Murder is the worst possible crime and, when a victim is a Homeless man killed by an unknown assailant, it is still more deplorable because, in the absence of any apparent motive for the crime, the murderer could go scot-free.
That is what worried the Police of Las Vegas when two homeless men were murdered. Both the crimes took place at night when they were sleeping. The weapon used was, apparently, a blunt hammer-like item and, they had their heads bashed up.
The victims were identified as a 46-year-old Daniel Aldape and 60-year-old David Dunn, and the crimes were committed earlier this year as reported in Abc7.
How the police approached the problem
When such a crime occurs, and there is no apparent clue to help the investigation, police have to think out of the box. They would have to probe the antecedents of the victims to explore possible motives because every murder usually has some motive unless it is the work of a maniac.
Las Vegas police must have arrived at a dead end. The only obvious clue they had was the location where the bodies were discovered, and they decided to make use of that vital evidence.
Decoy used to arrest the suspect
Detectives of Clark County set up a decoy to lure the murderer to the spot. They dressed up a mannequin to make it look like a sleeping homeless man, positioned it in the vicinity of the previous murders and waited till the suspect turned up.
The police also installed surveillance cameras to record any action, and that helped them to apprehend a person named Shane Schindler (30) on Feb.22 when he tried to destroy the mannequin. He has not yet been charged with murder but is being interrogated by the authorities.
The suspect is, at present, lodged in the Clark County Detention Center and has been accused of carrying a concealed weapon.
He has admitted that he did strike the mannequin but has also added in his defense that he knew it was a dummy.
The efforts and quick thinking of the police need to be lauded - their use of a decoy was a great idea.
