Police: Fugitive in Vegas manicurist death found in Arizona
UPDATE: 1/11/2019 12:12 p.m. Police say a 21-year-old woman sought for almost two weeks after allegedly skipping out on a $35 manicure and using a stolen car to run over and kill a manicurist in Las Vegas has been arrested in Arizona.
Las Vegas police say Krystal Whipple was arrested Friday in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale by a team of fugitive hunters involving Phoenix-area police, county investigators and FBI agents.
Whipple was identified as the customer-turned-assailant seen on video leaving a nail salon Dec. 29 and driving a black sedan that allegedly ran over 51-year-old Ngoc Q. Nguyen.
Police say Whipple tried to pay with a fraudulent credit card and told Nguyen that she was going to her car to get cash before killing her as she drove away.
PREVIOUS STORY:
A 21-year-old Las Vegas woman is being sought for allegedly using a stolen car to run over and kill a Las Vegas nail salon owner who chased her last weekend for failing to pay for a $35 manicure, police said.
Las Vegas police released storefront security video footage of the Saturday afternoon incident along with a plea for information on the whereabouts of the suspect, Krystal Whipple.
The video shows Ngoc Q. Nguyen, 51, of Garden Grove, California, jumping in front of a black sedan before being dragged beneath the car as it speeds away.
Homicide Lt. Ray Spencer said Whipple tried to pay for her manicure with a fraudulent credit card and told Nguyen and her husband that she was going to her car to get cash before beginning to drive away.
The husband can be seen in the security footage holding onto the vehicle from behind.
Sonny Chung, who said he lived with Nguyen for 13 years, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he tried in vain to stop the suspect. “I tried to hold the car back, but I’m not Superman,” Chung told the newspaper. “She ran off for $35 and killed my wife — $35 to run my wife over.”
Police said the car was a rental that had been stolen last month and was later found abandoned at a nearby apartment complex.
Whipple was convicted in 2017 in Las Vegas of attempted possession of a stolen vehicle, according to Clark County District Court records. She was sentenced to four months in jail last year for violating probation in that case.
An attorney who represented Whipple in that case did not immediately respond Thursday to messages.
A GoFundMe page for Nguyen, which said she was the mother of 3 girls, has raised more than $20,000.
