Who Killed Chrissy?: The True Crime Memoir of a Pittsburgh girl's Unsolved Murder in Las Vegas

by Simcic, Beverly

  I remember reading the autopsy report that came from you at Chris’s funeral. I only remember that at the end it said “inconclusive”…I realize you’re very busy; I have the greatest respect for what you do, and I thank you in advance for your help.

  Sincerely,

  Beverly Simcic

  Here is the response I received from Dr. Wecht:

  Dear Ms. Simcic:

  The Las Vegas Coroner should have done appropriate testing to determine if there had been a possible sexual assault. I doubt very much that any materials are still around to be tested for DNA now.

  I'm sorry that I cannot shed more light on this matter for you.

  Sincerely,

  Cyril H. Wecht, M.D., J.D.

  Early on in my investigation, I dug out a famous cold case detective named David Hatch, who is a retired Las Vegas detective and author. I was hoping that maybe he had been involved in Chris’s investigation back in 1982. He was not, and the only light he could shed on the subject for me was that without the family’s cooperation I wouldn’t be able to access any files on the case. He also reiterated that the files may have been shredded long ago.

  One of the first contacts I had with the LVPD was a woman named Pat Janjetovic, a supervisor with the records department who told me that she was certain there was a file, but that it was buried somewhere in an old warehouse. I was excited to hear this. Pat told me that she would have to recruit someone to go there and dig through the files and see what they could find. She then informed me that she had found someone willing to do her a favor and go to the warehouse. I never heard from her again and my phone calls were ignored.

  I found Kent Clifford, who served as the commander of the LVPD until 1983, and questioned his memory on the case. He remembered nothing and offered no assistance.

  Chuck Werner told me that Chris’s body was identified with dental records based mainly on the fact that she had two false front teeth.

  SIXTEEN: QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

  “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” (Letters to a Young Poet 35)

  –Rainer Maria Rilke

  Did you personally travel out to Las Vegas to research this book?

  No, I did not, and for various reasons, but mainly because I am still emotionally stunted about returning there. Maybe one day I will face that fear.

  Ultimately, I don’t believe I would have found out more information by going to Vegas.

  Did you interview surviving family members and to what degree?

  Yes I did, and they shared information with me that I cannot verify or hold as truth. I always had an underlying feeling that they were interviewing me to see what I knew. The other feeling I had all along was that they had a complete lack of empathy towards my years of fear and suffering and my purpose in writing this book, which I had to overlook and keep on writing so I could complete my story.

  How do you feel about Chris today?

  I am truly sorry for the family’s loss and have always been. Chris was full of the zest for life that some people never experience. She had tremendous passion and curiosity, and although she was misguided, manipulated, and misused by certain individuals in her young life, she was still a victim in all of this, a victim of people who prey on innocent girls from a young age and recruit them for their own subversive intentions. I did learn many things from the interviews with surviving family members, and I believe they are correct in their theories that Chris was targeted in her early teens by predatory individuals or monsters if you will.

  Why is there only one photograph of Chris in this book?

  It’s the only one I own and I took the photo in front of the Riverview Apartments. I wasn’t offered any other photographs by surviving family members. Chuck Werner in-formed me that he had one photo of Chris, which Marty asked him for and he gave it to him. Some of the people I interviewed from the North Side that grew up with Chris offered me childhood photos, which I declined due to feeling it would also invade the family’s privacy.

  You’re making it sound like the family didn’t want this book written. Were the surviving family members against you writing this book?

  There were many emotions and opinions from the family. I was never given a solid answer on how they felt about it. I can only give you what I feel about it, and that is I walked away confused and incomplete about their true feelings. There is nothing more to say about it. I have always felt that people’s request for privacy is important in life and one must honor it.

  Do you think that the family suspected you were involved?

  I asked that question directly to the family member who gave me the revenge killing theory, and they said, “Yes, everyone was suspect back then. We didn’t feel you were directly involved, but possibly indirectly through someone else.” I personally had always felt that, but my nature is a little different from theirs. I would have tried to sit and hear the person’s story and determine for myself whether they were telling the truth or not. That’s just my way of thinking. Eye to eye contact with people usually reveals much.

