Daughter of murdered woman continues quest for justice during visit to Las Vegas
Oregon resident Michelle Perkins’ 11-year fight for justice brought her back to Las Vegas last week.
Perkins’ biological mother, Jan Sites, was murdered by her husband in 2005, before Perkins had a chance to meet her. Now Perkins is on a mission to keep the killer locked up.
She begged Nevada Parole Board members Wednesday afternoon to deny parole for William Sites, now 78. Perkins, who was adopted as an infant, had only begun to form a relationship with her mother before her death.
“My life has changed dramatically since inmate Sites murdered my mother,” she told the Parole Board.
Sites killed his 60-year-old wife, dismembered her body and dumped the remains in trash bins throughout his apartment complex.
He told police his wife had been belittling him during an argument. He said she tried to attack him with a knife, but he pushed her, and her head hit a statue, causing her to bleed to death.
In another interview, he told police he had hit her on the head at least once with a hammer he had pulled from under the bed.
Perkins said Wednesday she learned he had killed her mother while she sat in a recliner and left her corpse there for three days. Sites then bought a hacksaw with his wife’s debit card at Home Depot and cut up her body in the hallway bathroom. He bagged the body parts, then scattered them in trash bins as he walked their dog Molly.
When Parole Board Chairwoman Connie Bisbee asked Sites why he murdered his wife in a “horribly violent way,” he said he was “a very angry, very introverted, very emotionally immature individual.”
Sites, who participated in the videoconferenced hearing from the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City, told the board he now understands that people create their own realities.
“Since being in prison, I’ve figured out how to regress in the right direction,” he said.
Sites pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, theft and destroying evidence. Prosecutors couldn’t pursue the death penalty, because the body was never recovered.
If Sites is paroled on the murder charge, for which he received a sentence of 10 years to life, he would have to serve an additional sentence of two to five years for the theft charge. The board is expected to make a decision within about two weeks.
“As long as he has the option of getting parole, I’ll be here fighting it,” Perkins told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Perkins, 47, was given up for adoption at birth and did not reconnect with her biological mother until November 2004, when they began communicating through letters, emails and phone calls.
Jan Sites sent her daughter photos of family members the younger woman had never met or known about.
“My mother helped me find my biological father,” Perkins said. She eventually met him face to face.
Perkins thought she would be able to form a bond with her mother that would last for the rest of her life, but her mother disappeared after 11 months.
“I wanted to be able to look her in the eye, reach out and touch her, hug her,” Perkins said. “I will never have that opportunity, and she will never get to know her grandchildren.”
Perkins said her mission now is to seek justice for her mother and advocate for women in abusive relationships.
“My mother had marital issues that I knew nothing about,” Perkins said.
She volunteers at a domestic violence shelter in Oregon.
“It’s my heart because of my mom. I wish my mom would have known about DV shelters,” she said. “I wish she was brave enough to leave.”
Police believe Jan Sites died Oct. 8, 2005.
William Sites worked as an independent contractor for the Review-Journal from June to October 2006, when Las Vegas police arrested him in the murder case. He ran replacement newspapers out to subscribers who had missed deliveries.
Contact Raven Jackson at rjackson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @ravenmjackson on Twitter.
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