Dancing on Her Grave (4 page)

At Univision, we received a press release from the PIO’s office asking us to please stop speculating. “It could confuse the family,” it read.

Indeed, the very next day brought another wave of uncertainty to the investigation; after concluding the formal autopsy, the medical examiner determined that the body found in rural Arizona was
not
that of Debora Flores-Narvaez, the Las Vegas dancer who had
disappeared almost two weeks prior, the coroner’s office stated that Friday. The body belonged to a woman who owned an illegal brothel located in a residential area in Las Vegas. (While prostitution is legal in some nearby counties, like Nye County, where I once did a story about a brothel that hired the first male prostitute in Nevada, it is illegal in Clark County.) Apparently, two of the women’s employees were later convicted of killing her. The motive: debt.

Almost two weeks had now passed since Debbie Flores had been reported missing after the thirty-one-year-old dancer had failed to show up for her evening rehearsal. There were national headlines about the case, along with renewed pleas by family as well as police, calling out to the community in hopes of finding the young woman. Tips were flooding in, but there were no viable leads.

By now, investigators had questioned several people and conducted a search of the home of Debbie’s ex-boyfriend, fellow Vegas dancer Jason “Blu” Griffith. He was cooperating fully with police, but aside from Debbie’s abandoned Chevrolet Prizm with its license plates removed and the grim discovery near Lake Mead that had turned out to be unrelated, there were no other leads in the case.

Griffith told detectives that Debbie had visited him at his home on the night she went missing. He added that
they’d only had a brief conversation and that he had spoken to her through her car window and then she had left, and had seemed okay.

When Debbie first went missing, Celeste started to make the usual phone calls, to all of Debbie’s friends. And invariably she would get the same empty reply: No, I haven’t heard from her recently.

The older sister then got on her computer, thinking she needed to keep track of what everyone said, and keep a record of it.

She first phoned Debbie’s ex-boyfriend, Jason Griffith, from her car, on January 5, 2011. And after the initial questions, she told him: “Look, Jason, I’m stuck in traffic right now. Do you mind if I call you in twenty minutes?”

Griffith was polite, but in retrospect it struck Celeste as strange how calm and nonchalant his demeanor was when everyone else around Debora seemed to be so alarmed. “I thought, after speaking with him as I got out of the car, something is not right here,” she told me as she recalled this incident.

Through his attorney Patrick McDonald, who represented Griffith in the felony domestic violence charge from the incident that occurred that past October 21, 2010, Griffith volunteered for an interview with detectives, stating he was “very concerned about [Debora’s] whereabouts and well-being.” But Celeste was
particularly taken aback by the discrepancies in the various accounts, not only of their relationship, but of her sister’s last hours.

“Debbie’s roommate told me, she left their house to go over to Jason’s to watch
Dexter,
” Celeste said, referring to the gory but popular TV series about the serial killer who hunts and kills other serial killers. It is a particularly bloody show. The rehearsal was late at night, so Debbie had some time in between. But Griffith had told her that Debbie “went over there, knocked on the door, and she was very calm, although they were broken up by then. He said that she just left, and he didn’t know where she went.” It was Griffith’s characterization of her sister as “calm” that set off Celeste’s warning signs. “They had broken up and she just left? No, no, no. I knew she wasn’t going to just knock on the door and leave. She’s trying to make sure she can get back with
you
. My sister is very strong-minded and very independent, but sometimes you think you can change a person into being a better person. As Puerto Rican women, we don’t fail. We like to give a hundred percent. And sometimes, even though it’s the men’s fault, we try to blame ourselves. My sister, when she really cared about somebody, she fell head over heels. You really start to believe it, that it’s your fault.”

Celeste told us again about her first reactions upon
finding out her sister had gone missing, as well as what seemed a fruitless search for her, thus far.

“On Friday, I arrived in Las Vegas. It was December 17, my mom’s birthday! I got to Vegas at 3
P.M.
and the first thing I did was go to the detective’s office. They weren’t talking to me; they weren’t telling me anything. Finally, they told me they didn’t know anything, they hadn’t found anything. When I asked them about her car they told me they found a little makeup bag inside it. But that’s the only thing they told me. But then they did tell me they were going after the cell-phone records, the credit card trail, getting the prints on the car and the DNA. That’s all.”

On December 15, 2010, Detective Robert Garris had performed a records check on Jason Griffith, which revealed that he and Deborah Flores-Narvaez had a violent domestic relationship. Records showed three reports filed by the Las Vegas Metro Police Department. In one event, Griffith had been arrested for battery domestic violence and coercion, and in two events, Debora Flores-Narvaez was listed as the victim.

In the third event, however, Debbie was the suspect. On November 2, 2010, North Las Vegas Police Department patrol officers had responded to a domestic violence call at Griffith’s address on Russian Olive Street. Debora Flores-Narvaez informed responding patrol officers that she and Griffith had gotten into a verbal argument. No
report or charges were filed for this incident, for which she had been named suspect.

