Preliminary hearing set for suspect in Las Vegas woman’s 1991 death
The suspect in a Las Vegas woman’s 1991 death is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing in two weeks.
According to Las Vegas police records, Dale Bryant, now 63, recently admitted to cold-case investigators that he killed Carol Bishop, 50, in her home.
Bishop was found dead by her boss, Tom Ballard, on Nov. 15, 1991, after failing to report to work.
“She was a good employee, always on time,” Ballard told the Las Vegas Review-Journal this week. “It wasn’t like her to not show up.”
Ballard walked to Bishop’s nearby residence from the convenience store where they both worked and knocked on the door. When no one answered, he discovered the door was unlocked and went inside.
“I looked left into the bedroom and saw a knife sticking out of her back,” Ballard said.
The Clark County coroner ruled Bishop died from a stab wound to the chest and massive blunt trauma to the face.
When Ballard called police, a dispatcher asked if she was still alive, but Ballard did not check and left the residence, fearful that the killer might still be there.
In 2012, the case was reviewed as a part of a grant-funded initiative to solve cold cases. Bryant’s fingerprints matched prints found on a shot glass and bottle of peppermint schnapps in Bishop’s house, according to a police report
Bryant is serving a life sentence without parole for a murder in Arkansas in 1992. He was booked Monday into the Clark County Detention Center on the new murder charge.
On Thursday morning, Bryant sat in a wheelchair in Las Vegas Justice Court as his preliminary hearing was set for March 20.
Contact Lawren Linehan at llinehan@reviewjournal.com or at 702-383-0381. Follow @lawrenlinehan on Twitter. Contact Brooke Wanser at bwanser@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Bwanser_LVRJ on Twitter.