Las Vegas police: Woman stole casket with body inside
Police have accused a woman of stealing a casket with a body inside from a Las Vegas funeral home.
The Metropolitan Police Department alleges in an arrest report that Patricia Sierra, 47, of Las Vegas, broke into a funeral home at 2127 W. Charleston Blvd. on Aug. 27 and removed the body of Maria Ramirez, a woman who had died on Aug. 13 and for whom a viewing was held the day before the burglary.
Affordable Cremation & Burial Service is located at that address. Prosecutors listed the business in a criminal complaint as Lover of Family Affordable Cremation.
A woman who answered the phone Wednesday at Affordable Cremation declined to comment.
Sierra faces charges of burglary of a business, grand larceny and removing, transferring or disturbing human remains. Police said she told them she was blacked out from drinking six beers and could not remember why she took the casket.
It was a passerby who made the grisly discovery, according to police.
Marcus Kelly told police he was driving by the business when he noticed a casket in the street. Kelly, a security guard, decided to check if the funeral home had been burglarized.
As he approached the business, he found Ramirez lying in the landscaping and called Metro, police said.
An officer who responded found her body face down on rocks near the front walkway. A door was open and had broken glass. Inside, a trail of rose petals led out the door.
Surveillance video showed a woman wearing black leggings and a black tank top, police said. She broke a window, police alleged, then reached through it to open a door.
Police said she brought the $2,595 casket out the front door and made multiple trips in and out of the building before leaving the scene.
On Aug. 29, an officer responded to a report of a suspicious person at a 7-Eleven at 3001 S. Valley View Blvd. made by a person who “observed the suspect who had stolen a casket from their funeral home recently,” according to the arrest report.
Police detained the woman, who identified herself as Patricia Sierra. Metro said she told a detective she has a substance abuse problem and “blacks out.”
She also said that “she has anger issues and becomes destructive when under the influence of controlled substances.”
Sierra claimed not to remember the body-and-casket theft, but she acknowledged being the person in the video and was “apologetic,” according to police.
Her bail was initially set at $11,000. Clark County Detention Center records indicated she was still in custody Wednesday afternoon.
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X. RJ Español editor Laura Anaya-Morga contributed to this report.
