In the early morning hours of June 24, 2009, the quiet of a vacant desert lot in Las Vegas was broken by the discovery of a young man's body. The deceased was identified as 18-year-old Michael Guerrero, a Hispanic male. He had been fatally shot. His body was found near the 2600 block of Holly Avenue, in the vicinity of Vegas Drive and Simmons Street. The tragic event marked another instance of youth violence that was a growing concern in the area at the time.
As the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department began their investigation, they started to piece together the events that led to Guerrero's death. Their inquiry soon focused on a person of interest, someone unexpectedly close to the victim. Authorities identified a 15-year-old friend of Guerrero, Kevin Alejandro Vargas, as the primary suspect in the shooting. The motive behind the killing remained under investigation, with police exploring whether it was the result of a personal dispute or potentially gang-related activity.
The case took a turn when Vargas's family reported him missing on the very same night of the shooting. This led investigators to believe that Vargas had fled following the incident. Law enforcement officials released a description of Vargas, noting he was Hispanic, stood at 5 feet tall, weighed 140 pounds, and had a distinctive tattoo of a star with the name "Vargas" on his right shoulder. Believing he may have escaped to Southern California or even crossed the border into Mexico, police also circulated a composite image showing what Vargas would look like as a 19-year-old in an effort to generate public leads. Despite the initial disappearance of the suspect, the case was eventually marked as solved.
