In the summer of 2018, the life of Cheri Louise Anaya, a 32-year-old Black/African American woman from Bakersfield, California, came to a tragic end in Las Vegas, Nevada. On the morning of July 14, her two young children, both under the age of 10, made a devastating discovery in the southeast Las Vegas Valley home of their father and her ex-boyfriend, Christopher Gerard Caggiano.
They found their mother unresponsive in a bedroom and placed a call to 911.
The Clark County Coroner's Office would later determine that Anaya died from gunshot wounds to her head and neck. An examination also revealed she had suffered blunt force trauma to the head and had bruising on her face. The night before her body was found, Anaya and Caggiano, a 41-year-old Nevada corrections officer, had been heard arguing by their children and neighbors. Anaya and her children had been staying with Caggiano for the summer since the school year had ended.
The primary suspect in Anaya's death was immediately identified as Christopher Caggiano. After his children discovered their mother's body, they attempted to contact their father by phone and text message but received no reply. In the wake of the discovery, police could not locate Caggiano. Investigators at the scene found a ripped-up photograph of the couple in a trash can.
The search for Caggiano came to a somber conclusion four days later, on July 18, 2018. He was found deceased inside his white Nissan Rogue in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. The cause of his death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Bannock County coroner estimated that Caggiano had died on July 14, the same day that Cheri Anaya's body was discovered by their children. The tragic events left Anaya's two children orphaned, to be cared for by her family.
