LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Video released by the Nye County Sheriff’s Office shows the arrest of fugitive Ryan Sanders who is accused of kidnapping and attempting to kill a 74-year-old Pahrump woman early last week.
Sanders, 37, was taken into custody Wednesday afternoon in Pahrump after deputies from the Sheriff’s office found evidence linked to the crimes in a house on Oakridge Avenue. Sanders was not found in the home, where one of his relatives lives, but was arrested a few hours later by deputies with the assistance of the U.S. Marshals Service.
“We searched that initially and the victim’s stuff wasn’t there, but it was there yesterday which means he had been back to that house at some point,” Capt. David Boruchowitz with Nye County Sheriff’s Office said.
Investigators received a tip that Sanders had been staying with Jennifer Lamar, 55 of Pahrump, who was described as a female friend of Sanders. When deputies arrived, they found Sanders in a travel trailer on a property near Elderberry Street and Pahrump Valley Boulevard in Pahrump.
Lamar, who owns the travel trailer, was arrested on a felony “failing to appear” warrant and booked into the Nye County Detention Center where she will face additional charges for allegedly harboring Sanders at her home, deputies say.
Police were looking for Sanders since Tuesday, Nov. 22, when the victim, who had been left for dead, in an abandoned RV escaped and went to a nearby home for help, the Nye County Sheriff’s Office said.
The elderly woman had been taken from her own home by force several hours earlier and suffered “repeated brutal attacks” allegedly committed by Sanders and his accomplice, 31-year-old Richard Duncan, who was taken into custody on Nov. 26. The NCSO said it does not believe this was a random attack but instead a revenge attack because there is a link between Sanders and a family member of the victim.
“A family member had a business dealing with the suspect and that went south and this was some sort of revenge for that,” Boruchowitz said.
Sanders’ 13-year-old son who has been living with him was found safe and turned over to the state’s division of Child Family Services.
Sanders is facing the following charges:
- Kidnapping, 1st degree
- Attempted murder
- False imprisonment
- Burglary
- Grand larceny of a motor vehicle
- Attempted sexual assault
- Sexual assault
- Battery with substantial bodily harm
Duncan is facing the following charges:
- Kidnapping, 1st degree
- Attempted murder
- Attempted sexual assault
- Grand Larceny of motor vehicle
- Abuse of older/vulnerable person