  The intense feeling that I’ve carried around with me all these years is one of comparison. I asked myself what my family would have done, and the only answer I have for that is that they would have pursued all angles, all people, and all stories until dead ends were reached. They would have wanted to know every single little detail, and especially from the person (I), who was the only person from Pittsburgh who last spoke with Chris before she was murdered. I do believe though that Chris’s family was divided, and to what degree I don’t know.

  Yes, I have often wondered if things would have been any different if the family had chosen to contact me and ask me for my story. I will never know what they knew, what they found out or what they theorized because they are secretive.

  What are your feelings about the warnings, the

  premonitions you experienced?

  Truly, I believe that most people do not pay attention to what I refer to as synchronicities in daily life. I was no exception. I did not think of it or recall it until I brought silence into my life when first being inspired to write. Then and only then did I start to have flashbacks of the real feelings, what happened and how things happened. When that happened for me it made the experience even more frightening, because then I started wondering why I was spared from being murdered, too. I convinced myself that I had been spared. The other side of it told me that I should have paid more attention to what was happening with the warnings, meaning I should have tried to sit Chris down and tell her that there were warnings and premonitions and that she should heed them. I didn’t feel at the time though that anything strange was happening, I dismissed all of it as gut reactions, quirks or coincidences. I don’t feel that way today. I strongly believe there was divine intervention, and I often wonder if Chris herself had experienced any warnings herself that she ignored, as I did.

  Have you had any other premonitions or experiences in your life?

  Yes I have. I had one in 1978 that seemed very odd to me, but it definitely took me back when it happened, because I did not understand for the life of me why it happened.

  I was at an old theater in Pittsburgh with friends, watching a live performance of a local band. The lead singer of the band was closing the show with a tribute to Elvis Presley; he was dressed like him and handing out silk scarves to the audience. I was watching his face while he was singing and suddenly a grayish mask seemed to cover his face. It looked like a real mask. I had to blink my eyes several times because I thought I was seeing things. His name was Sonny DiNunzio from the group, The Fenways, in Pittsburgh. A few weeks later I heard that he had been killed in a ca
r accident. Friends have said I saw the death mask. This hasn’t happened since, but it was pretty bizarre when it did. This guy was a total stranger to me; I’d never seen nor met him before this.

  Aside from the death mask incident, nothing really stands out for me, maybe a few small things, but I’ve always felt that I was an empath my entire life, and I still feel that today.

  Will you write another book to continue the story of your life after Vegas?

  I’m thinking about it. Most of us tend to believe that our stories aren’t interesting enough to tell, and I’m no exception. I haven’t decided if mine is or isn’t—maybe.

  How do you feel having completed the telling of your story?

  I feel wonderful. The best description I can give is that it empties you out inside, and you feel like you’ve dumped it on the rest of world for continuation and investigation. I believe with all my heart that Christine Casilio was murdered. I still feel strongly about my first assumption that Fred robbed and killed her for her jewelry, which is a simple conclusion, but has always been my first gut feeling because he had attempted to rob me.

  Did you attempt to find Fred?

  No, because I never knew his last name. That would have been revealed in the police report which I did not have.

  Did Chris’s fur coat ever turn up?

  No. Not to my knowledge, and according to family members, it did not. No one was sure who exactly cleaned out her apartment in Pittsburgh after she died.

  What was your own personal mystery for the last thirty years?

  For me it was the opening and closing of the drapes in Chris’s apartment. I saw it happen, and I remember my shock when the detectives told me she was dead and decomposed. I knew that it had to have been Fred because he was the only one around who knew I was trying to find her, and he was the one manipulating the drapes opened and closed in order to have the appearance that she was still alive in the apartment—and to delay the discovery of the body.

  What was the most shocking revelation for you during your investigation?

