122 - Who Murdered Fred Sims?

Shaun On January twenty one, nineteen eighty three, a man was found bleeding from his head, lying partly in the road just around the corner from a Denny's on Boulder Highway. One passerby thought he was the victim of a hit and run. Another thought he was possibly just drunk.

John They called for an ambulance, but the man died before it arrived. More than forty three years later, his killer or killers have never been found.

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. This week we are bringing you the story of another mysterious cold case murder that has remained unsolved since nineteen eighty three. We also have an important update on Oswaldo Perez Sanchez, the man believed to have murdered Tabitha Tozzi and another missing person to share. Do you want to get us started with this week's case?

Shaun This week we're talking about Fred Sims. Fred was born on January twenty five, nineteen thirty four, in New York, New York. He was originally from the Bronx. He grew up there with his family and originally his last name was Schneiderman, but he changed it to Sims, he said, because Schneiderman was just too long. His mother's name was Sylvia Schneiderman, and he had a brother named Siegfried. He was married to a woman named Rosalind, and together they had three children, two sons named Barry and Stephen, and a daughter named Donna. The family moved to Las Vegas in July of nineteen eighty two. They lived in a single story home on El Antonio Place, which is near Harmon and Mountain Vista on the east side of town, pretty close to Sam's Town Casino before he moved to Las Vegas. Fred worked as a supervisor in the U.S. Postal Service, but he and his family moved here because he made the decision to invest in a consulting firm in Las Vegas that was known as data equipment, systems and leasing. Unfortunately for Fred, the company failed shortly after he moved here, So he took a job working as an in-house postal clerk at Caesars Palace on Friday, January twenty first, nineteen eighty three, around six thirty in the evening. He and Rosalyn were having dinner at the Denny's on Boulder Highway and Harmon, just around the corner from where they lived. That Denny's location is still there forty three years later, next to the Longhorn Casino and across the street from where the Eastside Cannery used to be. The Eastside Cannery is one of those casinos that closed up during the pandemic but never reopened. The couple enjoyed their dinner, and before they went home, Rosalyn said she needed to use the restroom and she would go ahead and take care of the bill with the waitress. So Fred went outside to start the car and warm it up and to wait for her. When Rosalyn came outside of the restaurant a few minutes later, she expected to find Fred and that warm car waiting, but Fred was nowhere to be found. It seemed like he had just disappeared. The car was there, but he was gone. Rosalyn looked around the restaurant and the parking lot, trying to find him, but she ended up calling one of her sons to give her a ride home and to help her figure out where Fred had gone. When Rosalind and her son were driving home, they passed the corner of Harmon and Sheppard, where a crowd had gathered around a man that was lying partly in the roadway. A man passing by the area had seen the injured man on the side of the road, and believed that maybe he was the victim of a hit and run accident because of the way he was lying in the road. Another man who was walking through the neighborhood and had been drinking, believed that the man on the sidewalk was also drunk because he said that the man had been vomiting. When Rosalind and her son saw the man on the side of the road, they recognized him immediately as Fred. Fred had blood running down his head and people rushed to call an ambulance for him, but unfortunately he passed away before the ambulance even arrived. Fred was only forty eight years old. It was just a few days before his forty ninth birthday that he was killed. He was only three tenths of a mile away from the Denny's. The walk would have only taken him maybe seven to ten minutes if he was on foot. Police determined that Fred was the victim of a robbery. He was missing one hundred and eighty dollars that he had had in his wallet, and the police came up with two possibilities. Either Fred was forced into a car at gunpoint, and then shot and then dumped out on the side of the road. Or perhaps someone had just pointed a gun at him. And then Fred took off, running down the street. He had been shot twice in the head with a small caliber handgun. One of the few pieces of evidence that we have is that there were shell casings found near Fred's body. It was the only evidence the police had, so it wasn't likely that he had been shot inside of the car and then dumped out. It was likely that he was shot right there on the side of the road. One witness did claim he heard gunshots and saw a white man walking away from the area, but he couldn't describe the man because it was too dark. On that same day, along that same stretch of Boulder Highway, two other armed robberies had occurred. A Kentucky Fried Chicken and another chain restaurant had been robbed that same day at gunpoint. As a result, the police were looking for three white men in connection with those robberies. One man in his late twenties, one in his mid-forties and another in his late forties or early fifties. They were also looking for two or four door dirty, gold colored Cadillac sedan, a model from either the late nineteen sixties or the early nineteen seventies. There was some more information that wasn't reported in the original articles at the time, but recent reporting has said detectives believe what most likely happened was that Fred was followed out of the Denny's. A few witnesses reported that a man came into the restaurant that night, sat at the counter and ordered his dinner, but then moved to a booth closer to Fred and Rosalyn after he received his food. And when Fred left and Rosalyn went to the restroom, the man quickly paid his bill and took off right on Fred's heels. Investigators then believe that the suspect most likely attempted to rob Fred. And there was a confrontation and Fred ran away. And it ended up with Fred being shot multiple times. The police have a sketch of this man based on the witnesses descriptions, but I don't think it's very helpful. It looks like a generic white person and possibly even a young James Caan. It might have been shared on the evening news, but I did not find it published in any editions of the RJ or The Sun, and we didn't find any articles about any new tips, leads, rewards and after forty three years, Metro is still looking for information about who killed Fred. Fred was laid to rest in Las Vegas in a private ceremony, leaving behind his mom, brother, wife and three kids. Anyone with information about this case is urged to contact Lvmpd homicide at seven oh two eight two eight three five two one. To remain anonymous, you can always contact Crime Stoppers at seven oh two three eight five five five five five or visit Crime Stoppers of NV dot com.

