Annie Royale Suazo, also listed in several sources as Anne Suazo or Anne Suazo-Cheney, was 50 years old when she disappeared from North Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 3, 2001. She was a white woman with red or auburn hair, blue eyes, pierced ears, and a small build, listed at about 5 feet to 5 feet 1 inch tall and approximately 110 pounds. At that point in her life, she had separated from her husband and was living with her adult daughter, Bethany Rodriguez.
She worked as a clerk at See’s Candies in the Meadows Mall, and her regular routines and contact with family made her sudden silence immediately alarming to those who loved her.
After her separation, Annie began a relationship with Michael Messick, a younger man who worked as a pizza delivery driver. According to case summaries, Bethany was concerned about the relationship and believed Messick’s attention to Annie seemed tied to Annie’s paychecks. In the early morning hours of April 3, 2001, Bethany reportedly discovered that Messick had been allowed into the residence, and she and her mother argued briefly about his presence. Annie then left with Messick in her minivan at about 6:00 a.m. She did not report to work later that morning and was never heard from again. Another missing-person organization describes the same general sequence more simply: Messick came to the home where Annie was staying, he and Annie argued, and Annie said she would take him to his mother’s home and return, but she never came back.
Annie’s family quickly understood that something was wrong. Sources say it was unlike her to leave without maintaining contact, and her relatives reported her missing on April 6, 2001. Her minivan was later found abandoned along Charleston Boulevard near Antelope Way. Investigators examined stains inside the vehicle and noted signs that the vehicle appeared to have been cleaned; Annie’s son also reported that items such as floor mats, a towel, and a steering wheel cover were missing from the van. Early testing reportedly found that some stains in the van were not blood, but the abandoned and cleaned vehicle deepened concern about what had happened after Annie left home.
The investigation soon became tied to another tragedy. Messick lived with his mother, Hisayo Miller, and police later found Miller deceased in her condominium. Newspaper coverage from 2001 reported that North Las Vegas detectives still had not located Annie and that she had last been seen getting into her vehicle with Messick one week before Miller’s death. Messick told police he had dropped Annie off near Boulder Highway, but authorities and prosecutors later focused on evidence they said connected him to both women. In 2003, prosecutors argued that DNA evidence linked Messick to the killings and that both victims’ blood was found in his car, while the defense argued that the state lacked eyewitnesses, fingerprint evidence, and a clear motive.
A jury ultimately convicted Michael Messick in the killing of Hisayo Miller and in the death of Annie Suazo, even though Annie’s body had not been found. The Nevada Supreme Court’s order states that Messick was convicted of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon for killing his mother and second-degree murder for killing his girlfriend, Annie Suazo. For Annie’s death, he received a consecutive life sentence with parole eligibility after ten years. In 2005, the Nevada Supreme Court rejected his appeal, concluding that the two cases had been properly tried together because of the relationships among Messick and the victims, the short time between Annie’s disappearance and Miller’s murder, and the trace of Annie’s blood discovered in Messick’s vehicle during the investigation.
Although the criminal case produced a conviction, Annie’s family was left with a painful absence because her remains were not recovered. Her case stands as both a missing-person case and a no-body homicide conviction: a woman disappeared after leaving home with someone she knew, her family recognized quickly that her silence was not normal, her van was found abandoned and apparently cleaned, investigators later connected her disappearance to a broader homicide investigation, and the man last associated with her was convicted in her death. The overview of Annie Royale Suazo’s case is that she vanished from North Las Vegas on April 3, 2001, at age 50; her loved ones never saw or heard from her again; Michael Messick was later convicted of second-degree murder in her death; and the enduring sorrow of the case is that, despite the legal outcome, Annie herself was never brought home.Last Seen: Apr 3, 2001
