Long blood trail found after man’s killing near Las Vegas trail

Police said they found a blood trail over 1,700 feet long along the Flamingo Arroyo Trail in the east valley after a man was stabbed and later died near the trail.

The Metropolitan Police Department arrested 46-year-old Elvis Ruvalcaba on Friday in connection to the death of Joseph Benavente, who was found dead on May 25 in the 2600 block of South Lamb Boulevard near the trail.

The Clark County coroner’s office determined Benevente died from a stab wound to the neck and that his death was a homicide. Police said Benevente was seen acting “crazy” by people in a homeless camp near the trail before his death.

While investigating the crime scene, police said they found a blood trail several hundred feet west of the scene that continued west along the trail for 1,715 feet, the report said. The last blood drop was found under the U.S. Highway 95 overpass along the trail that police believe was from an injury Ruvalcaba sustained during the homicide.

Police later found a stab wound on Ruvalcaba’s left hand during a DNA search the day of his arrest, according to the report.

The report states police spoke with a man on Friday who said he saw Ruvalcaba the night of the homicide with his girlfriend at a trailer near the crime scene. The girlfriend told Ruvalcaba that there was a guy on the trail behind the trailer who had assaulted her in the past, and the two later jumped over a wall to the trail, the man said.

Ruvalcaba told the man the day after the homicide and on the day of his arrest that he was “hot,” or on the run, the man said.

In a police interview the day of his arrest, Ruvalcaba said that he had been at a trailer the night of the homicide to buy drugs, but did not know details about any fight or stabbing that night.

Ruvalcaba was charged with open murder and is expected back in court on June 17.

Contact Taylor Lane at tlane@reviewjournal.com.