27 replies to this topic

[Jenn]

Charley Project Profile for Opal: http://www.charleypr...rsons_opal.html

[Lori Davis]

http://www.lasvegasn...cases-gone-cold

 

Las Vegas detective focuses on missing person cases gone cold

 

By George Knapp, Investigative Reporter

Matt Adams, Chief Photojournalist

Published 05/25 2015 02:16PM

Updated 05/25 2015 02:16PM

 

LAS VEGAS

 

Metro Police receive hundreds of missing persons reports each month, about half of them involving juveniles. Most of the kids return home eventually, but the few who don't end up as cold case files.

 

Las Vegas has the only full-time detective in the country who is dedicated to missing person cases that have gone cold.

 

"I can't imagine if your little girl did not come home, I don't care how old she was," said Detective Dan Holley, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

 

He has come to understand the pain experienced by the families of missing persons, people who, for one reason or another, seemingly evaporate in Las Vegas.

 

"For the families, it hangs over their head every single day," he said.

 

The Metro bureau which takes missing person reports gets 600 to 900 per month. About half of those are juveniles who run away from home and later return.

Most of the rest are people who get lost for awhile in the temptations of Las Vegas.

 

"They lose track of time and they don't call home," Holley said.

 

Less than one percent of those reported missing meet foul play, though their loved ones around the world often assume the worst about Las Vegas, including the police.

 

Take the case of Paul Hannon, a former detective at Scotland Yard who moved to Las Vegas to become a poker player. Hannon vanished from his hotel room in 1997. His colleagues at the Yard were sure he'd been murdered and came looking for him.

 

"They came out like, we're going to show you guys how to do this," Holley said. "They went home without Paul Hannon."

 

Detective Holley found him, the same way he's found dozens of others in the cold case files. He used DNA evidence. Once he obtained samples from Hannon's family in the U.K., he entered it into national data bases, and discovered that Hannon spent 12 years living on the street in Los Angeles under a different name and that's where he died.

 

His desk is surrounded by the cases he deems most pressing.

 

"These 40 cases, we're pursuing those cases and we pursue them to the end," Holley said.

 

Back in the cold case room, there are hundreds more. Of those, four in particular echo in his head. The disappearance 80-year-old Opal Parsons in August 2007.  Her purse and ID were found later, but she has never surfaced. Holley thinks it is unlikely she is still alive.

 

Three other cases -- all involving children -- also weigh on his mind.

 

Probably the most famous case is that of Cary Sayegh.

 

The 7-year-old was kidnapped in 1978. His parents owned a carpet business. They received a large ransom demand but the kidnapper never called back. A man named Gerald Burgess was later tried for the crime but was acquitted.

 

Burgess has hinted that he knows where the boy's body is buried. Just recently, Holley obtained DNA from both parents and entered it into his data base. He is confident Cary's remains will surface some day and his files will help make the identification.

 

"It might be after we're gone but that file will still be in there," Holley said.

 

Holley has made recent progress in another missing child case.

 

Karla Rodriguez disappeared in 1999, prompting a massive door-to-door search. It took until two years ago to get DNA samples from both her parents into the system.

 

Holley thinks her remains will be found.

 

A third missing child may not be dead at all.  Holley told the I-Team he thinks Randi Evers, kidnapped as a 3-year-old in 1992, is alive and living in a western city he declines to name. Metro is waiting for one more piece of forensic evidence before the Evers story is broken open.

 

Detective Holley plans to retire from Metro in a few months but hopes to return as a part-timer to work on the key files in the cold case room.

 

"I cannot abandon them. I will not abandon them. I will stay until they are done, and they will all be done," he said.