Police investigate death of Hoover Dam bridge jumper’s wife
The day after Jacob Gerard Foreman committed suicide at the Hoover Dam bypass bridge, North Las Vegas police found his wife’s body in a house the couple owned.
No obvious signs of foul play were evident when Leah Foreman was found dead by officers doing a welfare check Friday night, said North Las Vegas police spokeswoman Chrissie Coon.
“The (coroner’s investigator) was trying to make a notification,” Coon said Monday. “The whole situation didn’t seem quite right, so she called and asked us to do a welfare check on the female who presumably lived in the home with him.”
Police arrived at the 5100 block of Sail Rock Place, near Washburn Road and Clayton Street, about 10 p.m. Friday to check on the 40-year-old woman. The cause of her death, along with an estimate of how long she had been dead, is not yet known.
“Currently there is an investigation into her death,” Coon said. “But at this point, that investigation hinges on the coroner’s findings.”
Tests that will determine Leah Foreman’s cause of death are being processed by the coroner’s office. Results could take six to eight weeks.
Homeowners on Sail Rock Place, a street inside a gated North Las Vegas subdivision, said they saw six to seven police cars and a coroner’s vehicle arrive late Friday evening. They said the commotion was unusual for the cul-de-sac, which is usually quiet.
Several neighbors said Leah Foreman was a friendly woman who mostly kept to herself. None of the five neighbors interviewed knew for certain whether anyone else lived in the house.
Clark County records show Leah Foreman, formerly Leah Mendoza, married Jacob Foreman in June 1996. Both are listed as owners of the house on Sail Rock Place, according to the county assessor’s office website.
Jacob Foreman, 39, fell to his death from the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge on Thursday after he spent about two hours on the outer edge of the bridge, which stands 900 feet above the Colorado River.
He climbed over the railing of the bridge and clung to it about 10:30 a.m., said Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman Rose Davis.
Law enforcement officials stopped traffic, and crisis intervention specialists talked with Foreman while he was on the wrong side of the bridge.
About 12:30 p.m., he “let go or fell,” Davis said.
Authorities found Foreman’s body Friday afternoon.
The coroner’s office ruled the death a suicide, the third at the bridge since it opened in October 2010.
After his body was identified, the coroner’s office tried to contact Leah Foreman. When she could not be reached, North Las Vegas police went to the house on Sail Rock Place.
Contact Ben Frederickson at bfrederickson@
reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512.