Man kept elderly couple’s bodies in west valley storage for years, prosecutors say

An elderly couple’s bodies rotted in trash bins for a decade, Las Vegas prosecutors said Wednesday, while Robert Dixon Dunn cashed their social security checks.

Dunn, 52, is suspected of killing Joaquin Sierra and Eleanor Sierra in 2003 and stealing more than $200,000 from their federal benefits. The Sierras’ mummified remains were found in April in a trash bin inside a storage unit in the west valley.

Dunn has been indicted on two counts of murder, two counts of robbery and 11 counts of theft in the deaths, and prosecutors stopped just shy of saying they believe he may have killed others. Prosecutors also said Wednesday that they plan to file a notice of intent to seek the death penalty against Dunn.

Authorities found the couple’s remains in a unit at All Storage at the Lakes, 2949 Lake East Dr. The last time anyone saw them alive was 2003, prosecutors said. Joaquin Sierra would have been 97 and Eleanor Sierra 93 when their bodies were discovered.

Dunn believed the Sierras had no extended family, but shortly before they disappeared, while living in Reno, the couple had reached out to their closest relative, a great-niece, and asked her for money, saying they had been robbed.

That’s when Dunn moved the Sierras to Las Vegas, prosecutors said.

“He now knows he’s got a problem,” prosecutor David Stanton said. “That is: his victims-to-be actually have someone who can check on them. And we think that leads the motivation for him to kill them.”

Dunn had moved around in the more than 10 years before he was arrested, living in Pennsylvania, New York and California.

Using the alias Robert Bligh, he married a woman in 2008, and even mentioned the Sierras’ bodies. He told her the Sierras were his “rich aunt and uncle,” who had killed themselves by taking prescription medications, according to a police report.

Dunn separated from the woman, who had been to the storage unit and did not see the trash bins.

But later another “concerned citizen” contacted authorities after learning that Dunn was cashing checks from an elderly couple and suspected fraud, Stanton said.

Agents from the Secret Service and the Social Security Administration Office launched an investigation and ran across Dunn’s former wife, who told them his story about the entombed bodies.

Authorities obtained a search warrant.

Behind two end tables, a stack of boxes and books inside the 5-foot by 10-foot air-conditioned unit, one of the trash cans was leaking.

One federal agent recognized the smell and called homicide detectives.

Dunn had folded the couple’s bodies into garbage bins, pouring cat litter inside to mask the smell. He sealed the bins with wax and wrapped them in duct tape.

“If you imagine how a mummy would be wrapped, that’s the way these trash cans are,” Stanton said.

Dunn’s defense attorney, Amy Feliciano, with the Clark County Public Defender’s Office, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Authorities believe Dunn also defrauded three other elderly people until they died while he collected benefits meant for the Sierras.

The Sierras were not known to have suffered from any significant health problems or dementia.

But the other three people Dunn is suspected of stealing from all had health issues.

“They all die within a relatively short time of interacting with Mr. Dunn,” Stanton said. “Part of the problem is, none of (the deaths) were ever investigated by law enforcement because they didn’t know what they were dealing with. To find out if any of those deaths were suspicious in nature, at this juncture is going to be difficult, if not an impossible task.”

Dunn first befriended the Sierras at a nursing home in California, where his mother also stayed, according to Stanton. He usurped “both by physical and psychological trauma” the couple’s financial affairs, Stanton said, and collected $2,000 a month in federal benefits for upwards of 10 years.

Three years after meeting them, he and the couple moved to Reno. Sometime in early 2003, Dunn moved the couple to Las Vegas.

And that’s the year authorities believe the Sierras were killed.

Both suffered puncture wounds to the chest, and the same amount of sedatives were found in their bodies, leading authorities to believe he may have sedated them before the killings.

“(Dunn) goes 11 years in a somewhat moderately sophisticated theft plan,” Stanton said, “and then obviously taking great efforts and means to keep the bodies from being discovered.”

Dunn has three prior felony convictions, including one for an assault on his mother more than 20 years ago, Stanton said. Dunn’s two other convictions were related to a theft from his brother, an attorney in California.

Stanton called Dunn a “prolific grifter” and someone who “preys on elderly people and is frequently and often violent.”

Dunn was in a California jail on theft charges when Las Vegas detectives first interviewed him.

He told police he last saw the Sierras in 2006, and spoke with them as recently as 2013, long after authorities believe they were dead.

“He doesn’t know he’s talking to homicide detectives,” Stanton said. “He knows they’re detectives from Las Vegas, and they’re investigating something involving a theft from the Sierras.”

Dunn told the detectives about several storage units he rented, according to Stanton, but more than an hour into the interview he never mentioned the one in west Las Vegas.

“Oh yeah, that’s got my mom’s stuff in it,” he said.

Police had already seen the bodies.

“Would it surprise you to know that me and my partner have been in that storage unit?” a detective asked.

Silence.

“Yeah,” Dunn said. “That would surprise me.”

The detective asked Dunn if he wanted to change anything about his story, knowing what the investigators found.

“No,” Dunn said. “I want a lawyer.”

Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker