The 7 biggest true crime cases in Nevada history

Content warning: The following story contains descriptions of real-life violence, including murder, kidnapping, and other criminal acts.

True crime has enraptured Nevadans many times over the years. Check out these murders, kidnappings, and more to learn about our state’s wild history.

Fascination with true crime has been on the rise for the better part of a decade, with YouTubers and podcasters recounting and breaking down cases from across the world to hungry listeners. It’s a touch morbid, a skosh curious, and even slightly controversial. Some believe that old tales should rest, especially if they were heinous. Still, others think it’s essential to be educated on these matters, especially if they’re presented tastefully and aren’t being exploited strictly for profit.

Nevada has had its fair share of true-crime stories that still entrance people to this day. After all, we’re known for a place called Sin City, and the mob inextricably shaped Las Vegas as we know it today. That’s not even to mention that many cults have ties to Nevada. Just what has happened in the shadows of Vegas’ blinding lights (not counting this year’s Tesla truck bombing because it happened in broad daylight)? What secrets are buried in the deserts of the Silver State? What interesting true-crime events have molded the state in ways many people don’t realize?

That’s what we’re here to talk about today. And trust us—it gets wild. Without further ado, here are the biggest true crime cases in Nevada history.

1. College student Brianna Denison was murdered in 2008

Brianna Denison was a sophomore at Santa Barbara City College in California, but a trip home turned deadly when she was kidnapped in the middle of the night. According to CBS News, Denison was spending time with some of her friends who lived by the University of Nevada-Reno, but the kidnapper took her in her sleep on that fateful January 2008 night.

Heartbreakingly, it took weeks for Denison’s body to be found. The college student’s body was discovered in mid-February, and worse, she was found nude, bar only a pair of socks. Other victims were found in similar states, which ultimately led to the killer—James Biela—being charged with murder and rape in the spring of 2010. This disappearance shook the local community and forced everyone to be on guard at all times, especially near the university’s campus. The case has been discussed online and in TV shows numerous times in the following years, including an episode of the true-crime series “Trace of Evil.”

2. Professional boxer Sonny Liston’s death caused quite a stir

Known as the “Big Bear,” professional boxer Sonny Liston was renowned in this sport, which made his untimely death at just 38 years old even more tragic. The athlete’s death rocked Las Vegas in January 1971, and matters only grew more complicated when folks felt like the cause of death didn’t add up.

According to the BBC, natural causes were listed by the coroner as Liston’s cause of death, but with the boxer being so young, many weren’t buying it. You see, Liston was found in his home, and his door? Not locked. Still, no weapons were found, and Liston’s body didn’t show laceration marks or anything else that would indicate a struggle. What officials did uncover, however, was heroin.

Was Liston actively using heroin in his free time, or was foul play afoot? That’s been the question on everyone’s mind over the decades. Many people believe that Liston’s death was staged to look like an overdose, as the mob in Sin City had been known to murder folks this way. Did Liston have beef with the mob? We may never know for sure, but that’s a common theory.

3. The kidnapping of Kevyn Wynn, daughter of casino owner Steve Wynn

The kidnapping of Kevyn Wynn is one of the most notorious true-crime stories in Las Vegas, with younger millennials hearing the tale growing up. Now 83, Steve Wynn is a longtime entrepreneur who worked in casinos for decades, and on one terrible night in July 1993, his world came to a pause.

According to KTNV, Steve’s daughter, Kevyn, was living in the lap of luxury in her Spanish Trail home when a group of men took her at gunpoint. The goal? Just like in the movies, the kidnappers wanted a pretty penny from Steve to get his daughter back. For them, this was a high-stakes payday, and Steve, loving his daughter, caved and paid the $1.45 million ransom.

Kevyn’s father found her in the back seat of her car, which had been relocated to Harry Reid International Airport (then known as McCarran Airport). She was safe and had no marks on her, but her assailants didn’t get away with it. One of the men blew the operation when he tried to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a car in cash shortly after receiving the ransom money. You don’t have to be a police dog to sniff out how fishy that smells, and two men—Jacob Sherwood and Ray Cuddy—ultimately landed in prison.

