Traffic stop helped police find suspects in woman’s death

When Las Vegas police homicide detectives walked into Room 20 of a Traveler's Inn on East Fremont Street March 11, they found a crime scene stripped nearly bare of evidence.

All of the toiletries in the motel room were gone. Cigarette ashes were on the floor, but there were no cigarette butts or ashtrays. The wastebaskets were missing. An odor of cleaning materials, possibly bleach, lingered in the room.

The only evidence remaining was a purse and the body of 44-year-old Teresa McCoy, which was wrapped in two shower curtains, a bedspread and two strands of Christmas tree lights and left on the floor.

She had been strangled.

It seemed like a tough case. What detectives didn't know at the time was that one of their suspects already had been caught.

At 2:30 a.m. that day, a patrol officer had spotted a stolen Hyundai driven by 29-year-old Douglas Wynne down the street from the motel. The officer pulled Wynne over, arrested him on several traffic warrants and impounded the car.

The evidence that the detectives were looking for was inside. It took a few days before they pinned him down as a suspect.

The victim, an Ohio native, was new to Las Vegas, homicide Lt. Lew Roberts said. McCoy probably fell into a risky lifestyle here -- drugs and alcohol, he said. Last year, she was arrested near downtown for possessing a stolen vehicle.

Detectives began piecing together a profile of McCoy. They canvassed the area, interviewed people who knew her and learned that she was seen in the last few days with two people, Roberts said.

They identified the person who rented the room at the Traveler's Inn as 23-year-old Patricia McDermott, an Indiana woman who fled a court-ordered drug treatment program, removed her electronic monitoring bracelet and came to Las Vegas.

Four days after McCoy was slain, McDermott turned herself into police in Indiana. In the booking process she listed her boyfriend, Wynne, as her emergency contact, according to an arrest report.

With that, detectives discovered Wynne had been arrested on traffic warrants the same day McCoy's body was discovered.

Roberts said the diligence of the patrol officer in spotting the stolen vehicle was crucial in solving the case.

"That was a key component to solving it," Roberts said. "That was huge, and you don't see that all the time."

Police recovered a suitcase, duffel bags and three plastic grocery bags from the vehicle's legal owner, who had reclaimed the Hyundai from the impound lot.

Inside the bags, police found paperwork belonging to McCoy, McDermott and Wynne, an empty bottle of Clorox bleach, blood-stained clothing; hair, a broken fingernail and a hacksaw.

Police found Wynne on Tuesday and booked him on charges of murder, kidnapping and robbery. McDermott is being held in Indiana and is also expected to face murder charges, Roberts said.

Investigators think robbery might have been the primary motive for the killing, Roberts said. Surveillance cameras recorded the couple using McCoy's credit cards at an Albertsons grocery store and at a Wells Fargo bank, police said.

Department spokesman Bill Cassell said the officer's traffic stop helped the case and highlighted the dangers that officers face while making such stops.

"This officer didn't know that he was stopping a person who might have hours before committed a homicide," Cassell said.

"And that's what we deal with every day when we're making stops."

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