For more than half a century, a set of bones found in the Nevada desert sat in a file as an unnamed homicide victim. Now, Las Vegas investigators say those remains belong to Anna Sylvia Just, a Canadian woman from Calgary who vanished in the late 1960s. The identification followed a cross-border push by Calgary cold-case detectives who tracked down Just’s elderly sister and secured a familial DNA sample that matched the long-unidentified remains. Metro detectives say the death was ruled a homicide and that they believe union boss Thomas Hanley and his son played a role in the killing.
How the remains were found and ruled a homicide
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, investigators opened a missing person report in 1968 after a suitcase and personal items tied to Just were discovered in the desert near Henderson. On June 7, 1970, children playing in the area found skeletal remains buried about a mile from where the luggage had turned up. The Clark County coroner determined that Just died from blunt force trauma to the skull, ruled the case a homicide, and kept the file open when the remains could not be identified at the time.
Genetic genealogy breaks the case
As outlined by the Calgary Police Service, the city’s Historical Homicide team reopened Just’s file and in October 2024 contacted the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department after records suggested she might have been in southern Nevada. Calgary detectives located Just’s then-95-year-old sister in November 2024, obtained a DNA sample with her consent, and used investigative genetic genealogy to compare it with the Nevada remains. The techniques produced a match in October 2025, finally giving the victim a name.
What investigators say they learned
LVMPD Homicide Unit detective Jarrod Grimmett told News 3 Las Vegas that Just “came to Vegas, got caught up in the lifestyle of the gambling and the fast paced lifestyle here at the time.” Grimmett said that one of Hanley’s associates later gave police what he described as a “personal account” of the killing and tried to guide officers to a burial site…