Suspect in taxi driver slaying wore wig when arrested
Autumn Dawn Murry was wearing a wig early Friday morning when Las Vegas police arrested her in connection with the recent fatal shooting of a taxi driver.
Detectives found Murry, 21, at her older sister’s apartment near Paradise Road and Twain Avenue. During a search of the residence, investigators found two Greyhound bus tickets from Las Vegas to Denver with a departure time for that morning, according to a police report obtained Monday.
Murry was initially identified by police as a young man. The assessment was based on video footage from the taxi that showed a short-haired person who shared her likeness.
She faces a recommended charge of murder with a deadly weapon in the March 4 slaying of Las Vegan Tesfaye Arze. The 30-year-old victim was found dead at 3:34 a.m. outside his running cab in the 6300 block of High Sierra Avenue, near Mount Hood Street and Carey Avenue.
Murry also faces two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon and is being held without bail in the Clark County Detention Center.
Police are still searching for a second person who was in Arze’s cab shortly before the shooting, according to the video. She was identified as 18-year-old Felicia Mosley.
A spokeswoman with the Nevada Taxicab Authority said Arze had been a cabdriver for three months.
According to the police report, Arze was robbed of $224.60.
The report said Murry is a suspect in another robbery, at a convenience store on the 4500 block of East Russell Road, near Mountain Vista Street, about an hour before police discovered Arze’s body.
Five hundred dollars was taken during that robbery, the report said.
"Murry entered the business, approached the clerk, produced a silver and black semiautomatic handgun from her front right waistband area and aimed it at the clerk," the report said.
On Thursday, police interviewed the store clerk who was robbed and he identified Murry in a photo lineup as the suspect.
Through surveillance video and cooperating witnesses, police were able to pinpoint Murry’s movements shortly before and during the shooting, the report said.
Police said the store robbery occurred about 2:20 a.m. Surveillance showed Arze’s cab at Sam’s Town, about four miles northwest of the convenience store at 3:12 a.m. Police said the taxi video showed Murry and another woman entering Arze’s cab at 3:13 a.m.
Arze was found dead about 11 miles northwest of Sam’s Town.
Two witnesses told police they were in a car and looked east on High Sierra Avenue when they saw a taxi stop several houses from them. The witnesses told police they saw two people standing near the rear of the cab, then heard three gunshots and saw one person fall to the ground.
The witnesses sped away, scared they were going to be shot, the report said.
The street Arze’s body was discovered on was one block away from an address identified on Murry’s driver’s license as her residence.
A longtime friend of Murry’s told police that on March 9 Murry disclosed that she and a woman identified only as Felicia fought and scuffled with a taxi driver because they didn’t want to pay the fare. The friend told police Murry said she then shot the cabdriver in the head, according to the report.
Several of Murry’s family members who spoke with police identified Murry as the woman seen in the taxi’s surveillance footage.
Murry’s father told police he was distraught when he saw media coverage of Arze’s slaying and suspected his daughter was involved.
The report said, "His heart sank because he thought it was Autumn."
Contact reporter Antonio Planas at aplanas@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638.
