Who beat this Filipino caretaker to death? Elenita Ablao, 59, a Filipino woman, was working a quiet Sunday shift at a licensed group-care home in Las Vegas on December 30, 2012, when the calm broke into violence. Police were called to the single-story residence on West Washington Avenue, near Valley View Boulevard, and found Ablao and an 82-year-old resident, Henry Namett, dead from severe head wounds consistent with a hammer attack.
The setting was a small assisted-living environment where caregivers came and went each day, a place neighbors described as typically uneventful until the sudden commotion that afternoon.
Detectives quickly focused on another resident of the home, David Hamilton Settle, who was discovered inside wearing only a diaper, with injuries to his ankles and head suggestive of a failed suicide attempt. According to the arrest report, Settle told investigators he struck each victim in the head more than twenty times with a hammer. The brutality of the scene, and his own account, left little doubt about what had happened in the tight confines of the group home.
Settle was arrested that day on two counts of murder with use of a deadly weapon. In the weeks that followed, a judge delayed proceedings to allow for competency and psychological evaluations, after his attorney said Settle showed signs of a condition related to Alzheimer’s disease. News coverage at the time reported no clear motive for the killings; the legal narrative centered on Settle’s mental status, his custodial detention without bail, and the court’s effort to determine whether he could stand trial. Later summaries of the case noted that Settle admitted to the hammer attack; some characterized the matter as resolved, though contemporaneous public reports did not detail a final adjudication.
Ablao’s death left a shockwave in a home meant to be a refuge. Obituary notices marked the passing of a caregiver remembered by family and friends, and the address itself entered the local lore of tragedy. The case remains a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities within small residential care settings, where the line between sanctuary and danger can hinge on a single resident’s sudden turn.
