On January 4, 2017, 46-year-old Daniel Aldape, a homeless man, was found dead in an empty parking lot near Ogden Avenue and City Parkway in downtown Las Vegas. Aldape had been sleeping outside, wrapped in blankets, when he was brutally killed by a blow to the head with a blunt object, likely a hammer. His body was discovered the next morning, and the police immediately launched an investigation.
A month later, on February 3, 2017, a second homeless man, David Dunn, was found murdered in
a similar manner at the same intersection, leading authorities to suspect the possibility of a serial attacker targeting homeless individuals. To apprehend the perpetrator, the Las Vegas police set up a decoy mannequin that resembled a sleeping homeless person, fully covered with blankets, at the same location where Aldape had been killed. On February 22, 2017, Shane Schindler, a 30-year-old man, was caught on surveillance cameras attacking the mannequin with a hammer, believing it was a real person.
Schindler was subsequently arrested and charged with attempted murder, though he denied initially realizing that the figure was a decoy. Despite the strong evidence linking him to both Aldape's and Dunn's murders, Schindler was only prosecuted for the attack on the mannequin, avoiding direct charges for the homicides. He later pleaded guilty to attempted murder and received a sentence of 8 to 20 years in prison. Although Schindler's conviction brought some closure, questions about his motives and the full scope of his crimes remain unanswered.
