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Detectives use truck’s GPS to link roommates to murder

Detectives used a vehicle’s GPS and home surveillance footage to tie a pair of roommates to the shooting death of a 55-year-old man last month.

Mahogany Austin, 32, was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on Thursday on charges of open murder with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit murder and robbery with a deadly weapon, according to jail records.

Detectives believe Austin and her roommate, Demetrius Coleman, shot and killed Bryan O’Neal on Nov. 3 before wrapping his body, putting it in the backseat of his truck overnight and abandoning the vehicle, according to an arrest report from the Metropolitan Police Department released Tuesday.

O’Neal’s wife reported him missing Nov. 6 and told police she believed he was selling marijuana again. Officers found O’Neal in the backseat of his truck at USA Towing in North Las Vegas after a landlord reported it abandoned outside her building, police said.

Investigators used the car’s GPS to track it to Austin and Coleman’s apartment on Nov. 3, and neighbors showed police surveillance footage of three unidentified people carrying a body through the courtyard and into O’Neal’s truck overnight.

Inside the apartment detectives found bullet holes, a bloody couch and stain remover that was advertised as “effective on blood.”

Detectives believe the roommates robbed the man when he came over to sell them marijuana. His phone and wallet were never found.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia alerted Metro that Coleman and Austin were arrested Nov. 24 with drugs and a firearm, the report said. Investigators discovered Austin had pawned O’Neal’s wedding ring.

Austin is being held without bail and is scheduled to appear in court again Jan. 25.

It was unclear if Coleman was still in custody in Georgia, but a warrant was still outstanding in Las Vegas Justice Court on Tuesday.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.

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