LAS VEGAS -- Nearly five years have passed since a great-grandmother with a zest for life vanished without a trace. Police believe someone lured Opal Parsons away from her home and abducted her.
Seasoned detectives will tell you most criminals involve another person in their crimes. It could be an accomplice, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, or just somebody they bragged to. In the case of Opal Parsons, police are counting on those loose lips to catch a killer.
With a measure of care reserved for the most precious of things, Carol Holt packs memories of her mother.
"She would always bring this out for the special occasions," said Holt as she shows off her mother's china.
Nearly five years have passed since her mom, Opal Parsons, disappeared. Holt has reluctantly decided to settle her mother's estate.
"I need to have a life again and it's hard to move on when you're in mom's house and she's not here."
In 2005, Holt moved in with her mom to help her recover from cancer. By 2007, the 80-year-old had a clean bill of health and a social life to rival most teenagers. As she often did, on Aug. 30, 2007, Opal planned to meet some girlfriends for lunch. However, when Holt returned from work around 2 p.m., she learned her mom never made it to lunch.
"I got a call right about that same time from one of the other ladies she was supposed to meet and she says, 'Where's your mom? She was supposed to meet us and she didn't show up and she didn't call and that's not like her.'"
Holt started to check the house and discovered that the television was on in her mother's room and set to her favorite morning news station. The side door to the home was unlocked -- as it always was -- and her mother's van was in the driveway.
There was nothing out of place in the house and there was no sign of a struggle. The only thing missing was Opal Parsons' purse. Holt said her mother never left the home without leaving a note. Fearing something was wrong, Holt called 911.
"I first talk to her daughter Carol on Friday, the following day," Metro Detective Dan Holley said. Initially, Holley wasn't overly concerned because there was no sign of a struggle in the home. But when there still was no sign of Opal on Saturday morning, Metro mobilized a search effort in her eastside neighborhood.
The first clue in Opal Parsons' disappearance surfaced miles away when employees at Sam's Town found her driver's license and social security card on the casino floor near an automated teller matching.
"We look at surveillance tape, we determine and identify who's using her debit card, who's attempting to use it, and it's an employee of the hotel," Detective Holley said.
A garage porter at Sam's Club claimed he found Opal's purse on a trash can in the parking structure. Instead of turning it in, he steals her cell phone and credit cards and tosses the rest.
For more than a week, Holley and his team probe every aspect of the porter's life but ultimately conclude he is a thief not a kidnapper.
"We know that somebody out there knows and we just need that somebody to spend a few minutes with us and give us that next piece that we need to put the puzzle together," Holley said.
He suspects someone Opal knew lured her from her home for reasons he can only speculate. Opal was hardly a wealthy woman and none of her unique jewelry has ever surfaced.
Like Detective Holley, Holt spends many of her waking hours spinning possible scenarios and hoping that someone else's memory of her mother may one day bring her some peace.
"I would like to know what happened and why. Why would anybody take her? She was nothing but kind to everybody," said Holt.
Anyone with information is asked to call Metro's Missing Persons Unit at (702)828-2907, or to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at (702)385-5555 or go to www.crimestoppersofnv.com.
Carol Holt
