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On January twenty first, nineteen eighty three, a man was
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found bleeding from his head, lying partly in the road
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just around the corner from a Denny's on Boulder Highway.
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One passer by thought he was the victim of a
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hit and run. Another thought he was possibly just drunk.
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They called for an ambulance, but the man died before
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it arrived. More than forty three years later, his killer
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or killers have never been found.
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Hi, and Welcome to Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas
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true crime podcast refocus on cases that deal with domestic violence,
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as well as missing persons and unsolved cases. I'm your
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host Sean and.
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I'm your co host John. This week, we are bringing
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you the story of another mysterious cold case murder that
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has remained unsolved since nineteen eighty three. We also have
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an important update on Oswaldo Perez Sanchez, the man believed
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to have murdered Tabitha Tazzi and another missing person to share.
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Do you want to get us started with this week's case?
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This week we're talking about Fred Simms. Fred was born
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on January twenty fifth, nineteen thirty four, in New York,
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New York. He was originally from the Bronx. He grew
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up there with his family, and originally his last name
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was Schneiderman, but he changed it to Simms, he said
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because Schneiderman was just too long. His mother's name was
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Sylvia Schniderman, and he had a brother named Siegfried. He
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was married to a woman named Roslin and together they
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had three children, two sons named Barry and Stephen, and
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a daughter named Donna. The family moved to Las Vegas
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in July of nineteen eighty two. They lived in a
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single story home on El Antonio Place, which is near
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Harmon and Mountain Vista on the east side of town,
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pretty close to Samstown Casino. Before he moved to Las Vegas,
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Fred worked as a supervisor in the US Postal Service,
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but he and his family moved here because he made
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the decision to invest in a consulting firm in Las
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Vegas that was known as Data equipment Systems and leasing.
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Unfortunately for Fred, the company failed shortly after he moved here,
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so he took a job working as an in house
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postal clerk at Caesar's Palace. On Friday, January twenty first,
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nineteen eighty three, around six thirty in the evening, he
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and Roslin were having dinner at the Denny's on Boulder
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Highway and Harmon, just around the corner from where they lived.
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That Denny's location is still there forty three years later,
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next to the Longhorn Casino and across the street from
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where the east Side Canery used to be. The east
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Side Cannery is one of those casinos that closed up
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during the pandemic but never reopened. The couple enjoyed their
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dinner and before they went home, Roslin said she needed
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to use the restroom and she would go ahead and
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take care of the bill with the waitress. So Fred
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went outside to start the car and form it up
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and to wait for her. When Roslin came out outside
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of the restaurant a few minutes later, she expected to
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find Fred and that warm car waiting, but Fred was
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nowhere to be found. It seemed like he had just disappeared.
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The car was there, but he was gone. Roslin looked
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around the restaurant and the parking lot trying to find him,
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but she ended up calling one of her sons to
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give her a ride home and to help her figure
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out where Fred had gone. When Roslin and her son
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were driving home, they passed the corner of Harmon and Shepherd,
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where a crowd had gathered around a man that was
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lying partly in the roadway. A man passing by the
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area had seen the injured man on the side of
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the road and believed that maybe he was the victim
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of a hit and run accident because of the way
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he was lying in the road. Another man, who was
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walking through the neighborhood and had been drinking, believed that
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the man on the sidewalk was also drunk, because he
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said that the man had been vomiting. When Roslin and
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her son saw the man on the side of the road,
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they recognized him immediately as Fred. Fred had blood running
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down his head, and people rushed to call an ambulance
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for him, but unfortunately, he passed away before the ambulance
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even arrived. Fred was only forty eight years old. It
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was just a few days before his forty ninth birthday
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that he was killed. He was only three tenths of
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a mile away from the Dennis. The walk would have
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only taken him maybe seven to ten minutes if he
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was on foot. Police determined that Fred was the victim
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of a robbery. He was missing one hundred and eighty
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dollars that he had had in his wallet, and the
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police came up with two possibilities. Either Fred was forced
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into a car at gunpoint and then shot and then
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dumped out on the side of the road, or perhaps
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someone had just pointed a gun at him and then
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Fred took off running down the street. He had been
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shot twice in the head with a small caliber handgun.
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One of the few pieces of evidence that we have
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is that there were shell casings found near Fred's body.
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It was the only evidence the police had, so it
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wasn't likely that he had been shot inside of the
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car and then dumped out. It was likely that he
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was shot right there on the side of the road.
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One witness did claim he heard gunshots and saw a
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white man walking away from the area, but he couldn't
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describe the man because it was too dark. On that
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same day, along that same stretch of Boulder Highway. Two
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other armed robberies had occurred. A Kentucky Fried Chicken and
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another chain restaurant had been robbed that same day at gunpoint.
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As a result, the police were looking for three white
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men in connection with those robberies, one man in his
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late twenties, one in his mid forties, and another in
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his late forties or early fifties. They were also looking
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for a two or four door dirty gold colored Cadillac Sedan,
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a model from either the late nineteen sixties or the
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early nineteen seventies. There was some more information that wasn't
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reported in the original articles at the time, but recent
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reporting has said detectives believed what most likely happened was
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that Fred was followed out of the Dennis. A few
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witnesses reported that a man came into the restaurant that night,
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sat at the counter, and ordered his dinner, but then
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moved to a booth closer to Fred and Roslin after
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he received his food, and when Fred left and Roslin
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went to the restroom, the man quickly paid his bill
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and took off right on Fred's heels. Investigators then believed
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that the suspect most likely attempted to rob Fred and
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there was a confrontation and Fred ran away and it
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ended up with Fred being shot multiple times. The police
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have a sketch of this man based on the witness's descriptions,
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but I don't think it's very helpful. It looks like
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a generic white person and possibly even a young James Kahn.
