LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A process nearly five years in the making is bringing a couple back to Las Vegas to face murder charges after an 86-year-old man was found dead in the Mt. Charleston area in late 2018.
Police announced Thursday, August 17, that a couple, 41-year-old Patrick Byrom and his 45-year-old girlfriend named Kortny Payne, had been extradited to Clark County.
The pair had previously been serving jail time in Colorado for unrelated crimes committed in November 2018.
Before that, police had found the body of 86-year-old William "Bill" Ellis on September 11, 2018 in Carpenter Canyon, near Mount Charleston.
At the time, they were not able to identify Ellis due to the condition of his body. It was not until 2021 that scientific results lead police to his identity.
Investigators eventually named Byrom and Payne as suspects and in May 2023 issued warrants for their arrest.
Police say 86-year-old Ellis had hired Kortny Payne to be his in-home caregiver, which she started doing in July 2018, just two months before Ellis was reported missing on September 26, 2018.
The couple now face the following charges:
- Open murder with a deadly weapon involving an older person.
- Robbery with a deadly weapon involving an older person.
- Abuse of an older person resulting in death.
- Conspiracy to commit robbery.
Byrom and Payne have been booked into the Clark County Detention Center following extradition from their Colorado correctional facilities.
