LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — It’s been one year since the mass stabbing attack on the Las Vegas Strip that left two people dead and six others injured.
Several of the women who were stabbed worked as showgirls posing for photos with tourists along the Strip. One of them was 30-year-old Maris DiGiovanni.
Cheryl Lowthorp was the owner of Best Showgirls in Vegas, who said those showgirls were her employees. In the year since the incident, Lowthorp said she’s had to shut down her business, and moving forward has been a roller coaster.
“The entire business was lost,” said Lowthorp. “Everything has changed. The relationships, the sisterhood, the sorority, the super important connections.”
On Oct. 6, 2022, just before noon, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said a man stabbed eight people on the Strip. The man is 32-year-old Yoni Barrios, who police said was an illegal immigrant from Guatemala.
Barrios was facing felony murder charges and attempted murder. But a district court judge ruled he was incompetent to stand trial. He’s currently at a state psychiatric hospital.
Lowthorp says the three other girls who were stabbed are no longer in the showgirl industry but have physically recovered.
“I’m super thankful that everyone has landed somewhere safe, fulfilling and fortuitous,” Lowthorp said.
Anna Westby, who we interviewed from her hospital bed last year shortly after the stabbing, is now a flight attendant. Another victim named Selena now lives in California.
Lowthorp said she misses the showgirl business every day, and she’s sad the sisterhood created from the business is now gone.
“There’s a part of me that is devastated on a daily basis that so much has been lost,” Lowthorp said.
Currently, Lowthorp is working on True Crime podcasts and hopes to turn this into a full-time career.
The additional victim who died in that stabbing is 47-year-old Brent Hallet, one of the bystanders.
