Detectives seek tips 45 years after shooting death of Yellow Pages heiress near the Hoover Dam
Arizona detectives are seeking tips from the public more than four decades after a 25-year-old heiress was found shot to death near the Hoover Dam on the border between Nevada and Arizona.
It's been 45 years since the body of Marion Berry Ouma was found on an embankment near the highway, but no arrests have been made. Ouma inherited $40 million after her grandfather, Yellow Pages founder Loren Berry, died, said the Mohave County Sheriff's Office Special Investigation Unit, the agency investigating the cold case. The sheriff's office said Berry was worth $500 million and one of his grandsons pegged the company's value at almost $1 billion when it was sold.
Authorities found Ouma's body on Jan. 3, 1979. They believed she had been dead for less than 12 hours, said the Mohave County Sheriff's Office. An autopsy revealed that the victim had been shot in the head and abdomen with a .38 caliber weapon, but investigators didn't know her identity at the time.
More than two years later detectives were notified by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department that a private investigator from Ohio had possibly identified the victim, the sheriff's office said. The investigator showed a photo to detectives and the similarities were striking.
Detectives contacted Ouma's mother and stepfather, Elizabeth and Robert Gray, who identified the body. The identity was confirmed later with dental records and fingerprints. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told CBS News no missing person report was taken about Ouma when she disappeared.
Her parents told detectives that Ouma had gotten married in Africa, where she lived for a few years working as a physical education teacher. Authorities didn't provide clarification on whether the husband was a suspect or if he returned to the United States with Ouma. (Gray is Berry's daughter and sits on the family foundation's board.)
Detectives traveled to Las Vegas to conduct interviews and spoke with a bank employee who said Ouma had come into the bank on Nov. 28 and Dec. 13 to withdraw money from her savings account in Ohio. They then went to her home at Sierra Vista Apartments in Las Vegas, where the landlord told detectives she rented an apartment in November 1978 after arriving in a taxi with her belongings. A month later she was asked to vacate the apartment due to nonpayment of rent, the sheriff's office said.
Detectives described Ouma wearing green sweatpants and a dark blue short-sleeve blouse at the time of her death. She was around 5'5" and weighed 106 pounds and often wore her hair in a ponytail. Detectives said they are also looking for leads on a 1976-1977 powder blue Chevrolet Blazer or Ford Bronco seen in the area on the evening of the murder.
