Gruesome details emerge in Vegas dancer’s death
VIDEO - Jason Griffith, 32, told police he killed Deborah Flores-Narvaez, 31, in the heat of the moment after an argument at his home Dec. 12...
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The former boyfriend of a slain Las Vegas burlesque dancer is accused of choking her, chopping off her legs, then encasing her naked body in concrete, according to an arrest report released Monday.
Jason Griffith, 32, told police he killed Deborah Flores-Narvaez, 31, in the heat of the moment after an argument at his home Dec. 12. He was arrested Friday after police found her body in a downtown Las Vegas home.
Griffith was due in court Wednesday to face a murder charge. His lawyer, Patrick McDonald, didn’t immediately respond Monday to a message.
Griffith told police she attacked him and forced him to do what he did, but refused to provide an official statement without his lawyer present.
Flores-Narvaez was reported missing Dec. 14 after she didn’t show up for a rehearsal at the burlesque show “Fantasy” at the Luxor hotel-casino, where she had worked for a year. Her roommate and co-worker told police Flores-Narvaez never missed rehearsals or performances without giving notice.
The gruesome details of her alleged murder follow her family’s monthlong search for her in Las Vegas.
Flores-Narvaez told friends she was going over to Griffith’s house on Dec. 12 to watch “Dexter,” a cable show about a serial killer.
She and Griffith were arguing that night at his home when he began to choke her, Griffith’s friend, Louis Colombo, told police. Colombo said he left the apartment and returned hours later to find Griffith shaken up.
Flores-Narvaez’s dead body was lying on Griffith’s floor, according to the arrest report.
Colombo helped Griffith encase her body with concrete in a plastic tub, then rented a truck from a U-Haul to move the tub to the home of some friends who were out of the country, police said.
But Colombo told police that the tub began leaking, forcing the two to return days later with tools to remove the body and dismember it. Her body and legs were placed in two bags, which were then encased in concrete and hid in containers in a closet, he said.
Colombo led police to the body Friday after he was questioned. Investigators found chucks of concrete throughout the home and swaths of dark hair.
Police records show Florez-Narvaez, a brunette, and Griffith had a rocky past. Flores-Narvaez and Griffith had been dating for about a year when police responded to a domestic violence call involving the couple on Oct. 22.
She told police that she was pregnant with Griffith’s child when he stole her iPhone, pushed her down on the ground, kicked her and pulled out her hair. Griffith told police the couple had been in an argument, but denied hitting her.
Griffith had been reported as suicidal by a friend on Nov. 8, and was treated at a hospital. The arrest report showed that he asked another former girlfriend if she could help him get a gun after Flores-Narvaez’ death, saying his domestic-violence arrest made it impossible for him to legally buy a gun.
Flores-Narvaez gave up a career in finance to move to Las Vegas to become a dancer two years ago. She previously lived in Maryland, where she served as an ambassador for the Washington Redskins in 2007, a non-performing position.
Celeste Flores-Narvaez, the dancer’s older sister, has been in Las Vegas for the past month to search for her only sibling. She said the family planned to send the body to Puerto Rico, where the sisters were born.
“Our minds, souls and spirits have been ripped and taken,” Celeste Flores-Narvaez wrote Sunday on the website she started to help track her sister. “No one thinks something like this could ever happen to a family member, loved one or friend but it has happened.”
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
