette had QUOTE “spent the night together”. Marchand said they ate breakfast together at 12:30 AM at the Nevada Palace Casino. He said he left her there and went home to bed. 

The Nevada Palace was a casino on Boulder Highway near Sam’s Town which was demolished in 2008 to make room for the Eastside Cannery. The casino was not far from where Nanette and Marchand were living at the time. 

Despite the fact that his fingerprints had been found at the scene of the crime, after 2 days of testimony during the preliminary hearing, the Justice of the Peace Bil Jansen dismissed the charges against Darren Marchand. He said that the fingerprint evidence was insufficient for the case to go forward. 

Las Vegas Metro has since tested the DNA collected at that crime scene and determined it was also a match to Darren Marchand. 

[John] 

It’s chilling to think that if Marchand had been convicted of the murder of Nanette, Stephanie’s murder never would have happened. 

Unfortunately, though, Darren Marchand would never be prosecuted for the murders he committed. He died by suicide on July 15, 1995, in Las Vegas. Police are continuing to investigate whether he committed any other sexual assaults or murders. 

While Stephanie’s family finally knew who was responsible for her murder, the fact that he could never be prosecuted left them feeling hollow. 

Stephanie’s mother Sharon told police in a statement that she was glad the killer had been identified. She was quoted as saying “It’s good to have some closure, but there is no justice for Stephanie at all,” … “Nothing will ever bring my daughter back to us.”

And for John Isaacson, the pain and anger over Stephanie’s death was palpable when he said: “That son of a bitch got me twice. Once when he killed my daughter, and again when I didn’t get the opportunity to look him in the eye.”

[Shaun]

We mentioned the Las Vegas Justice League and their efforts to get cold cases solved. Justin Woo has said his goal would be to solve every cold case in Las Vegas where there is DNA evidence to be tested. 

Othram Lab’s Chief Development Officer Kristen Mittelman has stated, “We don’t believe that it can be justice unless it’s justice given to everyone. We believe that everyone deserves their name back, and every single perpetrator should be caught. When you see how much [of an] impact you’re making, you just want to continue to do it.”

Here’s where we ask for your help because this is something you can help with. 

If you’ve ever done a DNA test with a company like 23 and Me or Ancestry.com, you can request your full DNA profile data from them, and upload it into the Othram database for comparisons. This will allow Othram and other companies to more easily build those family trees to locate family members of these criminals.

We also encourage everyone to upload their data into the GEDmatch database, which is used by the DNA Doe Project to identify unknown murder victims.

[John] 

It’s easy to upload your data and you never know if you could be the missing piece that gives a family the answers they have been waiting for. There is potential here to solve every cold case. As the technology has advanced to use such minuscule amounts of DNA, and as more people willingly share their genetic histories, we can connect the dots for families who have been waiting for decades for justice. 

You can also help to solve one of these cold cases by making a donation to organizations that fund genetic testing and forensic genealogy, such as Othram Labs, Vegas Justice League, and Season of Justice. Links to these organizations will be in the show notes. The cost to perform the analysis is only about $5,000. It's hard to believe that’s the price to get a family closure.

In this case, it's very unfortunate that Marchand will never be held responsible for murdering Stephanie or Nanette, but with the use of these emerging high-tech analytical approaches, at least the families of these two women can potentially have some level of closure. There are so many families out there that are looking for answers.

[Shaun]

Before we wrap up, we want to share that we received a question from a listener this week. The listener was wondering if we had an update on the case of Dr. Gwen Amsrala. Dr. Amsrala’s murder was one of the first cases we covered in 2024 - Episode 11 – which we released on January 16. Dr. Amsrala’s husband, Shiva Gummi, has been arrested for her murder and the trial was scheduled to begin on April 15, 2024. 

Unfortunately, the trial has been delayed and the date has now been pushed to August 19, 2024. We are all hoping that the case gets resolved soon. We know that Dr. Amsrala’s friends, colleagues, and family members are anxiously awaiting a resolution, as are we. 

If any of you have any questions for us, just a reminder you can contact us at questions@sinsandsurvivors.com. 

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[John] 

We’re going to continue the conversation in our Swing Shift episode now so give that a listen too. We appreciate your support, and we remind you that what happens here, happens everywhere.