When it comes to solving homicides, Nevada is close to the annual national average, closing the books on about 65% of its cases.
Unfortunately, that still leaves state law enforcement with around 100 unsolved murders every year. From Las Vegas to Reno, and in the rural areas between, each of these cold cases represents a human being whose life was violently cut short and a perpetrator who needs to face justice.
Here’s a look at some of the most infamous homicide cold cases in Nevada.
Bobby Wayne Foster (1989)
Things were looking up for professional gambler Bobby Wayne Foster, 47, in September 1989. He won $50,000 in a California poker tournament, so he headed to Las Vegas to celebrate. That’s where his luck ran out.
Last seen at a topless bar, the Tender Trap, in Las Vegas, authorities found Foster’s white Corvette in the parking lot of the former Stardust Hotel and Casino, now the site of Resorts World. His decomposing body turned up a week later, without any of his winnings, in a remote part of the desert near Willow Beach, on the Arizona side of the Colorado River. Foster was presumably robbed and shot to death in Las Vegas, then dumped in the desert, but by whom? Police still don’t know.
Cornell Gunter (1990)
R&B singer Cornelius (Cornell) Gunter, 53, was fresh from his 1987 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the doo-wop band The Coasters and making a comeback in Las Vegas when tragedy struck.
The tenor, who sang in hits like “Yakety Yak” and “Charlie Brown,” was shot in his car and killed while stopped in a North Las Vegas parking lot in February 1990. According to the LA Times, witnesses told police he was arguing with a man from his car before the murder.
The surviving members of the Coasters continue to perform in his honor as Cornell Gunter’s Coasters.
Great Basin Murders: Elko County Jane Doe (1993)
Over the 14 years from 1983 to 1997, at least nine women and one man were killed and discarded along the remote roads of the Great Basin region in states including Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and Nevada. Many of the women were sexually assaulted and then murdered. The killer posed them post mortem, which is why law enforcement originally thought these murders were the work of a serial killer, known as “The Great Basin Killer.” Law enforcement ultimately nabbed separate killers for several of the murders, abandoning the serial killer theory.
Among the unsolved cases is a woman known as “Shafter Jane Doe” or “Elko County Jane Doe.” In November 1993, a motorist found her body near the I-80 exit for Shafter, between Wendover and Wells, in Elko County, Nevada. She was beaten and shot through the heart by an unknown assailant, then dumped on her back, naked, with her arms and legs posed to resemble a cross.
While Elko County Jane Doe’s identity remains largely unknown, her case in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons database is listed as “positively identified,” as users pointed out in a recent Reddit thread. Hair samples sent to a lab in Utah tie the victim to the town of Afton, Wyoming.
Tupac Shakur (1996)
The case of the 1996 assassination of rapper Tupac Shakur went cold until 2023, when the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department arrested former gang member Duane “Keefe D” Davis as a suspect in the murder. Davis has since pleaded not guilty and will go to trial this summer.
Shakur was in Las Vegas for the Bruce Seldon vs. Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand in September 1996. He was fatally shot four times while stopped at a traffic light just off the Las Vegas Strip and died at the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada a little less than a week later.
Ted Binion (1998)
Originally ruled a suicide, police began to suspect foul play in the September 1998 death of casino magnate Lonnie Theodore Binion when silver from his hidden fortune went missing. Though his girlfriend, Sandra Murphy, and her male companion, Rick Tabish, were convicted of burglary, grand larceny, and murder, they were later acquitted of the murder charges.
Chris Trickle (1998)
In 1997, race car driver Chris Trickle, 25, was a rising star in the American stock car world, gaining national attention racing late models on the NASCAR Winter Heat series. A nephew of late NASCAR driver Dick Trickle, he was slated to race in an upcoming NASCAR series when his life was tragically cut short.
In February 1997, an unknown assailant pulled up beside Trickle on Blue Diamond Road and shot him in the head while he was driving to meet a friend. He died as a result of his wound in March 1998.
Though his case has been featured twice on America’s Most Wanted, there is still no suspect.
Anna Marie Scott (2022)
Anna Marie Scott, 23, a Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe member, was found dead inside the trunk of the charred remains of her own car on southbound I-580, at the Galena Creek Bridge, in February 2022. The young mother, who was badly burned, died from a gunshot wound.
A person of interest in the case, Jacori Shaw, was shot and killed by police shortly after, during an unrelated arrest attempt. The case remains unsolved, and there is a $5,000 award for information leading to the perpetrator.
Vadim Kruglov (2025)
Things got more heated than usual at the Burning Man Festival in 2025. The week-long event in the Black Rock Desert had its first reported homicide.
Vadim Kruglov, 37, a first-time attendee at the festival in August 2025, was found dead in a pool of blood while other attendees were celebrating the end of the event. The Russian national had a single stab wound to his neck.
Authorities found a green chef’s knife next to his body, which they believe is the murder weapon. They are still searching for the killer.
This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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