Las Vegas Police Announce Major Break In Cold Cases

LAS VEGAS – The culprit in two 1990s Las Vegas cold cases was identified by police.

At a press conference Monday afternoon, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Homicide Section Lt. Jason Johansson delivered the announcement.

“One morning of December 1992,” Johansson started.” 31-year-old Lori Ann Perera was found in a deserted area in east Charleston. The woman was found nude with ligature marks and bound in both ankles, wrists, and also tape.”

Asphyxiation and strangling killed her, police claimed. The homicide division failed to identify the suspect, leaving the case cold for years.

Johansson exposes another January 11, 1994, female victim.

“The body of 35-year-old Pearl Wilson Ingram was found in a dumpster behind a Vons grocery store on east Charleston,” he said. “She was found nude waist down, and the cause of death was strangulation.”

Johansson said that in 2007, a sperm fraction from a DNA swab retrieved at the autopsy for Perera’s murder identified an unknown DNA profile.

In 2012, Johansson reviewed Ingram’s case. The LVMPD Homicide Section found that the same suspect committed both homicides.

“Ultimately, in 2022 provided funds by the Vegas Justice League helped identify who the suspect was,” he said.

Eddie Snowden Jr. is the suspect. Police stated he lived in East Charleston’s 2800 block. He lived in Fresno and nearby from the 1950s until the 1970s.

LVMPD investigators obtained Snowden Jr.’s family member’s DNA from Fresno Police.

The sample proved Ingram and Perera were raped.

“No arrests will be made because of Snowden Jr. died of natural causes in February of 2017 in Las Vegas,” Johansson stated. Johansson suggested examining additional cold cases with similar facts.

Johansson’s sister spoke after her.

“Thank you to the cold case unit, to families, thank you for the much-needed closure,” she started. “To the garbage man who found my sister, ‘thank you,’ it has been a long 28 years.”

The sister thanks the suspect’s family and new technologies for this.

“I’d like to say, if there are any other family members – keep hope alive, keep God first, you too can have your closure,” she said.

Johansson concluded the media conference by thanking the Homicide Section, LVMPD forensics labs, Fresno Police Department, and Vegas Justice League for their cooperation in finding justice for all homicide victims and closure.

Credits: KTNV