Killing came as no shock

Seventy-six-year-old Charles Petrovic was mean, neighbors said.

He was just mean.

So when he answered the door to Las Vegas police officers Wednesday night, his clothes bloodstained and his 70-year-old live-in girlfriend barely alive inside, neighbors weren't surprised.

"When my son came home and told me about all the (police) cars outside, I knew right then and there, he finally finished her off," said a neighbor, Frank, who didn't want to give his last name for fear of retribution.

Officers were responding to a 911 call somebody made about 8:30 p.m. from the house at 3113 Serrano Ave., near Cheyenne Avenue and Buffalo Drive in Desert Shores. The call had been disconnected.

When officers arrived, they heard screams and yelling coming from the well-kept one-story home.

Inside, officers found 70-year-old Loretta Naumann stabbed by Petrovic, police said. She was taken to University Medical Center, where she died a short time later.

Neighbors said Petrovic was abusive, both verbally and physically, to Naumann. He told his neighbors he was a former New York City police officer, and he would walk around with a badge to prove it.

Police had been to the house several times over the past couple of years, neighbors said.

According to Las Vegas Justice Court files, Petrovic has a court appearance in February in a felony case. The details of that case weren't available late Thursday afternoon.

Ron French, who lives across the street from the house Petrovic and Naumann owned together, said Petrovic "talked to everybody in the neighborhood."

But when it came to Naumann, "he talked about her like a dog all the time," French said. "She said he was abusive."

One man who said he was friends with Naumann said Petrovic didn't hide the fact that he had contempt for his girlfriend.

"He would tell you to your face, 'I'm going to kill that bitch one of these days,'" the man said.

"He was the meanest man I ever met," he added. "She didn't have a chance in hell against him."

A next-door neighbor said the woman was helpless against Petrovic.

"She was a nice person -- a lot better person than he was," the neighbor said. "She was a battered woman. She was beat up all the time."

Police arrested Petrovic on Thursday. He is being held without bail for murder with a deadly weapon at the Clark County Detention Center.

Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at lmower@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440.