The Henderson Police Department announced Monday that it had closed a cold case involving the homicide of Vicki Radig, a 20-year-old woman in 1981.
According to multiple social media posts, Radig was a student at Boulder City High School in the class of 1977.
Police reported that in March 1981, a relative of Vicki Radig reported her missing after she did not return home from work.
Radig had reportedly gone out with her boyfriend, identified as Walter Bradley DeMint, and had not been seen since, police said.
DeMint told family members that he and Radig had an argument, and she ran off.
Two days later, Radig’s body was discovered in a desert area near the 900 block of Boulder Highway, authorities said.
She died from blunt and sharp force trauma, and her death was ruled a homicide, police said in a news release.
According to police, from the onset of the investigation, DeMint was considered a person of interest in the case.
Throughout the investigation, DeMint’s account of events was inconsistent with his original statement. But at the time, investigators did not have sufficient evidence to support criminal charges, police said.
In 2021, the police department’s cold case homicide unit submitted for forensic testing DNA found on swabs taken from Radig as part of the investigation. DeMint was identified as a DNA contributor, the release stated.
In 2022 and 2023, police said all additional items were submitted for forensic testing and indicated no DNA profiles were attributable to any individuals other than DeMint or Radig.
The Clark County district attorney’s office reviewed the case and concurred that DeMint was the “only viable suspect identified in the case.”
DeMint died in 2007, police said. Had he been alive today, the department said, he could have faced one count of open murder.
“Radig’s family has been notified of these developments and continues to be supported in this case,” Henderson police said.
One Facebook user reported that she remembered Radig from high school. “Vicki was a classmate of mine in Boulder City,” she wrote. “She was a very nice, pretty, gentle, quiet girl. This was such a terrible loss and I am glad they have solved it. My thoughts and prayers are with the family. She is gone but not forgotten.”
Other Boulder City residents including Julie Murray and Donna Vogel Isenhower reported that Radig was in their graduating class with Murray confirming that via a 1977 BCHS yearbook.