Cold case breakthrough as killer who strangled Las Vegas woman in 1994 identified

A local group of volunteers helped solve a Las Vegas woman’s murder 30 year after she was killed .

On Oct. 22, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department announced they were able to identify Arthur Joseph Lavery as the suspect in the murder of Melonie White . White was 27 years old when hikers found her body near Lake Mead National Recreation Area, around 10 miles east of Las Vegas, on August 27, 1994, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a news release .

An autopsy ruled the cause of her death as homicide with evidence of strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head, according to police. Police tracked down multiple leads, but no suspect was ever identified and the case went cold , leaving her grieving family with no answers for decades.

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