In the earlier incident where she was the victim, Debbie informed the patrol officers that on October 7, 2010, Griffith head butted her while she was sitting inside her vehicle. This head butt caused her to break the windshield lever located on the steering column.

Detectives viewed photographs taken by the crime scene analyst, which showed the broken windshield lever.

Debora Flores-Narvaez told the three officers who responded to her call that Griffith had assaulted her, both verbally and physically, when she went to the home of Agnes Roux, a dancer with
Zumanity
(one of the Cirque du Soleil shows) and Griffith’s lover at the time.

The first responder to arrive on the scene after Debbie made the call was Officer Ryan Rowberry. What he found were two vehicles parked one behind the other.

According to the police report, Debbie had gone to visit Agnes and had then followed Jason Griffith in her vehicle when the incident occurred.

It wasn’t noted if Agnes had invited Debbie over or if Debbie had gone to Agnes’s house of her own accord, wanting to catch Griffith there.

The officers also could not ascertain whether Debbie had rear-ended Griffith’s vehicle with her car, since there was no evidence of any dents.

During the October 21, 2010, incident, however,
Debora Flores-Narvaez told officers that she’d been inside her car when Griffith pulled open her driver’s side door and forcibly took her iPhone from her. During that altercation, she said he’d hit her chin with his elbow, then walked away from the scene, holding her cell phone, and got in his car and drove away.

Debbie Flores-Narvaez and Agnes Roux both followed Jason Griffith, each in her own vehicle.

When Griffith stopped, Debbie stopped, and so did Agnes. And then an argument ensued between Jason and Debbie that became violent when he threw her phone about a hundred feet away.

According to Griffith’s court testimony, he claimed not to have taken Debbie’s phone until she began to follow him and threatened him with calling the cops.

Debbie had told officers she ran the hundred feet to pick up the phone after Griffith threw it violently, and then he caught up with her, pushed her down on the ground, kicked her, and pulled her by the hair.

When the officers arrested Griffith for domestic violence and coercion, they did notice that Debbie Flores-Narvaez had bruises on both of her legs, and that a piece of her hair was missing from her scalp.

It seemed as though Debbie had recorded some incriminating evidence against Griffith on her cell phone, and according to her, it appeared that he had deleted
information from her cell phone. She definitely had threatened him with jail.

Jason Griffith appeared in court on December 22, 2010, to testify, but Debbie Flores-Narvaez did not, and could not appear to give her side of the story.

She had not been seen for ten
days.

The Headlines Turn Tragic

The news media descended on Las Vegas, the story making headlines at the local, national, and even international levels, especially given the glitz and glamour of the city. Also, and perhaps unfortunately, Debbie’s own career as a dancer—sometimes topless—made the news of her mysterious disappearance fodder for more sensational and scathing venues.

Everyone seemed to be interested in the “missing dancer’s case.” Univision (both local and national), the
Las Vegas Review-Journal
, the
Las Vegas Sun
, ABC, CBS, FOX, and CNN were all following her disappearance, as were cable news impresarios like Nancy Grace and Jane Velez-Mitchell.
People
magazine focused on the text message Debora had sent her mother with the headline
“Showgirl Sent Ominous Message Before Disappearance,” in their December 20, 2010, story. All of the networks saw it as a “sexy” story from Las Vegas. The term “sexy” is standard television jargon for a piece that has beauty, mystery, a love entanglement (preferably tumultuous), and yes, maybe murder. It was inevitable, if sadly ironic, that a story with all of the elements of Debora’s disappearance would be labeled “sexy.”

We at Univision were one of the first media outlets to start talking about the case, especially because the victim was a Hispanic woman and Univision is one of the main Spanish-language television venues in the United States (and in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and other Latin countries, as well as some countries in Europe). A producer from the Univision Network flew all the way from Miami to meet with us in Las Vegas. Typically, for a local newscast, the time allotted to each story is about one to two minutes maximum, since the newscast only lasts thirty minutes. But the international network show
Aquí y Ahora
, a
60 Minutes–
style
news magazine program, wanted us to do a feature and cover the story in-depth, so my production crew and I made sure we had up-to-the-minute details. The stories for
Aquí y Ahora
last about nine minutes each, so they take a lot of preproduction.

We had all the elements in place, meaning the interviews we needed. (We had Celeste’s interview, plus one from the police department’s public information officer
and another with a dancer who used to train Debbie. My producer, Wilma Román, a blond, green-eyed, and extremely professional woman, wanted to interview everyone who had ever met Debbie.) Our story was also featured on the international 5
P.M.
program on Univision,
Primer Impacto
,
another television news magazine format that also airs in-depth stories, and the first hard news of the day.
Primer Impacto
has the highest rating in its airtime, around 2.8 million viewers from coast to coast in the United States, and it dramatically increases throughout Latin America, Europe, and the Caribbean, which could bring it to 15 million viewers.

