TWO ‘PERSONS OF INTEREST’ WANTED IN DEAD TODDLER CASE

Las Vegas police are seeking two “persons of interest” in connection with the dead toddler found Wednesday in a trash bin near the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Homicide Lt. Lew Roberts said police believe Darrean Williams, 20, is the mother of the girl dubbed “Baby Jane Vista Doe.” Police also want to speak with Williams’ boyfriend, William Marshall, 37.

“We’re just about positive these are going to be the suspects,” Roberts said. The baby girl died from blunt-force trauma to her head, Roberts said. Police are devoting a lot of manpower to finding Williams and Marshall, he said. Police said Baby Jane was between 18 to 24 months old.

The Clark County coroner hadn’t identified the baby Thursday. Police wouldn’t release her name.

“We’re going to go full-court press on this one,” Roberts said. “Child deaths are probably the worst cases you can work. The kids can’t defend themselves. She couldn’t defend herself.”

“Baby Jane Vista Doe” was found Wednesday behind the La Mesa Apartments at 560 Sierra Vista Drive, near Swenson Street and Desert Inn Road.

Two homeless men discovered her tiny body while rummaging through the trash. She was wrapped in a sheet and wearing a diaper. She had been dead for no longer than a day and possibly only a few hours, police said.

In an effort to learn her identity, police released her photo, showing her with closed eyes. Roberts said Williams and Marshall became “persons of interest” after calls poured in to police saying the two had been recently seen with the baby. So far, there are no witnesses to the slaying or the dumping, Roberts said.

He added there is a “strong possibility” that Marshall was Williams’ pimp.

Residents at La Mesa Apartments said Thursday afternoon they remember seeing Williams and Marshall at the complex.

Tenant Carl Belanger, 49, said he saw Marshall and Williams entering the complex on Monday afternoon. They were carrying bags, he said, and his first thought was that they were had returned from grocery shopping.

But when they made between five and six more trips back and forth from the parking lot to their apartment, he became suspicious, especially after the police showed up on Wednesday.

“I thought they might have sneaked moving out,” Belanger said.

When he remembered that he hadn’t seen the baby with them on Monday, his thoughts darkened.

“I wondered, 'Man, had they been moving it (the baby’s body)?’ ”

Roberts said Williams and Marshall might have fled.

Another resident, Barbara Willis, said she last saw Williams on Sunday. She said she had the baby outside in a stroller and was loudly yelling at someone in the apartment. Willis believed it was Marshall. She said Williams went into the apartment, put on some flip flops and left.

Willis said whenever she saw Williams, the woman didn’t look “really with it.”

Several residents said Williams and Marshall had a contentious relationship. Police said Marshall has no local criminal history. Williams was cited for consuming alcohol as a minor earlier this year, police said.

A makeshift memorial has gone up in the complex parking lot near four industrial trash bins in memory of “Baby Jane Vista Doe.” Several candles decorated with religious figures surrounded nine stuffed animals in front of a poster board with messages scrolled in marker. One of them read: “Baby you will be remembered and prayed for.”

The discovery of Baby Jane was reminiscent of the 2006 discovery of a 3-year-old girl in a trash bin in a southeast valley apartment complex.

Police dubbed her “Jane Cordova Doe,” for the Villa Cordova Apartments where she was found. Weeks later, police identified her as Crystal Figueroa.

Crystal’s mother and her boyfriend were arrested and received life sentences for the slaying.

Also in 2006, a dead baby girl was found in the trash processing area of The Mirage. Detectives learned the mother was a 16-year-old girl who concealed her pregnancy, panicked, and threw out her stillborn infant.

On Mother’s Day 2008, a newborn boy was discovered inside a bathroom trash can at the Excalibur hotel. The baby’s umbilical cord was still attached to his body. Police have not determined who was responsible for dumping the body.

La Mesa resident Willis, who is a mother of five children, now adults, said if Williams and Marshall are responsible for the girl’s death, they should be punished severely.

“I’d like to see them arrested and hung for this,” she said. “How the hell can you wrap a baby in a sheet and throw it away?”

Anyone with information on the case is urged to call the Las Vegas police Homicide Section at 828-3521 or Crime Stoppers at 385-5555.

Review-Journal reporter Mike Blasky contributed to this report. Contact reporter Antonio Planas at aplanas@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638.