Police ID woman accused of killing manicurist over $35
Las Vegas -- A 21-year-old Las Vegas woman was being sought Thursday for allegedly using a stolen car to run over and kill a Las Vegas nail salon owner who chased her last weekend for failing to pay for a $35 manicure, police said.
Las Vegas police released storefront security video footage of the Saturday afternoon incident along with a plea for information on the whereabouts of the suspect, Krystal Whipple.
The video shows Ngoc Q. Nguyen, 51, of Garden Grove, California, jumping in front of a black sedan before being dragged beneath the car as it speeds away.
Homicide Lt. Ray Spencer said Whipple tried to pay for her manicure with a fraudulent credit card and told Nguyen and her husband that she was going to her car to get cash before beginning to drive away.
The husband can be seen in the security footage holding onto the vehicle from behind.
Sonny Chung, who said he lived with Nguyen for 13 years, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he tried in vain to stop the suspect. "I tried to hold the car back, but I'm not Superman," Chung told the newspaper. "She ran off for $35 and killed my wife — $35 to run my wife over."
Police said the car was a rental that had been stolen last month and was later found abandoned at a nearby apartment complex.
Whipple was convicted in 2017 in Las Vegas of attempted possession of a stolen vehicle, according to Clark County District Court records. She was sentenced to four months in jail last year for violating probation in that case.
An attorney who represented Whipple in that case did not immediately respond Thursday to messages.
A GoFundMe page for Nguyen, which said she was the mother of 3 girls, has raised more than $20,000.
