UPDATE: Friends held a car wash fundraiser Sunday for Wendy Rodriguez near Lake Mead and Lamb boulevards.
ORIGINAL STORY
LAS VEGAS (KTNV) -- For five days a week, eight hours a day, Kamili Albez would sit right across from Wendy Rodriguez at work.
“Just sweet, just biggest heart, just giving, just the sweetest person,” Albez said.
But Friday morning, Albez walked onto the job at a property management company to find out horrifying news her friend and co-worker was murdered.
“I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to hurt her,” Albez said. “It was like a nightmare, like a dream, doesn’t feel real.”
The nightmare is all too real. “Heartbroken,” she said.
Albez told 13 Action News the victim’s family confirms Rodriguez is the woman whose body was found inside a home on Lilac Lane early Friday morning. The Clark County coroner formally identified her as 25-year-old Cinthia Wendy Perez Rodriguez.
Police said the victim was partially clothed and badly beaten. The coroner confirmed she died of blunt force trauma.
Crystal DiStefano, who worked with Rodriguez as well, said she could light up a room with her charm and warmth. “She’s one of those people, she just walks into the room and she just glows,” DiStefano said.
Albez struggles to accept she’ll never again see her friend. “So just seeing her chair empty today was too much,” Albez said.
Right now, investigators are looking for 25-year-old Jaime Santana, who lived at the home.
Santana is 5-foot-10 and weighs about 150 pounds. Police said he was last seen in a 2015 blue Scion.
Please call police right away if you have any information on him.
