Woman’s death 30 years ago remains a mystery

“Who killed Chrissy?” is the question Beverly Simcic explores in her book about a friend’s mysterious death in Las Vegas more than 30 years ago.

But is Simcic asking the right question? Was her friend really murdered?

It certainly seemed so — at first.

Christine Casilio, 22, died in the bathtub of a dumpy off-Strip apartment on June 25, 1982. Newspaper articles called her death a murder.

“The slaying was unusual in that the woman was found lying against the bathtub in her bathroom with her head submerged in the tub filled with water,” stated a Las Vegas Sun article published a day after the body was found. “Cause of death was not immediately apparent but a large amount of blood in the bathtub water indicated she may have suffered a massive head wound of some type, police said.”

Simcic was living in the same Las Vegas apartment complex when Casilio died, but they were not speaking, a fact that still haunts Simcic.

Could she have saved her friend’s life? Or would she be dead?

“The entire premise of this book was the feeling I had for so many years that something saved me from being murdered, too,” Simcic said.

The young friends, both from Pittsburgh, had traveled to Las Vegas a few weeks earlier for a spontaneous vacation.

The trip was just a quick getaway for Simcic, a single mother just entering her 30s. But it might have been the start of a new life for Casilio, who Simcic described as sporty and confident, but ignorant about the dangers that sometimes follow young, adventurous folks experiencing a new city.

Although the pair initially had the old-fashioned Vegas vacation — lounging by the pool at Caesars Palace, watching a boxing match — after a few days they migrated off-Strip to the cheap apartments at 700 E. Flamingo Road known then as Woodbridge Inn, it’s now a Siegel Suites.

The pair had a falling out about a week after the move to Woodbridge, and Casilio moved to a different apartment in the complex and stopped speaking to Simcic. Days later, a maintenance worker discovered the body after smelling a foul odor. Casilio had been dead about a week.

Simcic’s book, published last year, is more of a memoir than a true crime novel.

There was no arrest to document, no courtroom scene to detail and no resolution for the dead girl’s family. There may not have even been a crime.

Medical examiners with the Clark County coroner’s office could not determine Casilio’s cause of death, despite the suspicious circumstances.

Las Vegas police never classified her death as a homicide and kept no records of the investigation, a fact Simcic discovered while researching the case.

Las Vegas police officials never responded to the Review-Journal’s request for information on the case.

Simcic was interviewed by Las Vegas detectives the morning Casilio was found and told them her theories. A mysterious boxer named “Fred,” who knew where the girls lived, had tried to rob Simcic a few days before Casilio died. Had “Fred” broken into Casilio’s apartment?

She also told police that a jealous boyfriend from Pittsburgh might have flown in to confront Casilio, who had ambitions of starting a health club in Las Vegas and leaving her old life behind.

But those are just theories, and Simcic knows the truth may never be revealed.

She believes “Fred” killed Casilio and doubts her death was a suicide or accident.

“Hell no,” she said. “This is a girl who was flying high on ego, and she had a lot of confidence in herself. She was not a suicide victim. She’s not that type of personality.”

Casilio’s sister said she appreciated Simcic’s book, even if answers were not revealed.

The family paid for a second autopsy when Casilio’s body was flown back to Pittsburgh, but the results were still unclear, sister Cindy O’Brien said. She contacted the coroner’s office last week to request her sister’s case file.

O’Brien has contemplated exhuming her sister’s body to gather possible forensic evidence for new tests, but isn’t sure the procedure would be helpful.

“I would actually have to have some reasonable hope that something good will come of it,” she said. “It’s an extreme step to have a body exhumed.”

O’Brien said her family never traveled to Las Vegas to investigate her sister’s death. She wonders if the death would have been treated differently by authorities if Casilio had stronger roots in Las Vegas.

“I really do feel this whole case was just swept under the rug,” O’Brien said. “This case went from being reported in the newspaper as a murder, and then the coroner couldn’t determine a cause of death. But there was no further investigation. I think it’s irresponsible.”

Contact reporter Mike Blasky at mblasky@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283. Follow @blasky on Twitter.