Suspect arrested in slaying of 84-year-old Henderson woman

An 84-year-old woman was shot in the head inside of her apartment, which was ransacked and torched. Her jewelry, cash and wallet were missing from the apartment.

Left behind, however, were a set of footprints that helped the Henderson Police Department identify a suspect.

Partial footprints from a pair of Nike Air Jordan sneakers led officers Wednesday to arrest Vernon McClelland Jr., on suspicion of the July 6 shooting death of Donna McElfresh, according to an arrest report. McClelland, 29, faces charges of murder, first-degree arson and burglary.

“No known family members or persons allowed inside of the victim’s residence owns or wears this particular style of shoe,” the report said.

The prints left behind in McElfresh’s apartment at 501 E. Lake Mead Parkway, near Boulder Highway, matched the bottoms of the sneakers that security footage showed McClelland wearing at two pawn shops in the Las Vegas Valley within 48 hours of the killing, the report said.

Pawn shop receipts and an interview with McElfresh’s daughter, Daleyn McElfresh, indicated he had pawned her jewelry, the report said.

During a warranted search Tuesday of McClelland’s apartment, police discovered a pair of Air Jordans with “a very strong similar sole pattern” to the footprints found inside of her apartment.

Police and fire officials were initially called July 6 to a fire at McElfresh’s apartment. Emergency responders found her in the burning apartment with trauma to her head and face, police said.

A neighbor couldn’t get inside due to the heavy smoke. Two maintenance workers at the apartment complex responded due to the fire alarm and discovered McElfresh inside of her bedroom. They couldn’t find a pulse.

The Henderson Fire Department freed her from the apartment and doused the fire, but she ultimately died at St. Rose Dominican Hospital, de Lima campus. The Clark County coroner’s office said she died of a gunshot wound to the head.

Fire investigators determined the fire was intentionally lit, the report said. A burned towel was draped over the kitchen stove, and all four burner knobs from the kitchen stove had been set to “on.”

Police later noted the apartment appeared to have been ransacked; wooden drawers, jewelry and other belongings were piled in her bathroom tub. McElfresh was known to wear numerous pieces of jewelry, but she was missing “the majority of her bracelets and rings” at the time of her autopsy, the report said.

Through the course of their investigation, Henderson detectives learned McClelland was a relative of a family that lived in a nearby apartment. Police learned he would’ve likely known that McElfresh wore jewelry and lived alone, the arrest report said.

One of the relatives who lived there told McClelland she would be at jury duty the morning of July 6, the report said.

“Therefore, nobody would be home at her apartment at that time,” detectives noted in the report.

During the Tuesday search of McClelland’s Center Street apartment, police also found ammunition, a silver 9 mm handgun, costume jewelry necklaces and some clothing McClelland was seen wearing while at the pawn shops.

Additionally, detectives also matched the head stamp of a spent cartridge found in McElfresh’s bedroom to that of a live round loaded in McClellan’s silver handgun.

McClelland also faces burglary and stolen property related charges.

McElfresh’s death marked the fifth homicide in Henderson this year.

‘Honored’

Reached by phone Saturday, Daleyn McElfresh said she wants people to remember her mother as a loving and giving woman who was proud of her military background.

Donna McElfresh was born in Minneapolis, and enlisted in the military the day after she graduated high school, her fourth and only living daughter Daleyn McElfresh said. She served in both the Air Force and the Navy.

She bounced around the U.S. and had a stop in England before being stationed at Nellis Air Force Base, where Daleyn McElfresh was born 52 years ago. She lived in the Las Vegas Valley ever since.

The two spoke on the phone every single day, Daleyn McElfresh said, including the morning of her mother’s killing.

“I was honored to be her daughter,” she said.

Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Blake Apgar contributed to this report.