4. In 1967, an explosive suicide claimed many lives and ample property damage

Bombings are naturally deadly, and one particularly fiery one in January 1967 claimed many lives in Las Vegas. It occurred at the Orbit Inn Motel when an ex-military member decided to, for reasons unknown, blow up the property. He’d meticulously planted dynamite, and he used a handgun to set it off. The result was Sin City’s most fatal bombing to this day, which included floors of the building collapsing and eight people being transported to the hospital.

The culprit, Richard James Paris, was just 28 years old when he engulfed the hotel in flames, per a Las Vegas Sun report from the time. He died in the explosion, as did his wife and several other hotel guests, amassing six casualties in addition to the aforementioned eight wounded. The bombing was so impactful that parts of the surrounding neighborhood lost electricity, and windows nearby shattered. Ultimately, despite FBI intervention, a clear motive wasn’t derived, making this an incredibly sad and confusing case.

5. 1911 saw one of the bloodiest events in Nevada’s history

The U.S. is steeped in blood, with the very idea of manifest destiny displacing entire Native American nations. As Euro-descended Americans settled onto North American land, the Native Americans were largely forced onto reservations, but, of course, not every Indigenous person wanted to live on these reservations.

Enter Mike Daggett—aka Shoshone Mike—and his family, who were wandering Indigenous folks who didn’t want to be confined to a reservation. This is where the facts get tricky. The deaths of four stockmen in Nevada in early 1911 sent locals into a frenzy to find the wandering group of Native Americans, who they believed to be the killers (via the Reno Gazette Journal). Eventually, they tracked them down, and the fight that would become known as the Battle of Kelley Creek commenced.

This conflict has become widely known as the “last massacre” of Native Americans; after all, eight of the 12 Indigenous wanderers were killed in the scuffle, with the remaining four being imprisoned by the group of vigilantes who sought them out. Only one of the vigilantes was killed. Today, more than ever, there is discourse about the facts of the case, including who started it and who was at fault for the deaths and events that led up to the Battle of Kelley Creek. Ultimately, it’s one of the saddest events in the state’s history.

6. The 1996 shooting of Tupac on the Strip rocked Las Vegas—and the world

By the time of his death in September 1996, Tupac Shakur had become a household name thanks to films like “Poetic Justice” as well as songs like “Changes” and “California Love.” This is why his death was felt worldwide; a celebrity of this scale hadn’t died in such a tragic way in a long time.

Tupac changed music forever, and his legacy remains firmly intact today. But when he was killed in a drive-by shooting in the fall of ‘96, no one saw it coming because the star was so beloved—and it seemed unlikely that such a big name would fall victim to such a random act of violence.

As it turns out, it might not have been random. Nothing has been settled in court yet, but one Duane “Keffe D” Davis was arrested in 2023 after authorities suspected him of being connected to Tupac’s murder from decades ago (via ABC News). Allegedly, Davis organized the killing and wasn’t the person who actually shot the gun into Tupac’s BMW. At the time of writing, his trial is slated for 2026. It’s safe to say that Las Vegas will be watching right along with the rest of the world.

7. This true crime case ends with Nevada’s final death penalty

It’s been almost two full decades since the state of Nevada carried out its final case of capital punishment. In April 2006, one Daryl Mack passed away via lethal injection following prison time for the rape and murder of two women who hailed from Reno.

Mack was initially convicted for one of the women, whom he’d assaulted and murdered in ‘94, per Nevada Appeal. Then, the second conviction came while he was imprisoned, thanks to new DNA from a murder from the ‘80s emerging. Famously, Mack didn’t want to spend forever in prison, and he seemingly welcomed the death penalty, giving the man who landed him in prison a smile on his final day.

Interestingly, the death penalty is still legal in Nevada despite the last instance of it being 19 years ago at the time of writing. Many other U.S. states have banned it over the years, and there have been recent pushes to do the same in the Silver State. They haven’t been successful, but there’s no telling where the fight will go from here.

This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Related: Sin City’s criminal past: How the mob shaped Las Vegas