  That the family always believed it was my idea to go to Vegas was number one. Number two was that Chris’s death was never investigated as a homicide. I described the crime scene to several police detective friends and asked them if they walked in on a scene like this would they feel inclined to think it was murder or an accident. Not one person told me they felt there was anything accidental in this scene. It was homicide and should have been pursued as one.

  The other important thing to remember here is the initial newspaper article that used the words SLAIN and MURDERED. This tells me that the police detectives used those exact words; otherwise, the reporter wouldn’t have known what the headline should be for the body that was found at Woodbridge, nor would he know what to say in the article. This convinces me that the investigating detectives called it murder from the second they found the body. Armed with that knowledge, one cannot help feeling some kind of conspiracy or negligence here.

  What do you feel you learned from the telling of your story?

  I learned quite a bit. I learned that people are often anxious to judge other people based on appearances, lifestyles, gossip and innuendo. I learned much of this from Chris’s family who conveyed to me their personal feelings about why Chris went to Vegas and what her intentions were. All of which they did not hear from anyone credible, and quite possibly from the murderer himself. I was appalled and saddened by this discovery but personally attribute it to self-righteousness.

  I learned that Chris’s life was flawed and scarred from early childhood, which put a target on her head, as I said earlier. Seasoned predators recognize these scarred people when they are at a young, vulnerable age and set their sights on them.

  I learned—or was more or less jarred into—obsessive protection of my own child in life. Evil lurks around every corner, and you must teach this to your children and hold them close, always. Of course, I have friends who disagree with that stance on protective obsession of your children, but that’s okay. I insist on my way. I believe we are all products of our experiences in life. If we don’t learn from them we are doomed to repeat the mistakes.

  Most importantly, I learned that Chris was a victim. She did not cause or bring on any of this herself. She was simply a victim of a maniac. A victim is a victim. She was victimized by a predator, a monster, a person of no character or conscience.

  Does the Woodbridge Inn still exist in Las Vegas today?

  Yes, it does. If you use Google maps and search for 700 E. Flamingo Road in Las Vegas Nevada, you will pull up a great image of the entire apartment complex. It has changed names a few times, so I will not venture to say what name it has today.

  What are your feelings today about the premonitions or synchronicities that happened to you back in Las Vegas in 1982?

  I never thought of those things back then. I don’t think many of us do. I think that as we age we develop a more spiritual outlook on life, and maybe that’s due to our experiences, our view of our past, or our search for answers on the why of it all. I think we’re all in search of why things happen to us, and we look for more meaning in our daily lives.

  I’ve learned through the writing of this book that I have intuitive gifts, always have, but never recognized them. I also believe everyone has them, but some choose to either ignore them or not recognize them because of other religious beliefs or other societal taboos. I have expanded on my gifts since realizing that I have them. I believe that embracing these gifts at some point releases your most inner feelings in life, and I’m learning from them. I pay attention to synchronicities now.

  Was there any one particular thing that really bothered you all these years----something that was a haunting mystery?

  Well, aside from the actual murder and all of its components, yes, I would have to say that there is one thing that I’ve thought of over and over through the years….

  The problem is my memory of this. I have vague memories of being in Chris’s apartment and her showing me her hiding spots for cash money and jewelry. I remember the inside of a closet and a floor board, but I don’t know if that’s accurate. It’s a very vague memory.

  But if it is a true memory, I’ve often thought that there might be undiscovered clues there to this day, if she had never shown the spot to anyone else, namely Marty. If she had shown it to him, I am sure he would have cleaned out her secret stash.

  EPILOGUE

  In our personal lives, blaming the victim most often arises from the need to deny that we ourselves could be vulnerable. In order to avoid confronting our own fear of powerlessness, we assume that the victim had the power to prevent what happened. Since they did not, we reason that we are smarter, stronger, more together and luckier than they are, and so what happened to them would never happen to us. This gives us a sense of control over our lives, but it is done at the expense of compassion. We can then become smug and judgmental, feeling superior to the victim.

  –Annabeth Meister