LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — She has a face you've likely never seen, a name you've probably never heard, and next week marks the 20th anniversary of her murder. It's a cold case a Las Vegas victim's family said no one cared about until the recent arrest of an alleged serial killer in New York caused police to take a second look.
59-year-old New York architect Rex Heuermann is a suspected serial killer. He was arrested and charged in July with murdering multiple sex workers whose remains were found near Long Island's Gilgo beach. Sources tell 13 Investigates that some Las Vegas cold cases are being meticulously reviewed due to similarities to those killings.
RELATED LINK: 13 Investigates: Suspected Gilgo Beach killer's Las Vegas connection
One involves a murdered teenage mother from New Jersey whose body was found near Boulder City. Her family is now speaking publicly for the first time.
Two decades ago, a gravel truck driver made a gruesome discovery along a grassy deserted stretch of US-95.
"She just was thrown like a piece of trash in the desert," said Kaila Donaldson, the victim's first cousin and childhood best friend. "You first hear it. It's unbelievable. It feels like a Lifetime movie."
The discarded body belonged to a young sex worker named Victoria Camara.
"She was a beautiful person, very artistic. She loved makeup. She loved building things. We used to play with Legos all the time. She was just the person that I could go and talk to about anything."
Camara was more like a big sister who often spent months living with Donaldson to escape a life of trauma. Camara's father was out of the picture and her mother was in the throes of drug addiction.
"She didn't have any stable environment from day one," Donaldson said.
In her first interview since Victoria's murder 20 years ago, Donaldson revealed that her cousin turned to prostitution after becoming a single, teenage mom and struggled to feed herself and her baby.
"She just did what she had to do to survive and unfortunately, that's what she was doing."
She believes that's why Camara's case was cast aside, with little interest from the media and law enforcement.
"As soon as you bring up yes, she's doing sex work, it's like well, let's put her to the bottom of the list."
But the case rose up from those decades-old depths after the arrest of suspected serial killer Rex Heuermann prompted police to take another look at the long-dormant investigation into Camara's murder.
RELATED LINK: Suspect in long-unsolved Gilgo Beach killings has ties to Las Vegas
Property records obtained by 13 Investigates show Heuermann bought a timeshare in 2004 at the Club Wyndham Grand Desert on Harmon Avenue and Koval Lane. He later sold it in 2013.
Public documents also show he still owns another timeshare at Club de Soleil on Tropicana Avenue and Lindell Road, purchased with his wife in 2005.
Donaldson points out the similarities between her cousin's killing and the deaths of the Gilgo four: all young sex workers dumped in deserted areas outside major cities where Heuermann owned property.
"They're all beautiful young women. They're the same demographic, same age ... Everything," Donaldson said.
"They're accessing every piece of evidence. Every one of those is being examined with a fine-toothed comb," said Ret. LVMPD Det. Phil Ramos, a three-decade veteran who worked Homicide and most recently, the Cold Case unit.
He said Heuermann is being investigated for possible ties to a string of unsolved murders that he probed as a cold case detective.
"I can just say that there are similar circumstances between these three murder victims. They were sex workers and they disappeared and they were found out in the desert," Ramos said.
They were found in areas similar to the remote highway where victims were discovered in Long Island.
"There are some pretty detailed ways that these young ladies were killed out here [in Las Vegas]," Ramos said.
The women disappeared between 2003-2006. Heuermann may have been in Las Vegas during that time using one of his timeshares. In fact, two weeks after he bought the unit at Club de Soleil, a 21-year-old escort who reportedly advertised on Craigslist vanished from Henderson and was discovered dead later that month in Illinois.
A spokesperson for the family of Lindsay Marie Harris said her parents are asking for privacy and that any speculation regarding a link to Rex Heuermann is premature. They are confident police "will leave no stone unturned."
Las Vegas Police Protective Association President Steve Grammas confirmed that Metro detectives are searching for a link between Heuermann and that case.
"It's all going to boil down to [whether there is] DNA evidence available to be processed on the victim's side from the crime scene," Ramos said.
He hopes the new look at old cases will ultimately result in justice for the families of the murdered Las Vegas women.
As for Camara, her family waits with fresh anticipation.
"She has a daughter who just wants answers," Donaldson said. "If it is connected, then great. We can move forward with some answers."
But if it isn't, Donaldson hopes her cousin's long-unsolved murder will at least get the attention they've been praying for.
"So that way her spirit can rest easy. I wouldn't want anybody to just forget about me if I had died without a reason."