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It might have been shared on the evening news, but
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I did not find it published in any editions of
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the RJ or The Sun, and we didn't find any
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articles about any new tips, leads, rewards, and after forty
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three years, Metro was still looking for information about who
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killed Fred. Fred was lead to rest in Las Vegas
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in a private ceremony, leaving behind his mom, brother, wife,
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and three kids. Anyone with information about this case is
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urged to contact LVMPD Homicide at seven oh two eight
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two eight three five two one. To remain anonymous, you
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can always contact Crimestoppers at seven oh two three eight
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five five five five five or visit primestoppers of envy
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dot com.
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Next, we want to bring you an update on the
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case of the murder of Tabitha Tazzi by Oswaldo Nathaniel
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Perez Sanchez. We covered this one most recently on the
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second anniversary of her murder in episode seventy three. You
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can listen to that full episode at sinspod dot co
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Slash seventy three. In April of twenty twenty three, during
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an argument outside of his family's home, Oswaldo allegedly shot
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Tabitha and threatened her friend, who was a witness to
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the murder, and then he stole her car and disappeared.
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Two years later, while hiding out in Sineloa, Mexico, Perez
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Sanchez murdered again. This time it was Vivian Carole Iporo Kabanias,
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who looked a lot like Tabitha. We also reported in
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our most recent update that he was finally apprehended in Sineloa, Mexico,
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which is great news, but since then it's been a
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total legal quagmire. Mexico, as we told you previously, has
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not been willing to extradite Perez Sanchez to stand trial
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in Nevada for Tabitha's murder while his other case is
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still active. Alma, Vivian's sister said in an interview that
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their original lawyer has stopped updating them on the case.
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In court documents dated June sixth, twenty twenty five from
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Sineloa that News Channel three obtained. There was even more
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going on. There is apparently some question about whether Perez
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Sanchez was using his brother George's ID during the legal
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process in Mexico, which has led to a shocking amount
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of confusion about his identity. They seem to be referring
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to him in the document with three different names with
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and or between them, kind of like AKA. It's clear
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that he's charged with femicide, which is a flavor of
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murder charge against women that we don't really have here
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in the US. Not only that, there's another document from
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June twenty seventh, twenty twenty five, showing that he was
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transferred from a minimum security prison, Aguarato Prison in Kalia
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Khan to a maximum security prison called Goros two, which
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is an extremely infamous prison known for violence with the
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inmates and recent drug seizures. The document said that he
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was transferred because he was a risk to safety his
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or others, and apparently another inmate at the original prison
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texted Alma that he was being transferred to the new
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prison as well along with Perez Sanchez, and he claimed
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that Perez Sanchez had committed new crimes in prison, but
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of course we can't verify that. With all the wrangling
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about his identity in which ID card he was using,
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Tabitha and Vivian's families and the authorities here are concerned
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that he could simply be let go if Mexican authorities
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become convinced that this is just a case of mistake
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and identity. Alma has said that she's understandably afraid for
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her family's safety if that happens. Perez Sanchez needs to
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pay for his crimes, both of them in Mexico and
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here in Nevada. We hope that all of this can
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be straightened out soon so they can address his being
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extradited to stand trial. We will update you with information
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as we learn more.
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We want to remind everyone that this week is the
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anniversary of Tabitha's passing, so please keep her in your
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thoughts as her family is still dealing with the pain
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of this incredible loss. Next, we want to share the
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missing person story from this week. We decided to choose
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a story that also dates back to the nineteen eighties,
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the disappearance of Michael Stephen Cecina. He was last seen
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in December of nineteen eighty six based on our research.
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He was born in nineteen fifty two in California, and
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he was often called Mike. He actually lived in the
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Star Wars neighborhood near Russell and Mountain Vista. In that neighborhood,
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there are several streets named after Star Wars characters like
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Leah Vader, Kenobi, and Mike lived on Skywalker Avenue. That
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development was built back in nineteen seventy nine. When Mike disappeared,
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he was thirty four years old. Today he would be
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seventy three, turning seventy four in December this year. He
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is between five foot nine and five foot eleven, and
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at the time he disappeared he weighed between two twenty
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five and two thirty. His hair at the time was
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brown and he was bald on top, and he was
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known to sometimes wear a two pay. In the most
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recent photo we have, Mike has a mustache and he
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was known to sometimes wear a beard as well as
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a mustache. He has brown eyes, and he sometimes wore
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glasses or he sometimes wore contacts. According to NamUs, he
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has a tattoo on his left shoulder of an astrological sign.
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Our best guess is that would be a tattoo representing Sagittarius,
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because that would have been Mike's star sign based on
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his birthday in early December, but unfortunately we don't have
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any photos of it. We know that one of his
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ears was pierced and that he has a square shaped
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scar on his forehead. Mike was last seen leaving his
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house on Skywalker Avenue to walk to the nearby seven
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eleven at nine o'clock in the morning on December twenty second,
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nineteen eighty six. He would often walk to that seven eleven,
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police said, for exercise. It's on the corner of Russell
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and Mountain Vista, and it would have been around a
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three quarter mile walk from his house, taking him about
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maybe fifteen twenty minutes. When he left, he did not
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take a lot of money with him, if any at all,
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police said, or any other clothing or any of other
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personal items when he left. He even left a load
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of laundry in the washing machine when he left the
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house that morning, is that he intended to finish up
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when he got back, and he was last seen wearing
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gray sweatpants and a black jacket. If you have any
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information about Mike's disappearance, please call Las Vegas Metro Police
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Department at seven oh two eight two eight two, nine