What happened to Lucille Payne?
This April, police found the 82-year-old’s mummified remains buried in the backyard of her Las Vegas home, according to KLAS-TV.
Payne purchased the Shore Breeze Drive home where she was found in 1999. She lived alone with no close relatives, said investigators.
Authorities say Payne died in 2018. Her neighbors told reporters that her home was apparently empty for years. Payne’s bills were on autopay, so no red flags were raised when she passed.
Over the summer, the Clark County Coroner’s Office determined that Payne’s death was the result of blunt force trauma and sharp force injuries. At the time, her death was ruled a homicide.
However, Payne’s cause and manner of death have since been changed to undetermined. The change came after evidence showed she had been dead for years.
According to KLAS-TV, Payne’s body sat in a chair from the time of her death until squatters discovered it earlier this year. These squatters decided to dismember her already deceased body and bury it.
“After finding her, the decision was made between several people that they were going to dismember her body and bury her and then basically drain her finances and sell off her belongings, fraudulently,” Metro homicide Lt. Ray Spencer said.
After years of living near an abandoned home, next-door neighbors started to hear digging at the property.
“She was not buried very deeply, and an officer started to move the dirt and found her arm inside a very shallow grave in the backyard,” Spencer said.
The squatters, whose names have not been released, also managed to sell Payne’s car. They now face charges for selling items that did not belong to them and improper burial.
Payne’s estate is selling the Shore Breeze Drive home.
According to KLAS-TV, an Amazon package addressed to a man with a May shipping date was at the property’s front door Wednesday. A lawyer for the estate said that day that a photo of Payne was not available.
“There’s been so much work to do to make sure we uncovered every potential possibility that had occurred,” Spencer said.
Related
Related