Per police reports, the timeline of events so far went as follows:

“On December 13 at 00.00 hours, Flores-Narvaez was a ‘no call no show’ for a scheduled rehearsal at the Luxor
FANTASY
show. Shannon Hammitt, an out of state friend of Debbie’s, was the first person to report her missing. Hammitt learned that Flores-Narvaez did not show up for the rehearsal or the performance. Hammitt became very concerned and called the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) to report Flores-Narvaez missing. Hammitt informed LVMPD dispatch that Flores-Narvaez was going to visit her ex-boyfriend, Jason Griffith, at his residence, on Russian Olive Street, North Las Vegas, Nevada. LVMPD patrol officers responded to the residence and made contact with Jason Griffith.
Griffith stated he last saw Flores-Narvaez on December 12 at 7
P.M.
Griffith informed the patrol officers that Flores-Narvaez was fine and she had driven away from his residence in her maroon 1997 Chevrolet Prizm.

“On December 14, 2010, Sonya Sonnenberg, who was Flores-Narvaez’s roommate, also called the LVMPD to report Flores-Narvaez and her vehicle missing. Sonnenberg stated that Flores-Narvaez was going over to watch the television show
Dexter
with her ex-boyfriend, Jason Griffith, at 8
P.M.
December 12. Sonnenberg provided Jason’s address.

“On December 15th, 2010, Detective Robert Garris went to Griffith’s residence and came in contact with him in the driveway. He was in the process of changing the right tire of his vehicle, a 2005 black Chevrolet Cobalt, 2-door, bearing Nevada personalized plates. Griffith had a problem making eye contact with Detective Garris and kept complaining he was in a hurry and needed to get to work. Griffith stated he made contact with Flores-Narvaez on Sunday, December 12, in the evening hours, and he said she never exited her car. Griffith said he spoke with Flores-Narvaez through the driver’s side window of her Chevrolet Prizm and she was alone in the car. Griffith described it as normal conversation and Flores-Narvaez left because she needed to go to rehearsal.”

The day after Debbie’s car was found abandoned on
December 17, 2010, the police department scheduled a press conference to make more formal statements about the case. They now confirmed that “foul play” was involved. The press room was full of reporters, cameras, and more questions than answers. Some people still thought Debbie might have disappeared on her own, maybe with an ex-boyfriend. That idea also crossed my mind, though Celeste’s adamant refusal to believe it left me with doubts as well.

Now we were only lacking an interview with Mia Guerrero, Debbie’s friend who had first reached out to me on Facebook, asking us to air a story about her missing friend.

I had called Mia on the phone several times, but since she worked nights as a dancer at the Tao Nightclub, one of the swankiest joints in Las Vegas, it was almost impossible to coordinate an interview until the weekend, when she’d have a couple of hours available in the afternoon. So on Saturday, January 8, 2011, we were on our way to Mia’s house, all the way north of Las Vegas, when I decided to check with the police sergeant on call for the weekend to find out if there was any new information on Debbie’s case.

There was.

Minutes after I paged the public information officer, I received a call from the sergeant. I explained to him that
I was working on a national story about Debora’s disappearance, that I only had one more interview to do, and then I would start writing my script.

The sergeant told me that Jason “Blu” Griffith had been arrested the night before, on January 7, as he was leaving the Mirage Hotel and Casino, where he worked as a performer in the Cirque du Soleil extravaganza
LOVE
.

When I asked on what charges Griffith had been arrested, the sergeant replied, “Homicide.”

He was very reluctant to give me any more information on the phone, but he answered my follow-up question, “So, if he’s arrested facing homicide charges, does that mean we have a body?” in the affirmative. He told me, “If you need more details, come to our press conference at 3
P.M.
”

The second I hung up the phone, I called my producer, who had already arrived at Mia’s house with the photographer. I asked her, “What do we do?” She spoke rapidly into the phone: “Just get here! We can break the news to her softly after the interview is over.”

When I arrived, I found Mia accompanied by her Army vet husband and her seven-year-old son. Once I settled into their modest but beautifully decorated, cozy home, I faced one of the most uncomfortable situations of my career. Images of somber cops on television trying to break the devastating news to the families of the deceased
flashed through my mind. A chasm was opening before me, separating me from Mia with my secret knowledge. I had to somehow fill the void with sound bites, force out empty words from behind my professional reporter’s mask.

I began by asking her about Debora and their friendship, and we talked about how Debbie had once organized a party for Mia’s birthday when her husband was away. But all the while what kept ringing in my head, like a death knell, was:
She is gone, she is gone, she is gone.

The interview lasted about a half hour. When it was over, I told her, “Mia, I have bad news. I spoke to the police, and they arrested Jason.” She looked at me with a quizzical yet knowing expression as I went on to say, “I assume Debbie is not with us anymore.”

Mia was silent for a moment. “I . . . am . . . speechless,” she finally said, pausing between each word. Then, through her sobs, came the words she had said to me before, as if trying to gather some lost pieces of her fellow dancer: “It’s not the image I have of her, always smiling, always such a happy person!”

At the 3
P.M.
press conference, our story changed in a matter of seconds. The case was no longer about the mystery of the missing Las Vegas dancer. It was about her murder.

The headlines turned
tragic.