60 years later, Nevada homicide victim identified as missing Calgary woman

Nearly 60 years after she went missing in the Nevada desert, a Calgary woman’s remains have been identified, but the circumstances surrounding her death remain murky.

Anna Sylvia Just was initially reported missing by her sister after she was last seen boarding a bus in Calgary on Aug. 17, 1966.

She was 29 years old at the time.

Two years later, Las Vegas police filed a missing person report for Just after her belongings were found near the city of Henderson, Nev., around 26 kilometres outside of the Gambling Capital of the World.

But it would be more than half a century before DNA technology would allow investigators to make the connection between that woman who boarded a bus on the Prairies with the victim in the Mojave Desert.

“We recognize how difficult it must have been for Anna’s family to wait decades for these answers,” Calgary Police Service (CPS) Staff Sgt. Sean Gregson said at a press conference Wednesday.

Last year, the Calgary Police Service’s Historical Homicide Team came across Just’s case while investigating other unsolved files of missing women. Investigators found Just was not listed on any local, national or international databases, Gregson said.

“Hard copy documents and retention policies were very different back then,” he said. “So some of that information over this long time has been lost.”

Investigators then contacted the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and learned Just was believed to be the victim of a homicide, but her remains had never been located.

CPS also began looking for any living relatives of Just who could provide a DNA sample. Gregson said they located Just’s sister, a 97-year-old Calgarian, last November, and collected her DNA before submitting it with Just’s missing person profile to international databases, including the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs).

Last month, Las Vegas police alerted CPS detectives that a match had been found.

Connection to gaming union leader

Just worked as a stenographer and lived in Calgary’s southwest neighbourhood of Richmond, according to local newspaper articles from the time of her disappearance. 

On March 6, 1968, the Calgary Herald reported several of Just’s belongings were found outside of Las Vegas. Three hikers spotted a purse handle sticking out of the ground. It contained a plane ticket, a passport and some human hair. Other personal effects were found close by, including clothing and a bloodstained cloth.

Las Vegas homicide detectives also uncovered the skeleton of a woman more than 100 kilometres outside of the city, but after comparing it to medical files of Just, concluded it was not her. 

“We don’t have any new leads to go on but still have a lot of legwork to do,” Las Vegas police Lt. Glenn Simmons told the Herald at the time. 

Police at the time also discovered Just was an acquaintance of Thomas Hanley, head of the American Federation of Casino and Gaming Employees and a suspected mobster.

It was alleged Just had gone to Hanley for money, and that he had his associates drive her to the desert and murder her, but those allegations were never proven.

Hanley died in 1979 while in federal custody for another murder.

The case remained cold until 1970, when a group of kids playing in the desert found human remains in a shallow grave less than two kilometres from where Just’s belongings were originally unearthed.

Limitations in technology, however, meant the remains could not be identified.

“We didn’t know who she was,” said Las Vegas homicide detective Jarrod Grimmett. “She was listed as Jane #2 Doe.” 

It was not until 2010, Grimmett said, that they were able to submit the unidentified remains for DNA testing, where they sat unclaimed in an online database until the CPS uploaded the DNA of Just’s sister.

Grimmett said the most recent investigation shows there was “definitely a connection” between Just and Hanley, although no evidence suggests they had an ongoing personal relationship.

“There was a dispute, we believe, that happened between the two of them, and we do have reliable information through the investigation that suggests that Mr. Hanley and his associates were responsible for Anna’s death,” Grimmett said in an interview with CBC News.

Put to rest

Gregson said although the investigation took decades to complete, he is proud they were finally able to provide Just’s sister with some closure.  

“When members from the team go to speak to her sister, one of the first things she says to them is: ‘Are you here because of Sylvia?’” Gregson said. “Right inside the front door is a picture of her sister, so that kind of thing — that’s what drives our investigators.”

Grimmett echoed that sentiment, adding that Las Vegas police were able to send her a photo of Just’s resting place.

“That’s all she ever asked for is ‘Where is my sister lying? Where is she resting right now?’” he said. “Now we’re able to remove that Jane #2 Doe from her headstone and actually give her a name.”