John Next, we want to bring you an update on the case of the murder of Tabitha Tozzi by Oswaldo Nathaniel Perez Sanchez. We covered this one most recently on the second anniversary of her murder in episode seventy three. You can listen to that full episode at censored dot co slash seventy three. In April of twenty twenty three, during an argument outside of his family's home, Oswaldo allegedly shot Tabitha and threatened her friend, who was a witness to the murder. And then he stole her car and disappeared. Two years later, while hiding out in Sinaloa, Mexico, Perez Sanchez murdered again. This time, it was Vivian Corelli Aispuro Cabanillas, who looked a lot like Tabitha. We also reported in our most recent update that he was finally apprehended in Sinaloa, Mexico, which is great news. But since then, it's been a total legal quagmire. Mexico, as we told you previously, has not been willing to extradite Perez Sanchez to stand trial in Nevada for Tabitha's murder, while his other case is still active. Alma, Vivian's sister, said in an interview that their original lawyer has stopped updating them on the case. In court documents dated June six, twenty twenty five, from Sinaloa that News Channel three obtained, there was even more going on. There is apparently some question about whether Perez Sanchez was using his brother George's ID during the legal process in Mexico, which has led to a shocking amount of confusion about his identity. They seem to be referring to him in the document with three different names with and or between them. Kind of like a k a. It's clear that he's charged with femicide, which is a flavor of murder charge against women that we don't really have here in the US. Not only that, there's another document from June twenty seventh, twenty twenty five showing that he was transferred from a minimum security prison to prison in Culiacan to a maximum security prison called Goros two. Which is an extremely infamous prison known for violence with the inmates and recent drug seizures. The document said that he was transferred because he was a risk to safety. His or others, and apparently another inmate at the original prison texted alma that he was being transferred to the new prison as well, along with Perez Sanchez, and he claimed that Perez Sanchez had committed new crimes in prison. But of course, we can't verify that with all the wrangling about his identity and which ID card he was using. Tabitha and Vivian's families and the authorities here are concerned that he could simply be let go if Mexican authorities become convinced that this is just a case of mistaken identity. Alma has said that she's understandably afraid for her family's safety. If that happens, Perez Sanchez needs to pay for his crimes, both of them in Mexico and here in Nevada. We hope that all of this can be straightened out soon so they can address his being extradited to stand trial. We will update you with information as we learn more.

Shaun We want to remind everyone that this week is the anniversary of Tabitha's passing, so please keep her in your thoughts as her family is still dealing with the pain of this incredible loss. Next, we want to share the missing persons story from this week. We decided to choose a story that also dates back to the nineteen eighties the disappearance of Michael Steven Cecena. He was last seen in December of nineteen eighty six. Based on our research, he was born in nineteen fifty two in California, and he was often called Mike. He actually lived in the Star Wars neighborhood near Russell and Mountain Vista in that neighborhood. There are several streets named after Star Wars characters like Leia, Vader, Kenobi, and Mike lived on Skywalker Avenue. That development was built back in nineteen seventy nine when Mike disappeared. He was thirty four years old. Today he would be seventy three, turning seventy four in December of this year. He is between five foot nine and five foot eleven, and at the time he disappeared, he weighed between two twenty five and two thirty. His hair at the time was brown and he was bald on top, and he was known to sometimes wear a toupee. In the most recent photo we have, Mike has a mustache, and he was known to sometimes wear a beard as well as a mustache. He has brown eyes and he sometimes wore glasses or he sometimes wore contacts. According to Namus, he has a tattoo on his left shoulder of an astrological sign. Our best guess is that would be a tattoo representing Sagittarius, because that would have been Mike's star sign based on his birthday in early December. But unfortunately we don't have any photos of it. We know that one of his ears was pierced and that he has a square shaped scar on his forehead. Mike was last seen leaving his house on Skywalker Avenue to walk to the nearby 7-Eleven at nine o'clock in the morning on December twenty two, nineteen eighty six. He would often walk to that 7-Eleven, police said, for exercise. It's on the corner of Russell and Mountain Vista, and it would have been around a three quarter mile walk from his house, taking him about maybe fifteen twenty minutes. When he left, he did not take a lot of money with him, if any at all, police said, or any other clothing or any of other personal items when he left. He even left a load of laundry in the washing machine when he left the house that morning that he intended to finish up when he got back, and he was last seen wearing gray sweatpants and a black jacket. If you have any information about Mike's disappearance, please call Las Vegas Metro Police Department at 702-828-2907 We know it's been almost forty years since he disappeared, but we are still hopeful that someone out there might have some information that can help his family get answers. Thank you again for listening this week. We appreciate it so much. Whether or not you're a subscriber, if you want to be a subscriber and get access to ad free episodes, and also our bonus swing shift episodes where we do a behind the scenes look onto what went into making the episodes, head over to sinspod.co/subscribe or you can join on Patreon or right in Apple Podcasts. As always, we remind you that 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 at @SinsandSurvivors If you're enjoying the podcast, please leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice. You can contact us at questions at survivors dot com.

Shaun If you or someone you know is affected by domestic violence or need support, please reach out to local resources or the National Domestic Violence Hotline. A list of resources is available on our website www.sinsandsurvivors.com. Sins 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.