Coroner IDs Las Vegas woman killed with a baseball bat
A woman who police say was bludgeoned to death on Friday by her husband with a baseball bat has been identified as a 31-year-old Las Vegas resident.
On Friday afternoon, the couple’s teenage son ran from the Summerhill Pointe Apartments near Sahara Avenue and Fort Apache Road to a nearby gas station to call 911 for help for his mother, Zvjezdana Bencun.
Officers had to climb through an open bedroom window, where they found Bencun on a bed bleeding from a head injury. Lying beside her was her 37-year-old husband, later identified as Slobodan Miljus, who was conscious but did not immediately respond to officers’ commands, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. He eventually complied and was taken into custody.
The Clark County coroner’s office determined that she died of blunt force injuries to the head and ruled her death a homicide.
The woman’s son told police that he believed his father hit his mother with an aluminum baseball bat, which police found inside the apartment. Miljus remained held without bail Monday at the Clark County Detention Center on one count of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon.
A GoFundMe account created by Bencun’s cousin, Dragana Trifkovic, states that the “loving mother” worked two jobs to provide for her sons, identified by the fundraiser as 13-year-old Zoran and 6-year-old Goran.
The boys were being cared for by their grandfather, according to the fundraiser.
No other details were immediately available, although police on Friday said that police had dealt with the couple in February during another domestic disturbance call at a different apartment complex.
Miljus is expected to appear in Las Vegas Justice Court on Tuesday, jail records show.
Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.
