Woman found dead in husband’s car at Henderson casino identified
A series of cryptic phone calls on Saturday led Crystal Lynn Felipe’s family to her south Las Vegas Valley home, where they found a pool of blood in the garage.
“You won’t see us anymore. She’s seeing someone,” the woman’s husband, Willie Bain, told her sister at about 8 p.m. Saturday before hanging up, according to his arrest report. “Come get the kids.”
When Felipe’s sister and brother arrived at the couple’s home on the 800 block of Patagonia Ridge Avenue, they found the three young children safe but alone in the house. While grabbing the kids’ shoes in the garage, they noticed the blood and called 911.
Detectives who responded to the couple’s home “immediately noticed a large bloody area on the garage floor,” according to Bain’s arrest report. An hourslong manhunt followed.
As police searched for Bain and the couple’s white 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe SUV, which was missing from the garage, the 42-year-old man drove with his wife’s body in the trunk of the vehicle, police said. He eventually parked the car across town in the parking lot of Fiesta Henderson, 777 Lake Mead Parkway, police said.
Before calling 911 to turn himself in at about 11:30 p.m., Bain pulled his wife’s body out of the trunk. Felipe, 42, died of multiple blunt force injuries, according to the Clark County coroner’s office. Her death was ruled a homicide on Tuesday.
While on the phone with the police dispatcher, according to his arrest report, Bain admitted to bludgeoning Felipe with a hammer. His wife’s body lay lifeless on the ground next to him, police said.
“I beat her in the head,” he said. “I don’t know if she’s alive.”
He was taken into custody in the hotel-casino’s parking lot within five minutes of the 911 call, the report said.
In an interview with police early Sunday, Bain said he “just cracked” after an argument with Felipe escalated. He believed she was cheating on him because she left him home with the kids “while she went out with other guys,” according to the report.
As he cried, Bain told police numerous times, “I can’t believe I did that. This isn’t like me. I couldn’t take it anymore.”
He is being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center on one count of murder with a deadly weapon.
According to Las Vegas Review-Journal records, Felipe’s death marked the 32nd homicide investigated by Metro this year, and the Police Department’s ninth domestic-related killing.
Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.