In the late hours of a Saturday in North Las Vegas, a grim discovery was made inside an apartment at the La Serena at the Parque complex. On September 13, 2014, 52-year-old Bonnie Marie Rice, a Caucasian female, was found deceased by a family member around 11 p.m. Responding officers from the North Las Vegas Police Department found evidence at the scene suggesting that her death was a homicide.
The Clark County coroner's office would later confirm that Rice had died from multiple gunshot and stab wounds.
The investigation into Rice's violent death quickly led to a person of interest who was acquainted with the victim. A few days after Rice's body was discovered, police arrested 44-year-old Christine Sanchez. Authorities alleged that Sanchez had been with Rice and, following the murder, fled the scene in the victim's car. Sanchez was subsequently found by police in Rice's vehicle and was booked on charges of murder with a deadly weapon and robbery with a deadly weapon. According to witness statements, Rice had loaned her car to Sanchez and had been attempting to get it back in the days leading up to her death. One friend of Rice's told investigators that she had never seen her more "afraid or rattled" than she was about Sanchez.
Despite the initial arrest and charges, the legal proceedings against Christine Sanchez took an unexpected turn. In early October 2014, prosecutors moved forward with the murder charge based on evidence and preliminary forensic tests. However, just weeks later, Sanchez was released from custody pending further investigation. The key reason for this development was that blood tests had failed to link Sanchez to the murder scene. The case remained open, but without sufficient evidence to proceed, the Clark County District Attorney's office voluntarily dismissed the charges against Sanchez in June 2017. Her attorney maintained her innocence throughout the legal process.
Following the dismissal, Christine Sanchez's name would reappear in the headlines in connection with another violent crime. In December 2017, she was arrested and accused of fatally shooting three of her roommates in a separate incident. The earlier murder case of Bonnie Rice, however, officially remained unresolved with the dismissal of the charges against the primary suspect.
